Local authorities should consider whether capital spending on improved walking and cycling routes could reduce revenue expenditure on school buses, campaigners have suggested.
Chris Roberts, Sustrans Cymru’s head of external affairs, was speaking after Swansea council received £65,000 from Wales’ Local Transport Fund to secure land and undertake design for a 1.4km off-road route serving a comprehensive school.
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Buses are provided for 140 of the school’s pupils, at a revenue cost of more than £80,000 per annum, because parents successfully challenged the council’s claim that a safe walking route was available.
Council officers say the new Kingsbridge Cycle Link will avoid existing pedestrian provision alongside busy highways, allowing the bus services’ withdrawal.
Mr Roberts said the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) should encourage this kind of scheme, because of the multiple benefits.
He added: ‘This wouldn’t be just about saving money but also increasing physical activity for children. We would encourage that joined-up thinking – as long as there are safe routes.’
Under UK Government rules, pupils who have no safe walking route to school ‘must be given free transport, however far from school they live’.
Mr Roberts said just one bridge or a short piece of off-road infrastructure could dramatically change eligibility for free transport.
Stephen Joseph, the Campaign for Better Transport’s executive director, said Swansea’s approach was one which other authorities could consider but stressed that each active travel route would have to be genuinely safe, rather than taking children past roundabouts and over pedestrian crossings with short walking phases.
‘The level of priority over other traffic is minimal sometimes,’ he said.
‘Do parents have confidence in the route and feel it is a safe and reasonable route? If they don’t, this is window dressing. If it’s part a scheme in consultation with parents, then it’s an interesting way forward.’
The division between capital and revenue funding in local government has been raised as a major concern.
Local officers have complained to Transport Network that while capital funding for highways for example, may be fairly consistent from the Department for Transport, they have seen revenue funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government slashed.
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