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Chris Boardman heads newly-launched government body Active Travel England

“It’s time for a quiet revolution,” says champion cyclist turned campaigner who will lead body tasked with implementing goverment‘s Gear Change strategy

Chris Boardman has been appointed interim commissioner of a new governmental body, Active Travel England, which has been tasked with implementing the Gear Change strategy, among other things.

The former world and Olympic champion cyclist turned cycling and walking campaigner says there is an opportunity to create “a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations,” and that “it’s time for a quiet revolution.”

The creation of the government agency, which will be based in York from this summer, was announced in the Gear Change: a bold new vision for walking and cycling strategy published by the Department for Transport in July 2020.

Launching Active Travel England today, the DfT said that it “will be responsible for driving up the standards of cycling and walking infrastructure and managing the national active travel budget, awarding funding for projects that improve both health and air quality.”

The new entity “will also begin to inspect, and publish reports on, highway authorities for their performance on active travel and identify particularly dangerous failings in their highways for cyclists and pedestrians.

“As well as approving and inspecting schemes,” it will also “help local authorities, training staff and spreading good practice in design, implementation and public engagement. It will be a statutory consultee on major planning applications to ensure that the largest new developments properly cater for pedestrians and cyclists.” 

Boardman, who has taken on the role of interim commissioner on a temporary, pro bono basis, will be “closely involved” in setting up Active Travel England, including recruiting its chief executive and management team.

The DfT says that it will be conducting a “a full and open competition for the permanent commissioner role.”

Boardman said: “The positive effects of high levels of cycling and walking are clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving.

“Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.” 

“The time has come to build on those pockets of best practice and enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars,” he continued.

“I’m honoured to be asked to lead on this and help deliver the ambitious vision laid out in the government’s Gear Change strategy and other local transport policies.

“This will be a legacy we will be proud to leave for our children and for future generations,” Boardman added. “It’s time to make it a reality; it’s time for a quiet revolution.”

During his racing career Boardman, now aged 53, won Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992 and world championships on the road and track, as well as wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

In retirement, besides heading research and development ant British Cycling, building his own successful bike brand that he sold to Halfords in 2014 for £20 million and his role as a TV pundit, Boardman became increasingly active in campaigning for cycling safety for everyday riders.

His common sense, articulate approach won him many supporters among cycling campaigners, and when the All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group – now the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) – recommended in its 2013 Get Britain Cycling report that the government appoint a national cycling champion for England, Boardman was seen by many as the obvious candidate should such a role be created.

> Minister for cycling hints at cycling champion appointment, Chris Boardman wants “significant powers”

Ruth Cadbury, the Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth and co-chair of the APPGCW, said of today’s news:  “The launch of Active Travel England, with Chris Boardman as the interim commissioner, is a fantastic step in the right direction for increasing levels of cycling and walking. 

“Having one body responsible for increasing standards of infrastructure, with statutory powers, will help meet the government's ambitious target of half of urban journeys being walked or cycled by 2030. 

“We look forward to working with Chris and the whole Active Travel England team so that everyone can enjoy the reduced congestion, better air quality and improved public health that comes with higher levels of cycling and walking,” she added.

Today, the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes, including a £300,000 top-up to E-cargo bike schemes, £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations, and £2.2 million to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes.

Trudy Harrison, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DfT with responsibility for active travel, said: “Cycling and walking is not only beneficial for our health and the environment, but can also be great fun and is a brilliant way to connect communities. 

“This funding is about giving people across the country the opportunity to different forms of travel, as well as supporting local businesses with the transition to greener transport.”

She added: “I’m very much looking forward to working with our new active travel commissioner to improve standards for everyone.”   

During the past five years Boardman, whose mother Carol was killed when she was knocked off her bike by a van driver in 2016, has been developing Greater Manchester’s Bee Network of active travel routes in his role as the city-region’s active travel commissioner and more recently its transport commissioner.

The DfT says that he will be giving up that role to focus on his task at Active Travel England, although he will retain the position of chair to Sport England to which he was appointed in June last year.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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38 comments

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DugZz | 2 years ago
1 like

Let's hope he doesn't have his hands tied like most of the others in jobs like this, a figure head to make things look kosher!

To be honest having Yorkshire as the base, and no disrespect to yorkshire or the people that live there, it is the wrong place for the HQ! I may be biased as I live in North Northumberland, but it would be a better base to start with given how rundown our PRoW's and cycle paths are. One only has to watch TV or read any of the publications, Yorkshire has a fantastic PRoW/cycling path network that is well publicised, Northumberland however is a totally different story! We may get the tour of Britain come through specific locations, but check the media, very little footage and no publicity! Plus whilst Northumberland County Council pushes getting out and about on foot or cycle, they do very little in the heart of the county to aid this. Go to the larger towns in the south of the county and there are many new footpaths and cycleways, the county council have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions, providing safer places to cycle or walk!

Head north of Morpeth and try to walk any of the multitude of PRoW's (supposedly) looked after by NCC, you'll find then either overgrown and/or practicably unpassable! If you can find them, the majority have missing waymarks and/or fingerposts, they may be marked on the definitive map the county hold, but it's difficult to find them on the ground! Cycling routes are much the same, only NCR68 is well posted, byways and bridleways may be part of the PRow network, but we're allowed to ride them on bikes, but again try finding them, and if you do you'll probably find you'll be walking and not riding due to their condition!

Our esteemed county councilors, present and previous are not interested in hearing about it, nor is our current MP. As with many Cycling UK members, I filled in the forms and letters supplied by Cycling UK, and sent to our councillors and MP's to hopefully persuade them to attend meeting for additional funding aimed at increasing the support for walking and cycling networks! From my experience, and having spoken to many others that filled in those forms, the replies received were generic prewritten and meaningless, not one councilor or MP replied with any comment on the topic of the letters/forms, they did thank us for taking the time to organise events and clubs for walking or cycling, something that was never even mentioned!

