6. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport: Active Travel Integrated Network Maps

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:44 pm on 27 February 2018.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 5:44, 27 February 2018

Can I thank Dai Lloyd for his questions? I'd agree entirely with him that active travel can play a crucial role in reducing incidences of obesity and other physical illnesses, but it can also assist in improving our well-being, and certainly our mental health. I, for sure, benefit from regularly walking, cycling and running, particularly when I'm down here in Cardiff Bay, after or before work. I find that I perform much better if I've had a run after work or in the early morning than if I'm sedentary for most of the day. I think all of us in the Chamber probably have a role to play in leading by example and trying to be more physically active more of the time. I know that time is very precious, but it's absolutely essential in modern life to be able to carve out sufficient time for you to be physically active. It's absolutely crucial for your physical health, mental health and well-being.

In terms of the importance of other colleagues in Government and other departments, I think in particular education and health are crucial in challenging and changing behaviours of people in order to get more people physically active, not just in terms of physical activity, but generally to be more active, to be doing more, to be more physical more of the time. Certainly through forums such as the active travel board we are able to call on officials across departments for updates from their respective Cabinet Secretaries on the actions that are being taken to deliver on the spirit of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013. I think fear, as Russell George has already said, is a critical factor preventing or dissuading people from being active in their travel. It used to be that fear of missing out, or 'FOMO', as it's now called amongst young people, led them to walk home or walk to school, because they feared missing out being with friends. Now, I'm afraid, FOMO leads many young people to demand that they get picked up in order to get back home in order to get on social media quicker, or onto the computer system. Unfortunately, that has become a cultural norm. That has to be challenged in schools, and that's something that I know that many schools are already doing. We have some great champions within the education service as well, and I think we need to ensure that more people get the sort of support that certainly I had, and many other people had, in terms of cycling proficiency.

There was a great book written by Anthony Seldon a few years ago entitled Trust, in which he painted quite a dark picture of modern life where we are constantly bombarded with fearful images, with negative images, that lead to dissipation of our trust in one another. I think as a consequence people believe that they are less safe than they actually are, they are less likely to trust other people in society, as they would have done in years gone by, and that's most unfortunate. What we need to do is encourage people to actually be more trusting and to be realistic about the threats on our road system and our cycleways and on our pavements.

In terms of the spend per head, there is no need to convince me whatsoever that we need to see a significant increase in the amount of resource that is allocated to support active travel. I'd like to get my Boardman bike used more often. I'd like to be more active in walking, and although I wouldn't wish to put a figure right now on the amounts that I'd like to increase active travel spend by, I would like to see it brought up, in terms of pounds per head of population, to the Scottish level. I think that would be an aspiration. I think if, essentially, one day we could reach the cycling utopia levels of some of the continental countries then that would be fantastic, but certainly, in the first instance, we need to aspire to be increasing to that sort of level that we've seen in Scotland. But I think we also need to be realistic about where we identify the funding. It can't just come from one pot within one department within the Government. It has to come from a range of departments and not just, indeed, from within Welsh Government. There has to be a contribution, in my view, from local government as well, and many, many councils across Wales have been incredibly responsible and proactive in this agenda.