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news
Pontypool Civic Centre, Torfaen (image: Google Maps)Council officers admit driving to a meeting to discuss how to encourage cycling and walking
All four council officers attending a meeting to discuss ways to promote walking and cycling, admitted that they drove to the venue of the meeting, with some even claiming that they were active drivers and preferred it over cycling and walking, which were “not practical”.
The officers at the meeting in Pontypool in Wales included the road safety strategy officer, climate change chief, highways and climate change deputy… and the council’s dedicated active travel officer.
When Torfaen Borough’s councillor Jason O’Connell asked all the officers if they had arrived at the meeting using active travel, Pat Bates, the council’s road safety stratergy officer, said: “I used my preferred method of driving by vehicle. We as active travel officers deliver Welsh Government and council policy without fear of favour. Our personal preferences are irrelvant.”
South Wales Argus reports that Cllr O’Connell described his original question as “cheeky”, and then asked the officers if they agreed that residents might think the team promoting active travel should themselves commute by walking or cycling.
To which Mr Bates replied: “I disagree. As far as I’m concerned I do plenty of walking with my dogs. I walk at least an hour a day and I don’t need anyone telling me to do more.”
> Anti-cycleway West London councillors drove to Clean Air Day leafleting stunt
Climate change chief Michele Mitchell, while confirming that she arrived by car, said that “cycling and walking isn’t always practical”. “It’s a time constraint when you’ve got to be in a meeting by nine o’clock and get to another meeting and that’s something we’re going to face,” she said.
Dedicated active travel officer Donna Edwards also confessed: “I came by car today”, before adding that she tries to walk or cycle whenever she possibly can.
And finally, the council’s highways and climate change deputy, Mark Thomas, admitted that he too was an active driver. He said: “It’s a clean sweep councillor, you’ve got me.”
He said the council is “fortunate a significant amount” of staff live within Torfaen, adding: “I’m not one of them unfortunately but I do work remotely as much as I can and I’m up in Torfaen maybe twice a week but the other three days I’m working remotely.
“In a previous employment all my travel to work was either cycling or running and I’m really missing that at the moment as you can probably tell by the profile,” said Mr Thomas, rubbing his belly.
> Wales set to reduce default speed limit to 20mph in residential areas
Cllr O’Connell, who took part in the meeting by video link, then told the officers: “I had no intention of tripping anyone up,” before adding that he just wanted “to highlight that life gets in the way and the challenges of not taking the car”.
Towards the end of the meeting another councillor also said that they had to leave to “drive to another meeting”.
In February, the Welsh government decided to halt or amend almost all major road building projects as part of a new transport plan aiming to reduce carbon emissions, improve road safety, and prioritise cycling, walking, and public transport use.
Cycling UK called it “the most significant change in UK roads building policy over the last 20 years”, representing a “marked shift from other UK administrations’ simplistic and outdated views of building more roads as the answer to all transport woes from congestion to poor air quality”.
The Torfaen Council officers said they are looking at facilities such as cycle storage and changing rooms and showers at its core civic centres to help make walking or cycling “an attractive option for our employees”.
They also said that they recognised the value of a Welsh Government system to help priorities which walking and cycling routes are invested in but it should be used in conjunction with the system developed by the council.
The committee added that the council should take the lead on a campaign to encourage “behaviour change” to encourage walking and cycling if new guidance from the Welsh Government isn’t forthcoming.
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after completing his masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Cymru, and also likes to write about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
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29 comments
"without fear or favour"
"Without experiencing the fear of close passes, we'll be unable to do cyclists a favour, by providing decent infrastructure."
That's what he meant, wasn't it?
Let me have the last word on this farce please. I work in that building, there a 2 multistorey carparks next to it and a few spaces outside to lock bikes up right next to the pavement out of sight of any of the offices. Neither are there any showers or changing rooms in the building so cycling to work for me (about 15 miles, far enough to make it a worthwhile ride and also far enough that my colleagues would like me to take a shower when I arrive). Active travel promotion at it worst.
But if any of those drivers rode a bike instead, they would know the problems and get them sorted out, instead of pretending to do their jobs.
I think there's a lack of context to this story, as ever. I think Cllr O'Connell may have been also having a sneaky jibe at the difficulties involved in active travel in Torfaen. National route 49 / 492 is doable when the towpath isn't blocked by housebuilders, but it isn't a bundle of laughs and the rest of the cycle network in Cwmbran leaves a lot to be desired. Public transport isn't great either...
Let me see.... maybe the active travel officers could hold a meeting about this?
Maybe they could, but they don't make policy - councillors do. As ever in these situations, the officers are getting the flak when they're doing the job they're paid to do, and the councillor who sparked all this should know better than to throw the officers under the bus when the policies are the problem. (Full declaration of interest - back when I was a dwt I worked in the building across the road from where the civic centre is now, and I know quite a few of the local politicians, past and present).
