5. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: Active Travel

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:05 pm on 14 May 2019.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 5:05, 14 May 2019

Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. Can I welcome the statement, but also the way it's being framed—that it's not simply on the promotion of cycling and walking, but it's in the context of the emergency that we have with climate change, it's with the obesity crisis that we have, and it's on the issues of air quality? Because I think that is the right context, and, actually, if we get this right, it is a complete win across all those agendas, and healthy living, and healthier lifestyles, and dealing with things like, in the Llynfi valley, where there's a 20-year lifespan difference between the top of the Llynfi valley and the bottom of the Llynfi valley. That's incredible, and part of this is what we're looking to deal with.

I very much welcome the focus on capacity because that's certainly the case in my own authority, which has got a good track record in active travel, but, unfortunately, Transport for Wales has stolen away the key individual who drove the active travel agenda, and we're struggling now, actually, to recruit the person with the right skills who isn't purely a highway engineer. So, I wonder what can be done to help those local authorities get those right people in place now, with the right skill set, that can develop active travel as well as understanding what engineers need as well, but can do the consultation and the community engagement. And on that basis, I wonder how do local authorities like Bridgend tap into the wider out-of-local-authority expertise that he's talking about developing in terms of this support across all local authorities for people who can do those consultations with people who don't currently travel by walking and cycling.

And my final question on this is: with some of the different approaches to funding that the Minister has laid out in his statement and in responses, would that include local authorities who were to come forward with proposals, for example, to develop more Ysgol Hamadryads, ones that not only built the infrastructure—as we've done in Pencoed recently with our twenty-first century schools—but then actually worked with schools to say, 'We're going to go further; we're going to affect the cultural change, working with parents, governors, local community, but we're also going to say to parents, "We will have a contract that says this is how you bring your child to school—not by car but by other means".' Would the money that's been made available, or would part of it, be actually there to inspire progressive local authorities to develop those sorts of things so we have not just one Ysgol Hamadryad but suddenly, by the end of this tranche, 30 or 40?