Councils ‘dragging heels’ over travel plans

04 October 2007

Local authorities across the country are dragging their heels by not introducing city-wide sustainable travel plans, which have proved to be cost-effective and successful in achieving modal shifts, according to a leading transport adviser.

Alison Dunatov, of transport consultancy Steer Davies Gleave, said councils such as Darlington, Peterborough and Worcester had proved that ‘there is nothing to lose’ in following their examples.

For a total cost of around £10M, car use had declined by an average of about 10% in the three towns, which were nominated as Sustainable Travel Towns by the Department for Transport.

‘We know it works and the benefits are widespread, but local authorities don’t take this into account,’ she said.

Such benefits include improvement to health, local air quality and social inclusion, in addition to a reduction in congestion. Speaking at a conference on transport and climate change, Dunatov urged councils to step up localised measures such as personalised travel plans by introducing more city-wide, strategic plans which incorporate all measures. Many councils were hampered by ‘scepticism among their politicians’, but she also acknowledged a funding issue involving regional auditors and the DfT.

‘Regional auditors say it’s an inappropriate use of money, even when the DfT essentially green lights it for these measures,’ she told Surveyor. The conference also heard that all households – 76,000 people – in Sutton will have received personalised travel plans by the end of the month. In Manchester, where 40,000 local households have received PTPs, incentives for car sharing have proven ‘enormously effective’, according to Sarah Davies, head of environment at Manchester City Council. The rewards usually involved free football tickets, and resulted in a halving of cars in car parks.

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Councils ‘dragging heels’ over travel plans

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