Self-Assessment for Active Travel England
Active Travel England (ATE) is inviting local authorities to do self-assessments of their own performance on active travel. They must be completed by 22nd August 2022.
Initially, the assessments will affect councils’ bids for capability and ambition funding for 2022/23, worth £30 million. In the longer run, a broader assessment of performance will determine the allocation of capital and revenue grant funding totalling £500 million over a 3-year period.
ATE says that local authorities must complete honest assessments of their support for active travel and their delivery track record. This will enable ATE to award them a Level, from 0 to 4.
‘Actions, positive and negative, and firm commitments will count much more than warm words. If you have removed or reduced schemes in the past, you must say so.’
p2 of ate’s self-assessment form
An authority’s Level will determine the amount of money it is likely to receive.
Authorities will be able to progress to a higher level over time. In future, each authority will be publicly rated every year.
The survey has 4 sections:
- Background Information
- Local Leadership and Support
- LCWIP Development
- Schemes Delivered
1) Background Information
These are some selected questions, and the answers in North Yorkshire as far as I know them.
- the total budget for transport, and the amount allocated to active travel. (In North Yorkshire, none of the council’s budget is allocated to active travel – any spending is from specific grant bids)
- the proportion of developers’ contributions that have been spent on active travel
- are there any funds from ATF2 that are not yet committed? (North Yorkshire has not yet started building its ATF2 projects on Victoria Avenue and A59, nor has the Oatlands Feasibility Study started)
- the total headcount working on active travel. (I don’t believe there are any dedicated active travel officers at North Yorkshire County Council)
Question 6 asks which of the following schemes councils have delivered in the last 3 years:
- segregated cycleway
- new junction treatment
- shared use facilities
- modal filters
- secure cycle parking
- reduced car parking
- School Streets
The answer in North Yorkshire is pretty much ‘no to all of the above’.
They have done a short section of Otley Road cycleway (not to LTN 1/20 standards), and they have talked about a single School Streets pilot in Scarborough.
They will at least be able to say they are consulting on some of these things (Question 7) in relation to Harrogate Station Gateway.
Here are Questions 8 and 9:
The answer to Question 8 is ‘yes, North Yorkshire have built a bit of Otley Road cycleway that does not meet LTN 1/20 standards.’
Question 9 will be very difficult for North Yorkshire because right now they are planning to pull out the Beech Grove modal filters without doing a report and therefore without any substantial evidence to support the action.
2) Local Leadership and Support
Here, both Cabinet Member for Access Councillor Keane Duncan, and Corporate Director Karl Battersby, say they are in favour of active travel – which is better than saying the opposite.
Unfortunately so far this has not translated into action.
ATE asks councils to refer to a list of transport and planning policies in answering this question:
Currently, North Yorkshire is doing none of the above. Once again, it had a good scheme on Beech Grove which it is now removing.
It is planning some future road space reallocation at Station Gateway if the project goes ahead.
On Section 2, North Yorkshire probably scrapes into Level 1:
Evidence of Councillor commitment to active travel includes:
‘…keeping schemes in place until they have properly bedded in before making modifications or removals (with nil removals unless backed by robust evidence over a minimum 12-month operating period).’
evidence of councillor commitment in section 2 of ATe’s self-assessment notes
3) LCWIP Maturity
Section 3 seeks to understand how developed a council’s Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plans are. This includes coverage and status of delivery.
In North Yorkshire, we can exclude Level 0 because the county council does have some LCWIPs.
It barely qualifies for Level 1, though. I would not describe the Harrogate & Knaresborough LCWIP as a ‘mature draft’, and there has been no delivery at all of the schemes in it.
4) Schemes Delivered
Section 4 is where it all falls apart for North Yorkshire. It is Level 0 because it has not delivered any LTN 1/20-compliant schemes – apart from Beech Grove which it is now taking out again.
Evidence can include delivering Active Travel Fund schemes to time and budget.
North Yorkshire has three ATF2 schemes if you include Oatlands Drive. They should have been completed by 31st March 2022, but have not even started, and there is currently no timetable for them – all previously announced dates having passed by with no action.
Overall
Overall North Yorkshire probably scrapes into Level 1 – with the big caveat that if it continues to fail to deliver a single scheme, it will drop to Level 0. It is already Level 0 for delivery.