Haigh will invest at "unprecedented levels" for active travel, LTNs and road calming and safety schemes

Haigh said she wanted to move away from the "culture wars" of the previous government and said that funding would be considered in the budget and comprehensive spending review

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has said that government’s strategy for active travel could cut GP appointments by millions. She has also said that decisions on introducing road calming and safety schemes, such as 20mph zones, in England should remain with local communities rather than her department.

Reported in The Guardian, Haigh is quoted as saying: "A national network of safe cycle routes could cut GP appointments “by hundreds of thousands, if not millions a year” by helping people incorporate more physical activity into their lives.

---

Join us at Transport + Health on October 15 in Bristol to hear how transport and public health professionals can best work together

We’re in a climate crisis. We’re in a public health crisis; getting people walking and cycling and moving more are essential to solving both of those in the immediate term and in the long term,” she said. “There’s lots of evidence to show that will reduce the number of GP appointments by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, a year

She added" “We’re in a climate crisis. We’re in a public health crisis; getting people walking and cycling and moving more are essential to solving both of those in the immediate term and in the long term,” she said.

“There’s lots of evidence to show that will reduce the number of GP appointments by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, a year.”

“We absolutely want to make sure that we invest at unprecedented levels,” Haigh told The Guardian. “We just want to make sure that the funding is delivered where it’s needed … rather than where they’ve got the best bid writers, and where they’ve been good at hoovering up resources.”

Also this week, the transport secretary made positive comments on Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), road calming and safety schemes, such as 20mph zones. She told the Streets Ahead podcast: "Local authorities will have my full support to roll out schemes."

Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) became a political issue under the previous government, when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called such schemes "hare-brained" and ordered a review. Conservative ministers had sought to tighten up rules to ensure councils had the support of local residents and businesses.

Ms Haigh said she wanted to move away from the "culture wars" of the previous government.

That government, she said, had invested heavily in active travel during the Covid pandemic but had then taken "the money away again", leaving many local authorities "in limbo and paralysis".

"It's really, really difficult for local authorities when they've not got that air cover from government," she said.

"And not only did they not have the air cover, they had the government actively working against them saying 'No, you're not allowed to roll out 20mph zones, no, you're not allowed to roll out LTNs'.

"Those kinds of decisions should absolutely be made at a local level by communities and not dictated to or stoked up by the centre."

She added: "It all has to be done with communities, absolutely, and the worst thing you can do is put the wrong schemes in because then it erodes that support and they can be unsafe in some circumstances."

Funding would, she said, be considered in the budget and comprehensive spending review.

"We're certainly not shying away from the target of getting 50% short journeys walking and cycling and that will have to be delivered by local authorities, so anybody who wants to do that work, they'll have the Department for Transport's full backing," she said.

Further analysis of the transport and public health mission online here...