In the committee's scrutiny on the impact of the active travel Act, which, of course, included consultation with a whole range of stakeholders, a number of failures were identified. Primarily, it was noted that in most areas it had not resulted in people taking up either walking or cycling, and in some scenarios we have seen a decline in active travel participation, most notably amongst children either cycling or walking to school. Now, we know that danger, either perceived or real, does impact upon our ability and particularly parents' desire to send their children to school. So, that is one of the factors that we have to build into this whole scenario of attempting to get people onto bikes or walking. 

We were also concerned that certain actions implied in the Act were not being adhered to, for instance, the non-inclusion of active travel in infrastructure in major road projects, or the downgrading of the active travel infrastructure as projects developed and budgets became stretched—Ffos-y-fran in Caerphilly being one project where no active travel infrastructure was provided for, either in planning or implementation.

One message came out loud and clear from all consultation contributors: lack of funding, and especially lack of long-term funding, which meant that local authorities were noticeably lacking in ambition for the implementation of new infrastructure for active travel routes. It also became clear that there was no effective strategic leadership at both Welsh Government and local authority level and that, where there were successes, these were mainly down to the enthusiasm and work of motivated individuals.

The mapping process proved to be more difficult and long-winded than was anticipated by the Welsh Government. Therefore, the £700,000 allocated to local authorities for the procedure proved to be inadequate, resulting in the authorities being obliged to make up the shortfall, with some stakeholders claiming that this resulted in money being diverted from infrastructure projects.

We're all aware of the impact a real sea change in people's active travel habits and their uptake could have on the chronic congestion problems we are witnessing in many parts of Wales, so I wish to acknowledge the worthiness of the Government's ambitions in this area, but they must be properly funded and properly encouraged. Can I therefore call upon the Welsh Government to increase funding to all sectors of active travel implementation in the sure knowledge that the economic benefits accruing from active travel will far outweigh any moneys expended on it?