Diolch, Llywydd. We have a climate emergency, an obesity epidemic and an air quality crisis. Getting more people travelling in ways that improve their health and our environment is key to tackling all those problems. Transport accounts for 13 per cent of Wales’s climate changing emissions, and almost all of them come from the private car. Our recently published low-carbon delivery plan put achieving modal shift at its centre, and by that we mean making it easier for people to make fewer journeys by car, by making it easier to use alternatives. Over half of all car journeys are for distances of under five miles. Many of these trips could be made by walking and cycling. That is why encouraging active travel is a priority for this Government. The key is understanding what needs to change to open up this option to more people.

Despite having world-leading legislation in the form of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 and the well-being of future generations Act, we have not seen anything like the increase in walking and cycling levels that we want and need. We have rehearsed the reasons for that underperformance many times in this Chamber. Resources are key, and I am pleased to say that this year, for the first time ever, we'll be spending over £30 million on active travel schemes in Wales in one year.

But resources aren’t our only problem. The Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report on the implementation of the Act made that very clear. We have a major issue with capacity and our approach to delivery. We often talk about austerity in this Chamber, but sometimes we don’t pay enough attention to the way it has hollowed out the capacity of our local authorities to deliver on anything other than essential statutory services. Active travel is an area where understaffing is felt particularly severely. As well as capacity, there are also issues about capability to deliver what is, after all, a change in behaviour and culture.