It's a really good point, and the disparity in expertise to enable these applications to be put in is stark. We were fortunate in Bridgend, we had a very active cyclist who also happened to be the active travel monitoring officer—Matt, he's moved on now into Welsh Government, good luck to him, he'll be doing good things there—but he drove it, with the commitment of the local authority and others. In other areas, that just hasn't been happening. Huge disparities. So, it's a very good point.

But adding in other funding streams to that £60 million, such as safe routes and communities, the total spend in Wales will be £30,666,667 precisely per annum. It amounts to £10 per head of the population. Now, this announcement, I have to say, pulling this together, was widely welcomed. However, it does leave Wales well behind other areas committed to increasing active travel. Scotland have a commitment in their programme for government—'A Nation with Ambition' it's called—to doubling the investment in walking and cycling to £80 million a year. This amounts to £17 per head. Greater Manchester have set out an ambitious 10-year plan that involves spending £150 million per year on walking and cycling infrastructure. This amounts to £54 per head of population within greater Manchester. And we know that the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report 'Post Legislative Scrutiny of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013' recommends that capital and resource funding combined should be set in Wales at £17 to £20 per head, per annum. So, we can see how short we are.

But one of the main complaints about the operation of the Act is that during the three years that the Act's mapping process has taken, hardly any infrastructure has actually been built. Wales, therefore, has a lot of ground to make up. And yet, there is substantial evidence that investment in active travel provides major returns in public benefits. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence found that off-road cycle routes, safe cycle routes, were really good value for money, with every £1 invested returning £14 in benefits. Investment in walking infrastructure returns £37 for every £1 invested. Greater Manchester estimate that their 10-year programme of £1.5 billion investment will produce returns of at least £8.3 billion in public benefits. And this is why we need a strategy.

The effective implementation of the active travel Act has got to be cross-governmental and include a huge range of other public services, including, especially, education. Given the importance of getting children walking and cycling to school in the passing of the Act, it is astonishing that active travel has not been a consideration in the Government's own twenty-first century schools programme. Some schools have done it, but they've done it off their own backs, not because it's bolted in there. Our approach and our determination to make this happen has got to be understood by planners, by road engineers, by public transport providers, health workers, and so many more across Wales. We need a clear statement of who is to do what and when they are to do it. And Transport for Wales is going to have a key role in delivering active travel, but currently, no-one is quite clear on what that role is, or how it will be carried out.

Making Wales an active travel nation is a long-term project, but it needs that long-term strategy that will not just stop when a Minister comes or goes. We also need to be very clear about how investment will be prioritised. Building networks is long term; it needs a strategic approach. Annual funding decisions result in short, isolated strips of infrastructure that end, they don't quite go anywhere, they don't allow people to make completed journeys. So, it's disappointing that the commitment in the active travel action plan to develop that funding strategy has not been developed. We need people to really buy in, follow on through the strategy, and we need it to be co-produced. And in that spirit of co-production, I declare my interest as vice-president of Ramblers Cymru. I must raise, as well, the issues of the lack of integration of the right of way infrastructure with the active travel network through the integrated network maps, and the lack of funding for rights of way improvements. But I'll write to the Minister separately on these matters.

So, in conclusion, let me say that I really do have full confidence in the new Minister, who himself has been amongst the most foremost advocates of active travel. If anyone can make it happen, he will, with the support of local authorities and with non-statutory partners, with the occasional spur from the active travel cross-party group, which I'm pleased to take over from him, and with encouragement from Members here today. If the active travel Act and the future generations Act have given us the framework to deliver high ambition, making Wales that country where walking and cycling become the most natural, normal way of getting about, then it is our persistence that will make that ambition a reality, and the Minister has a golden opportunity to carry that through. He truly can walk the walk, and cycle us on the way to success as well. Every one of us will be a winner, and Wales will be the greatest winner of all.