DfT Tranche 2 Active Travel Guidance

The Department for Transport has issued guidance on the implementation of the Tranche 2 award of the Active Travel Fund. There is much stronger emphasis on the level of consultation required before the start of the scheme, which is an emphasis shift away from the previous approach which involved consultation as the scheme rolled out.

The Department has set out that, at a minimum Local Authorities receiving funding via the Active Travel Fund should consult with:

local residents,

local businesses (where they are directly impacted by the scheme),

emergency services,

bus operators,

Royal Mail

and local MPs.

Where appropriate Local Authorities must undertake appropriate public opinion surveys, for their full programme of schemes or individual elements of it, as part of their consultation plans.

Prior to the start of construction, Local Authorities have to submit a two-page summary of their consultation activities to the Department along with a signed letter confirming they have:

consulted all key local stakeholders

obtained broad support for their schemes and made any changes to take account of local feedback

implemented a clear communications plan to deal with any backlash which draws on the results of local opinion surveys

discussed plans with local MPs, and provide a summary of MPs’ responses (e.g.via a RAG rating)

The letters do not need to show unilateral support, but instead that reasonable levels of consultation have been carried out and reasonable adjustments to schemes made in response to concerns.

What sort of consultations do the Department want?

The Department have set out their expectations on what Local Authorities should be consulting on as part of the scheme. Broadly speaking across all the different types of schemes they want to see user perception surveys or public polling to show support for the scheme and expect councils to use a combination of user surveys, route surveys (RUIS), business surveys and traffic counts to show modal shift and the outcomes of the scheme. They have also asked for certain questions to be asked across all surveys so the DfT can compare data, this includes demographic data and questions on how often people cycle.

The Department have said that any survey needs to be done in a unbiased way