THE BENEFITS of Active Travel schemes as part of past school building projects in Powys need to be added to proposals worth £300 million, before they are sent to the Welsh Government, a senior councillor has said.
At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday, May 7 councillors received a report asking for the go ahead to submit a new Strategic Outline Programme (SOP) worth £300million to the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning’s programme.
But some revisions need to be made as during the discussion, deputy council leader Labour’s Matthew Dorrance wanted officers to have another look at the section that addresses Active Travel.
Active Travel means walking or cycling and money is available from the Welsh Government for schemes to try and get people out of their cars.
Cllr Dorrance said: “The Active Travel element is quite light for this proposal, and I would like to see some more details of what we think the benefits might be for our communities.
“Where there have been new school developments, I think it would have been useful to capture some evidence of the added benefits and value of Active Travel for those schemes to the wider public.
“I think we’ve missed an opportunity in the current paper.”
Cllr Dorrance added that it was “clearly a benefit” to improve walking and cycling routes through communities rather than “using cars all the time.”
Although he accepted this can be “more difficult” in rural communities than towns.
Schools transformation manager Marianne Evans said: “I agree it is slightly light and Active Travel is a key part of the programme.”
She added that she would take his comments on board and “reflect” on what had been written before the application is finally sent to the Welsh Government.
The proposal said that the Active Travel team are part of “early” discussions at the start of new school build projects to see if their work can be part of the project.
The document said that a combination of footpaths and cycling routes are “now in place” at all new school developments in Powys and other areas such as Welshpool, Llandrindod Wells and Newtown.
Cabinet unanimously agreed the proposal which will be sent to the Welsh Government.
