At the beginning of June, Active Travel England (ATE) became an official statutory consultee on all planning applications for developments equal to or exceeding 150 housing units, 7,500m² of floorspace, or an area of five hectares.
The aim is for them to help planning authorities to implement good walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure.
ATE will review around 3,100 applications a year, equating to 60% of new homes, which will allow ATE to help planning authorities in their work to implement good active travel design, by ensuring developments include walking, wheeling, and cycling connectivity to schools and local amenities.
This will help improve public health, save people money and reduce harmful emissions. It will also help to avoid big increases in vehicle traffic and reduce the need for costly upgrades to major road junctions, or other corrective action in the future.
The establishment of ATE's new status follows a pilot project which saw the group work with 30 local authorities to assess more than 60 developments over Autumn 2022.
Feedback from a survey at the start of the pilot saw 80% of respondents agree ATE should have a role in the planning system.
Active Travel Commissioner, Chris Boardman, said: "Active travel is essential to improving public health, reducing emissions and tackling the cost of living crisis. That’s why we’re working to ensure millions more people have the opportunity to walk, wheel or cycle from their doorstep to where they need to be".
"Designing activity back into our neighbourhoods and creating places where children have transport independence is achievable – it just needs smart planning".
"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".
Commenting on the announcement, active travel charity Sustrans, tweeted: "Too many new housing developments force people to depend on cars for their everyday journeys, due to a lack of local amenities and poor (or non-existent) active travel and public transport links. It’s encouraging to see steps towards changing this".
While ATE will be consulted on developments at and above its thresholds, it will not have any statutory powers to direct the outcome of planning applications. ATE has been working with DLUHC to ensures its thresholds as a statutory consultee are set at an appropriate level.
ATE also continues to invest to help councils deliver walking, wheeling, and cycling schemes across the country, and recently they announced the 65 local authorities receiving a share of the latest Active Travel Fund.
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