Active Travel

The Vale of Glamorgan Council is working to promote and improve opportunities for active travel within the local authority area

Active travel means walking and cycling (including the use of mobility scooters) for everyday journeys. This includes journeys to school, to work, to the shops or to access services e.g. health or leisure centres. Active travel does not include walking and cycling for recreational or social reasons.

In September 2014, the Welsh Government introduced the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 which makes it a legal requirement for local authorities in Wales to map and plan for suitable routes for active travel within certain settlements, as specified by Welsh Government.

 

The Council submitted their Integrated Network Maps in November 2017 which set out the Authority’s aspirations for improving active travel routes across the County over the next 15 years.  

 

They included routes that were currently used but may not have met the standard of Active Travel routes, or they were routes that did not exist but were identified within other strategic plans, or identified through the consultation process.

Image credit: Sustrans

Section 4 of the Act requires that the next edition of the INM should be submitted by local authorities three years following the previous edition, or no later than a date specified by the Welsh Ministers.  In view of circumstances at this time, Ministers consider it appropriate to extend the submission of the next round of integrated networks maps and updated existing routes maps to 31 December 2021.
 
The Vale of Glamorgan Council will be asking for the public to be fully involved in the Active Travel Network Mapping process and will be arranging for questionnaires, surveys, public consultation events over the next few months.  Our engagement processes will be updated on this webpage as well as on social media (Twitter, Facebook etc). More information can be found on our Active Travel Consultation webpage.

The Integrated Network Maps stages to be followed include the following:

• Gather Information

• Journey Mapping

• Route Assessment

• Draft Integrated Network Maps & Scheme Identification

• Validation

• Final Plan and Prioritisation

Details of currently funded active travel schemes can be found on our Active Travel and Safe Routes in Communities Projects page.