Neath Port Talbot’s Active Travel Delivery Plan gets the go-ahead

by Adrian Tatum

Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet has adopted and published a five-year vision for ensuring local people make more journeys on foot, bicycle or using other “wheeled” modes of active travel.

At their meeting on Wednesday, October 23rd, Cabinet members approved the council’s Active Travel Development Plan (2024-2029).

Its aims are:

•   Making walking, cycling and wheeling (for example wheelchairs, scooters and prams) the first choice for a cleaner, safer, healthier and more active Neath Port Talbot.
•   Expanding the active travel network and improving facilities to enable all to walk, cycle and wheel.
•   Encouraging behaviour change by promoting active travel in Neath Port Talbot communities.
•   Ensuring that active travel is prioritised above all other forms of transport in developments where possible.

Cllr Wyndham Griffiths, Neath Port Talbot Council’s Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Transport and Connectivity, said: “The idea of the plan is to increase opportunities for active travel in Neath Port Talbot and to encourage the uptake of new modes of transport as we seek to move to Net Zero.

“Increasing levels of physical activity is central to improving the nation’s health and this will benefit the overall physical and mental wellbeing of our population while also helping the environment, supporting tourism, and encouraging economic growth.”

The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 places a duty on councils to continuously improve active travel provision through securing new and improved active travel routes and related facilities.

It also requires local councils to prepare Active Travel Network Maps (ATNMs) showing existing active travel routes, alongside proposed routes. The current version of the council’s ATNM was approved by Ministers on August 3rd, 2023 and shows the council’s active travel aspirations for the next 15 years, reports Wales 24/7.

The ATNM for NPT shows more than 400 future routes and the council’s Strategic Change Programme requires the development of an Active Travel Delivery Plan to further develop these aspirations over a shorter, five-year time period.