LLANELLI AM Lee Waters is calling on Carmarthenshire County Council to change its approach to encouraging people to travel under their own steam.
Lee led the campaign for Wales to pass the ground-breaking Active Travel Act in 2011. The new law is the first of its kind in the world and requires Welsh Councils to provide routes for people to walk and cycle.
“20% of the journeys we make by car are for distances of under a mile; trips that a generation ago were routinely made by foot or on bike,” the Llanelli AM explained. “But we’ve become stuck in the habit of using the car more and more, and we’re storing up huge problems for ourselves – it is no accident that Wales has some of the highest levels of childhood obesity in the world.”
The AM met with Llanelli-based campaigners from the Carmarthenshire Cycling Campaign to discuss how the new law is being implemented locally.
After the meeting Lee Waters said: “This is not about sports cycling and wearing lycra; the purpose of the Active Travel Act is to make it easy for people to make everyday journeys by bike or on foot. What needs to change to get more people to consider swapping a short car trip for a bike ride, as we used to and many still do. The evidence suggests we need to alter the road layout to make people feel safer as well as encouraging more people to alter their habits.
“Our priority should be on linking the places we travel to for everyday journeys with well designed routes. I think Carmarthenshire Council are prioritising the wrong projects; we should be tackling the problem of car use for the school run, instead of spending hundreds of thousands on new paths alongside the main road from Llanegenech to Dafen, or an elite racing track in Pembrey.”
The AM is supporting the ‘Give us 5 miles’ campaign, being championed by the Carmarthenshire Cycling Forum.
Spokesman Phil Snaith said after the meeting with the Llanelli AM: “The built up area of Llanelli is predominantly flat and compact with around 40,000 people within two square miles. With some existing high-quality cycle routes around the town, there is already something of a cycling ‘culture’ and it is rare to visit the town and its centre without seeing a cyclist. The town centre needs more people, and improved walking and cycling links would provide these and the additional spend these groups bring. Studies have shown that improved walking and cycling can boost footfall and trading in town centres by as much as 40%.
“The County Council’s highest priority for investment within Carmarthenshire should be a cycling network for Llanelli. Llanelli already has over six miles of good quality cycleways but these are almost all peripheral to the town. We have set out a plan for seven new links to connect the whole built up area of Llanelli – and only one would need to be a completely new section of path, and the remaining six need footpath conversion or widening.”
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