Are there any bike racks or is there only a massive car park for that civic centre? I see there's multi story car park next door, how about there?
Also, plenty of dog walkers drive to walk their dogs. I wonder if this councillor does the same and part of the reason is because their local neighborhood isn't nice to walk around due to vehicle traffic.
It's not the biggest multi storey carpark ever 150 spaces or so, and it's slap bang in the town centre, or what's left of it..
Love this article that councillor Bates walks his dogs for an hour a day! He must be some sort of canine hero or something so what right does this bloke have to tell people to be active when HIS motivation is based on his pets toilet and exercise needs (such as he provides). Clarification please active driver sorry does not compute are you Fred Flintstone or does car karaoke count as being active while you drive now?
Bates is not a Councillor, but a Council Officer ie an employee. For this part of his remit at least, he doesn't appear to be in the right job.
When I worked for a council, we had a visit from Chinese transport specialists wanting to find out our experience of getting more people on bikes: yes, wierd I know. I told them that the best way was to employ planners who rode bikes, shame that the Torfaen council don't seem to agree.
I once applied to another council, South Gloucestershire, for the job of Cycling Officer, but didn't bother filling in the application form as the job description demanded not only that you had a driving licence, but that you owned a car.
"We as active travel officers deliver Welsh Government and council policy without fear of favour. Our personal preferences are irrelvant.”
Would someone ever get the role of Equality Diversity and Inclusion champion if they said their personal preference was not to agree with it?
I'm sick of it. The lack of leadership by example is obvious at all levels of government as is the complete lack of imagination. It's sad that those that that seek elected positions are often the least deserving of it.
Direct action will continue to increase whilst government continues to fail to do enough. Governments should acknowledge their part in this rather than criticise.
I think it would be more surprising and newsworthy if our elected officials led by example rather than the usual "do as I say, not as I do".
He was calling in remotely. That was "doing something".
Yes, like Farage's children getting EU passports or Mogg moving his investment business to the EU. 😂
Mogg didn't "move his investment business to the EU" - that's a falsehood that's been spread on social media targeting anyone who can't be bothered to check the facts.
Somerset Capital is still HQ in the UK and files its accounts here (check Companies House) as per their statutory filings.
The company has fully owned subsidiaries in a number of countries as per most UK domiciled investment businesses - the reason for that is two fold:
- in some cases it's a legal requirement in order to transact in those countries
- it's tax efficient
No, he didn't move his investment business to the EU. However, what his business did was start a new investment fund based in Dublin which was specifically sold to investors as being a way of avoiding the chaos and potential losses of being involved with a British-based investment fund post Brexit, so he is hardly squeakyclean in this respect. To quote from his firm's prospectus for the Dublin-based fund:
“During, and possibly after, this period there is likely to be considerable uncertainty as to the position of the UK and the arrangements which will apply to its relationships with the EU and other countries following its withdrawal."
Can't argue with your point about Mogg. Rich politicians are almost always going to do what makes them richer and tell us it's for our benefit, left, right, leave and remain alike. I always thought Tony Benn was one of the rare exceptions.
As for Farage's children, I believe their Mum is German and so I'm not sure they or their Dads political views have any bearing on their passport status.
Kudos for making this about Brexit though, I often think "he'll never get a Brexit reference into a reply to this comment" and you keep proving me wrong. 👍😁
Hopefully they ask themselves what changes would be necessary to encourage themselves to cycle and walk more, and attempt to cycle and walk to better inform themselves of the challenges, but I won't be holding my breath.
The problem is in the title. "Encourage". Encouragement never works. You have to ENABLE. And the only way to do that is by spending money building stuff.
Yep - ENABLE positive change and ENFORCE and rules / restrictions. It's not a zero sum game but we've made driving so standard and convenient that this mode is the default. So unfortunately without reducing the amount of driving nothing much can change. There is too much space taken up, too much money spent, too many people driving short trips because the car is just there, too many buses getting stuck in traffic, too little space that's pleasant to walk or cycle.
"I do plenty of walking with my dogs"
Tell me you haven't understood the problem without telling me you haven't understood the problem.
"I don’t need anyone telling me to do more.”
Clearly has the discussion framed as a culture war against the 'nanny state' if that's their response to a simple question.
I wonder whether a non driving cyclist would ever be appointed as their head of roads policy? Same thing, after all.
Barbara Castle and Stephen Byers were non drivist transport ministers.
The worst bit is these council officers will be signing off active travel initiatives, cycle lanes etc, but without any first hand knowledge of what it's like to use such infrastructure and probably no intention of using it either.
Indeed. Which explains quite a lot all over the country when you think about it.
I was trying to explain that to my wife when I read this article yesterday.