Planning policy ‘must support active travel’

PLANNING

Planners are calling on the Welsh Government to strengthen active travel messages in its revised Planning Policy Wales document. 

Responding to a consultation on the new version of the planning statement, the Royal Town Planning Institute Cymru says the document “must be amended so that it explicitly requires accessibility by active travel modes to be prioritised over access by other modes both in the location and design of new developments”.

RTPICymru says it is surprising that Wales’ Active Travel Act makes no direct reference to the planning system and requires no specific contribution to the delivery of the Act by local planning authority functions. 

“Planning Policy Wales is a major opportunity to achieve the stronger linkage between the Active Travel Act and the planning system that is clearly essential,” it says. “This can be achieved by reframing planning policy in a way which ensures that new development and infrastructure brought forward through the planning process is located and designed in a way which fully supports the ambition and practical delivery of the Active Travel Act, particularly the development of the high quality local walking and cycling networks, which the Act seeks to achieve.”

The RTPI welcomes what it says is the greater coverage given to active travel in the revised PPW. “However, the document still fails to confer any effective obligation on the developers of land to properly incorporate active travel routes and facilities and contribute to the development of active travel networks with their schemes. 

“As in previous editions, active travel is presented as a desirable thing to encourage and promote through development rather than an essential component of development schemes.”