Addressing the online webinar organised by the Transport Planning Society, he highlighted that local activists and supporters of healthy street changes are crucial in efforts to reallocate road space, alongside political leadership and technical expertise.

“What we need is a diverse community of champions,” he said, ranging from business leaders to parents on the school run. He added that transport planners need to be “building up the evidence and stories of success” to equip local people with the information to “have these conversations themselves”.

The capital’s active travel chief explained that the case for schemes that reduce the dominance of cars in favour of walking and cycling includes health, environmental, transport and economic benefits. “All of that is good news, but we live in a bubble sometimes,” he said. “We repeat these facts among ourselves, so the communications and how we publicise and talk about this is all so important.”

Will Norman – who was being interviewed by former TPS chair and CIHT’s sustainable transport panel chair Lynda Addison – also announced the winner and runners up of a competition which invited primary school pupils to create posters promoting environmentally friendly ways to travel to school.

The winning entry came from nine year old Phoebe from St Luke’s Primary School in Brighton. Judges said her design was “highly eye catching and colourful” and included diverse people and several modes of transport.

To view Phoebe’s poster and all the runners up, click here.

TPS board member Jo Ward – who chaired the judging panel – commented: “In the midst of such challenging times, it was wonderful to receive so many positive images from children across the UK and Ireland.

“We were really impressed with the standard of the entries across all ages,” she added. “They clearly know about the issues and solutions for greener, healthier, more sustainable travel, not just to school.”

The event on Monday also saw Transport Minister Rachel Maclean speak about Government policy on sustainable transport. Lynda Addison and the Royal College of Art’s Dan Phillips also discussed a research project which involved working alongside local people to develop a toolkit for more community focused approaches to placemaking and transport planning.