Active Travel Fund 4 (ATF4) Announced

Active Travel Fund 4 (ATF4) was launched today, with a press release from Active Travel England.

It is a £200 million pot of funding for active travel projects, and local authorities can put in bids.

Press Release

The press release is disappointingly vague.

It gives the following examples of schemes that could be funded:

• paths in rural areas
• safer walking routes to school
• junction improvements for walking and cycling

What’s new here is that ATF4 can fund greenway-type paths in the countryside, whereas the previous rounds of active travel funding were focused on urban travel.

Criteria

At the moment, I don’t know what the conditions and criteria are, but I’ll try to find out and add them here.

Deadline for Local Authority Bids

The press release doesn’t say when bids have to be in, but Highways Magazine states that it is ‘late February’. I’ve seen it suggested on Twitter that some local authorities have to submit bids by 24th February 2023.

The successful bids are to be announced ‘later this year’.

Chris Boardman Quote

Chris Boardman is quoted as follows:

‘Active travel is convenient, cheap, low carbon and health-giving. It’s a choice we need to make sure everyone has. Sometimes it only takes relatively small changes, such as crossings on school routes or convenient places to park a bike, to give us the option to walk, wheel or ride.’

‘Our job is to help local authorities across the country ensure that everyone has more attractive options for their daily trips and we are excited to help them deliver those options.’

chris boardman

Boardman is great but for once I find his comments a bit tepid and uninspiring.

There is a massive amount to do to make cycling safe locally. A crossing or a bike parking space just won’t do it, and the local authority is clueless and uncommitted. The challenge is huge, and at the moment nothing whatever is happening.

Video

There’s a video to accompany the announcement:

More to follow.