Chris Boardman interim lead at Active Travel England, £5.5m funding added
Active Travel England, the Government’s long-promised active travel agency, will now be headed up by Chris Boardman as its interim commissioner.
Launching today, the agency will be responsible for driving up the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure and managing the often criticised national active travel budget, awarding funding for projects that improve both health and air quality.
The news closely follows a ministerial reshuffle that places Trudy Harrison in the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport role, a position which also carries active travel influence. Harrison appears to be warm to cycling and has been papped riding electric bikes before.
Harrison said: “Cycling and walking is not only beneficial for our health and the environment, but can also be great fun and is a brilliant way to connect communities.
“This funding (detailed below) is about giving people across the country the opportunity to different forms of travel, as well as supporting local businesses with the transition to greener transport. I’m very much looking forward to working with our new active travel commissioner to improve standards for everyone.”
Active Travel England will be tasked with inspecting and reporting on the performance of highway authorities in delivering active travel growth, further identifying those that are failing on promoting safety for vulnerable road users.
Added to this, ATE will assist in training those authorities to understand best practice in design, something that roadways engineers have thus far had little education on. One such worker outlined the failings in a column readable here.
Importantly, Active Travel England will be a statutory consultee on major planning applications to ensure that the largest new developments properly cater for pedestrians and cyclists.
Boardman’s early duties will include recruiting a new chief executive and management team and his role is down as interim, with the DfT still taking its time to conduct an open competition for the role.
Active Travel England will take up residency in York from this summer, with preliminary work now underway scrutinising the council’s own plans for active travel.
New funding
In what is said to be new funding, £5.5 million has been allocated for local authorities, train operators and businesses that promote active travel schemes, including £300,000 specifically for an Energy Savings Trust run electric cargo bike scheme, £3 million for infrastructure around train stations and £2.2 million for ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes.
Active travel commissioner for England Chris Boardman said: “The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving. Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.”
“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars. I’m honoured to be asked to lead on this and help deliver the ambitious vision laid out in the government’s Gear Change strategy and other local transport policies.
“This will be a legacy we will proud to leave for our children and for future generations. It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.”
Boardman will leave his role as Manchester’s Transport Commissioner to take the interim role, but will retain his part-time chairmanship of Sport England.
