Active Travel England (ATE) has announced £32.9m to support local authorities train staff on the design of active travel schemes and drive behaviour change.
The new quango said the cash would ‘create a national network of experts to work with communities, enhance high streets and make places truly walkable and cyclable for everyone’.
Funded activities include:
- bespoke training for local authority officers and local councillors
- development of Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans
- network design and planning
- feasibility studies
- public engagement/consultation and co-design
- data and evidence collection
The ‘Capability and Ambition Fund 2022/23’ follows a similar Department for Transport Capability fund that distributed £30m across local authorities last year. The cash appears to be part of the £2bn Gear Change funding announced in 2020 by the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.
ATE said it will support local authorities across the country to train and retain local engineers and planners, ‘creating a skilled active travel workforce able to collaborate effectively with local communities and conduct high-quality engagement and consultation sessions’.
It added that the cash will deliver specialised training, ‘driving up skills and ensuring consistent, high-quality schemes can be delivered across England that give people truly attractive active travel choices’.
Chris Boardman
National Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman said: ‘Survey after survey has shown people want the choice to be able to use the car a bit less and would love their kids to have more transport independence, so we aim to ensure they are at the heart of creating the right solution for their area. 2023 is the year Active Travel England will start to make that happen.’
Among the authorities to receive cash was Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, which was awarded the full £822,920 for which it applied in the autumn.
Along with other authorities, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough underwent ATE’s self assessment process over the summer, announcing in October that it was rated Level 2, which it described as ‘a very good result’. The range was between 0-4, with 4 being high.
When it invited authorities to bid for the cash, as well as a share of around £500m capital funding, in the summer, ATE told councils they should ‘complete an honest assessment of active travel support arrangements and delivery track record’ to allow it to identify the right package of support and/or funding for each area.
It stated that although, initially, authorities that broadly matched the schemes in their bid to the level at which they were assessed were more likely to be successful, future funding would be steered towards authorities at levels 3 and 4.
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