Does the Minister expect local authorities to be ambitious and make active travel a priority in achieving modal shift as outlined in the Active Travel Plan, given that councils are struggling to fund essential services?
The Welsh Government provides funding to local authorities each year to invest in active travel, primarily through the Active Travel Fund, and the Safe Routes in Communities Grant. The Active Travel Fund includes a non-competitive core allocation, which currently stands at a minimum of £500,000 per local authority, to be used to undertake small scale improvements and preparatory work for larger schemes. For 2024-25 we have allocated £56,196,000 to local authorities across the two grants.
To help Local Authorities identify and develop ambitious schemes, we have developed, with Transport for Wales, a map-based tool for prioritising the delivery of their Active Travel Networks. The tool identifies active travel routes that have the highest positive impact on modal shift. The tool will support Local Authorities in the development of schemes to be delivered within their forward programmes and as part of RTPs.