Active Travel England must now be consulted on major planning apps

Projects of or exceeding 150 homes, 80,700 sq ft, or 12 acres must now go before the government executive agency before they can be granted planning permission.

This equates to around 3,100 applications a year for Active Travel England to review, according to government estimates.

Making ATE a statutory consultee will help ensure the proper active travel infrastructure in future developments. Though it will be consulted on applications, ATE will not have any powers to control a planning application’s outcome.

“Designing activity back into our neighbourhoods and creating places where children have transport independence is achievable – it just needs smart planning,” said active travel commissioner Chris Boardman.

“As a statutory consultee, ATE will work with planning authorities and developers to help them ensure new estates give people what they need to get fresh air and exercise, save money on petrol and help fight climate change.”

Industry professionals in the North West welcomed the decision to make ATE a statutory consultee.

“It’s good to see that Government is committed to ensuring active travel is fully considered within placemaking and creation more generally, rather than just being seen as an infrastructure issue,” said Tom Roberts, technical principal at Mott Macdonald.

“The relationship between how people choose to move and urban density especially has been long overlooked in the UK,” he continued.

“It will be interesting to see how these new teeth will play out within a predominantly low-density volume housebuilding model, and with local highways teams who have experienced considerable cuts to their budgets over recent years.”

Annabel Precious, regional director of Civic Engineers, had similar thoughts, calling the move a “step in the right direction”.

“It not only raises awareness and understanding of active travel and its benefits but it also allows Active Travel England to take a proactive role in encouraging and training local authorities who are the ones ultimately determining the planning applications,” she said.

“Hopefully this is just a first step, as it’s only by including active travel in all future developments that we can really start to change behaviours and mindsets and ensure our towns and cities are designed around people and not the car.”

Neil McAlpine, director of transport and movement planning at LUC, was also positive about the change.

“We often find that active travel is not at the heart of the project from the start, often due to differing priorities from the design and the local authority teams,” he said.

“The inclusion of Active Travel England is a positive step forward to encourage placemaking and active travel to be a key component of a site design from the very outset. This would have positive benefits for all as the health and wellbeing impacts of active travel will be embedded into the site design.”