Wales’ Active Travel Act is falling short of its aim to get more people walking and cycling due to a lack of dedicated funding and leadership, a National Assembly committee has said.

 

The Act, which passed into law in 2013, requires local authorities to provide active travel routes and take non motorised transport into account when planning new roads and transport links.

 

But the Welsh Assembly’s Enterprise & Business Committee found that little extra funding had been set aside for authorities and that there had been a lack of leadership from the Welsh Government in delivering the Act’s objectives. This could, the committee said, prevent ambitious projects being proposed by local authorities.

 

Committee chair William Graham said: “The Active Travel Act will only succeed if the Welsh Government has the confidence to see through what it has started with its own legislation. The committee is concerned that, on the evidence of the first year and a half, the Government's commitment has started to waver before it has properly begun.

 

“Many of the people and organisations we spoke to told us very clearly that there have been early successes, but there is also considerable frustration that the full potential of the Act is not being delivered.”

 

The committee makes recommendations in a report published on Monday including that the Government should have a specific budget dedicated to supporting active travel and that this should be used for infrastructure projects as well as promoting the benefits of walking and cycling.

 

It also calls for targets to be set out for increasing the number of walking and cycling journeys in Wales.

 

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We will consider the findings of the report. However, we will shortly issue our Active Travel Plan for Wales, which will set out our short, medium and long term actions to increase active travel in Wales.

 

“We already provide over £14M a year for active travel infrastructure. We believe it is important that these funding sources are diverse and that consideration for active travel becomes a routine part of building and improvement projects – not an add on with extra costs.

 

“We are also committed to raising public awareness of this important Act through a range of communication methods, including holding active travel events with various groups.”

 

(Photo: John Spooner)