3. What outcomes does the Welsh Government expect to achieve from the £60 million investment in active travel announced in May? OAQ52275

The funding will provide a step change in the development of active travel infrastructure across Wales, and I will shortly announce how I intend to allocate this additional funding.

Would you agree with me, Cabinet Secretary, that we do really need a step change? I'm looking at the post-legislative scrutiny of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 and it does not make for comfortable reading, because whereas, in 2013-14, we had 53 per cent of children walking to primary school and 2 per cent bicycling, four years later it's gone down to 42 per cent walking and 1 per cent going by bike. We've got a similar reduction in the number of people aged over 16 who are taking at least one active travel trip per week. So, we have a very, very challenging agenda here. So, I'd be very keen to know what outcomes you expect to achieve from this significant investment.

I was obviously disappointed to hear the First Minister say that he didn't feel safe cycling around Cardiff—something I do most days—so what are the outcomes you expect to achieve? On the one hand, would you expect it to be safe enough for the First Minister to feel able to cycle around Cardiff, and would you expect all schools in urban areas like Cardiff to have active travel plans, so that all young people have the option of going to school either by bike or walking safely?

Yes. Can I thank Jenny Rathbone for her question and her continued interest and passion regarding this subject? Broadly, the outcome that we wish to see is cultural and behavioural change insofar as transport is concerned, and in order to accomplish that, we need the right infrastructure and the right support in the form of training, in order to remove the safety anxiety that a lot of people still have, and which particularly parents still have.

The extra £60 million of capital funding will clearly assist in developing safer routes and particularly safer routes to schools for cycling and walking. The apparent reduction in the percentage of children in primary schools who usually walk to school is a deep cause of concern, and so I have extended the active journeys programme, which has seen officials working within schools to encourage the use of bikes and also to encourage walking to schools, whilst offering the right training as well. But, we're not just going to extend it for another year; we're also going to extend the programme to include parents. I think it's absolutely right that we don't just encourage young people to participate in active travel, but that we also ensure that their parents participate in active travel and are confident in allowing their children to take up active travel.

The £60 million funding, I should say, is in addition to the annual funding allocated through the Safe Routes in Communities grant, which is of particular interest to the Member insofar as safe routes to schools are concerned. Also, it's in addition to the funding that's allocated to active travel schemes and the pre-work through the local transport fund and, of course, the substantial amounts that we spend ourselves, on our own projects on trunk roads. So, overall, we expect to see something in the region of £92 million spent on active travel infrastructure in this and the following two years. 

But, it's also important that we go on supporting training and courses that encourage people to take up active travel. This is an issue that I'll be raising at the next active travel board, which I believe is taking place this week. It's something that members of the board have been particularly keen to discuss, especially the split between revenue and capital, which determines the extent to which we're able to provide training courses for young people and for adults.

Cabinet Secretary, perhaps you'd like to join with me in congratulating the vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, Colin Riordan, who launched today their sustainability strategy and how they're going to help the staff of the university and the students to cycle between facilities—and he cycled to the barrage, where they launched this policy—and that's what we need. We also need the ability for people to cycle around and between their communities, not just between a community and the centre of a large urban city, so that we do have good access via cycle routes to key community assets such as schools, shops and amenities, and then we will normalise—in a city like Cardiff, which couldn't be better designed, really, for cycling—this as a preferential way of getting about.

I couldn't agree more. I think the vice-chancellor of Cardiff University is to be commended on the scheme and also to be commended for being a keen cyclist. I think it's vital that we look at the development and the delivery of projects contained in the integrated network maps as an enabler for people to move not just between places of home and work but also in terms of their social life—being able to access cinemas, restaurants, shops and any other form of service that they may wish. I think, therefore, it's vital that we look at the planning of social infrastructure through a more clear lens of the active travel that can be provided in order to get people from their homes to social infrastructure.

I think the comments of the First Minister, whatever his personal circumstances, were unfortunate, because it kind of adds to the myth that cycling and walking are dangerous and the car is safe when, in fact, it's the car that is the dangerous thing in our communities and in our cities. 

You've been asked enough about cycling, so let me ask you about walking. What in this new £60 million will be allocated particularly to encourage people to walk, which is the easiest alternative to the car, and is certainly the best way to get some exercise as well? And, in doing that, will you actually put targets on what you expect from this money and expenditure, because to go against the decline, for example—as Jenny Rathbone has pointed out—of walking to school, we need actual active targets as well as some money behind those.

The Member's absolutely right in terms of numbers. The number of people who are currently walking, while significant, could be far, far greater, particularly for very short journeys. And the Member is absolutely right as well that it's safety anxiety that prevents people currently from walking small journeys instead of taking cars.

The £60 million capital funding will be provided for projects that deliver against both walking and cycling objectives, but, in terms of the encouragement that the Member highlights as required for people to walk more, the active journeys scheme within schools will encourage young people to walk as well as to cycle. Likewise, the active journeys scheme that will be rolled out to include parents will equally encourage parents to walk and to cycle as well.

Moving forward, I need to discuss with the active travel board what new arrangements can be made for encouraging and supporting people not just to cycle but to also walk more often as well.