Active Travel England: the latest on its safety and funding actions
It’s been a busy week for Active Travel England. Between continuing its burst of recruitment activity and beginning to hand out ratings to councils ahead of budget release, the Chris Boardman-led team has begun working toward its goals.
Starting with perhaps the most important question – is the organisation safe now that personnel changes have swiftly followed the change of cabinet? – the answer, tentatively, seems to be yes; or at least the organisation has just been endorsed for its work by Minister of State at the Department for Transport Lucy Frazer MP.
When pressed on the Government’s commitment to cycling and Active Travel England by West Midlands Walking and Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter, Frazer offered: “The Government set up Active Travel England and committed its £2bn in terms of active travel and you would have seen many developments as a result of that. We are also looking at how do you design houses better so that you don’t have to make those last mile journeys (by car). In my own area of Waterbeach that have designed the area so that you are not using your cars and can get to Cambridge still very quickly.”
Notably, there was no direct confirmation of Active Travel England’s continuation, something that commentators have been nervous about since the chance at the top of Government, but Tranter confirmed to CI.N this morning that the Minister generally endorsed the new organisation’s work in addressing the audience.
The full conversation that took place at the The Future of Transport: The great decarbonisation journey conference is viewable on the Policy Exchange video at the base of this article.
Grading councils and allocating funding
Having called on regions to submit a self assessment of active travel policy, based on existing work and future plans, Active Travel England has now begun grading councils.
As expected, not everyone will be happy. Pro active travel residents in Worcester, for example, will be dismayed to see this morning that its council has been graded at the lowest possible rating and thus will not qualify for any extra Active Travel England funding to put towards walking and cycling schemes.
The Conservative council did not meet even the minimum standard of political leadership and it will now be banned from bids for the cash until improvements are made. The letter explaining the decision can be found here.
On a brighter note and going back to Adam Tranter’s West Midlands patch an “unprecedented” £3.1 million of the Active Travel England budget will be dished out. On the cash Tranter wrote: “it’ll help us grow staffing levels and capacity to deliver at scale.”
Among its recruits from the recent hiring spree, Active Travel England now has data scientist Robin Lovelace appointed to the role of Interim Director of Data and Analysis.
