Active Travel England Annual Report

Active Travel England (ATE) has published its Annual Report and Accounts up to 31st March 2023.

The sections of the greatest interest are the Introduction from Chris Boardman, the Foreword by Chief Executive Danny Williams, and the Performance Review.

Introduction from Chris Boardman

Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman says ATE is one of the most exciting agencies within government. It exists to enable people to have the freedom of choice to walk, wheel or cycle for everyday trips.

‘And even more, it’s about the daily benefits that result in more people getting from A to B under their own steam. Our mission is about giving kids transport independence, unshackling parents from the school run and giving families an option to go from a two car family to a one car family, saving thousands.’

chris boardman in the ate annual report

I completely agree with Chris, and in the short time they have been up and running ATE have done a fantastic job. It would take a miracle-worker to get recalcitrant local authorities like North Yorkshire to actually make improvements to their active travel facilities.

Having said all that, the result in terms of on-the-ground improvements in North Yorkshire so far is zero. Nothing.

Foreword by Chief Executive Danny Williams

Danny Williams sets out some of the things ATE have done since being set up on August 2022:

• recruited over half the planned workforce
• opened the HQ in York
• managed the bidding process and design assessment for ATF4 (£200 million)
• helped local authorities deliver new infrastructure
• prepared for statutory consultee status in the planning system
• published local authority capability ratings
• begun involvement in the Levelling Up Fund and City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements

There’s no doubt that ATE have been hyperactive and done a brilliant job so far. Still, the result in on-the-ground improvements in North Yorkshire is nothing at all. No change. No improvements. Same as before.

Performance Report

ATE has a vision.

It also has four strategic priorities.

The Performance Report mentions the vision and strategic priorities, then sets out ATE’s structure. The structure includes:

• an Inspections team that is there to increase councils’ capability, intervene early to ensure quality and safety, and inspect final schemes
• a Planning and Development team to work with planning authorities and carry out ATE’s role as a statutory consultee
• a Data and Analysis team to support ATE’s strategic priorities

The report’s performance analysis recounts some of the things ATE has done in the period covered by the report:

• assessed all active travel proposals in the second Levelling Up Fund bids
• worked with local authorities to review the design and delivery of 107 projects funded in previous ATF rounds
• worked with 25 councils up to November 2022 as a pilot for ATE’s planning role
• worked with the government planning department (DLUHC) on ATE’s role in the planning system, which began on 1st June 2023
• launched the Capability Fund
• ran the bidding and decision process for ATF4
• worked with the Bikeability Trust
• started a data project with the Alan Turing Trust to create new software that will enable councils to use data science techniques to support their delivery of active travel schemes. The aim is to use data to ‘deliver schemes that are strongly evidence-based and best placed to deliver maximum benefits for residents’

It all sounds brilliant BUT local experience in North Yorkshire is that so far it has all resulted in zero on-the-ground improvements.