So St Chris needs to be on guard and fully aware he is likely to be shortly banging his head against a very thick brick wall! I wish him all the luck. 

As individuals up here in the north of the county we walk and ride where we can, pleading with the council to insist farmers/landowners abide by the law and maintain the PRoW's on their land, sadly the council's PRoW department has it hands tied by a lack of funds and resources thanks to central government, and who runs this new unit! We'll continue to do our best to keep ways open, but our scope is limited by age (we're all over 60) and manpower (some won't go against the council). Recently we've had more luck getting things done through the Rural Payments Agency, they distribute and control payments made to landowners/farmers for keeping the PRoW network on their land open, they can withhold and apply fines if they do not comply. The councils can do this too, but politically they won't, in case they loose support to their parties from those same landowners/farmers.

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hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
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I'm going to choose to be optimisitic about this as St Boardman is pretty smart and is unlikely to be involved with something that is just empty policies. If he's on-board with it, then he must think that results are possible.

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chrisonabike | 2 years ago
1 like

Quote:

Chris Boardman has been appointed interim commissioner

Brilliant!

Quote:

of a new governmental body, Active Travel England, which has been tasked with implementing the Gear Change strategy, among other things.

Hmm... doubts appear.  Shouldn't this all be the remit of the Department for Transport?  If we want cycling and walking to be considered as ... transport?  And integrated into our existing systems? Because the government has said we need less internal combustion engines and less cars in general, yes?

Maybe not to start with - like a supertanker the DfT will take a lot of time and effort to redirect!

Quote:

the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes, including a £300,000 top-up to E-cargo bike schemes, £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations, and £2.2 million to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes.

Oh - they're sidelining him.  He's been put in charge of paperclips.

Maybe that's unfair, this is a new thing after all. So let's see where the actual money in the last budget is going. Lots to read through and I'm not sure if some of this is "recycled" e.g. a new promise of already-allocated funds, but:

£24 billion between 2020-21 and 2024-25 in strategic roads, delivering upgrades such as the A66 Trans-Pennine.
£8 billion for repairs
£35 billion of rail investment

But but £5.7 billion declared for "sustainable transport" in certain city regions!  Which when you check is mostly trains(!) and buses(!) although there is a *mention* of cyclists and pedestrians. I can't find a separate figure for them though. (The earlier reported "2 billion for active trave"l has been analysed elsewhere [road.cc, cyclist mag , sustrans]).

Compare: cost of freezing fuel duty 2011-2020 is estimated at a £50 billion loss of revenue.

So what's Gear Change done / spent in its first year then?

From the report here - over the course of 2020/21 the Government has provided £220 million to local authorities (Active Travel Fund - this was a Covid initiative), £100 million to Transport for London, £20 million of revenue funding to local authorities (Access Fund) £20 million to the Fix Your Bike voucher scheme, £13 million BikeAbility, £2 million to Cycling UK , £2 million to Living Streets.

Not nothing although the £220 million was something of a covid windfall. I make that 377 million. It's not clear whether this is representative of what the regular spend will be like. Taking that whole figure it's about 6% of the anual "investment" declared for road building (not including repairs) in the budget. In Scotland the decision was that 10% of the overall transport budget was the baseline spend for active travel which would make the UK's efforts look even smaller. Might be worth comparing how much the Dutch spend on this [2010, 2018].

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mdavidford replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
0 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Quote:

the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes, including a £300,000 top-up to E-cargo bike schemes, £3 million to improve cycling infrastructure around train stations, and £2.2 million to explore ‘active travel on prescription’ schemes.

Oh - they're sidelining him.  He's been put in charge of paperclips.

Maybe that's unfair

I think it might be. I'm not saying he won't be asked to do it on a shoestring, but I'm not sure this £5.5m has any relevance to what the ATE budget, or overall spending on active travel, will be. It appears to be a separate announcement that's just been thrown out at the same time as his appointment.

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chrisonabike replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
1 like

I know - this £5.5 million is something different.  My point is that with every "active travel - it's great!  We get it!" announcement comes either no money at all, or a sum which puts the real "priority" of this into focus (e.g. not important at all).

See also comment from Prosper0 RE: Cycling England. I remember watching the head of Cycling UK pointing out to some further "enquiry" last year that it's been 25 years since all that and here we are, back at the same point.

So - we'll see. Hopefully Manchester's loss will be the UK's gain.

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mdavidford replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
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Absolutely - if we go on past records it's hard to be anything other than pessimistic. But then that's always going to be the case until it isn't, so...

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Prosper0 | 2 years ago
2 likes

Swings and roundabouts. The return of Cycling England! 
Will this organisation also be saddled with a laughable budget and direction? Reformation of an independent new body will also allow the DfT to scapegoat, remove the issue of cycling away from central government and to wash its hands as inevitably every national cycling target fails.

Let's be honest here. 

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HarrogateSpa | 2 years ago
3 likes

One positive is that ATE will have powers with respect to large planning applications.

In North Yorkshire, any cycling infra at new developments is token, abysmal, and useless. The council has started mentioning LTN 1/20, but completely ignoring what it actually says.

It needs a body like ATE to force them to change, otherwise they never will.

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Sriracha | 2 years ago
1 like

"responsible for driving up the standards of cycling"
An unfortunate turn of phrase!

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Awavey | 2 years ago
6 likes

my only reservation with appointing Chris B in the role, and maybe this is why its only interim for the moment, is that he ends up spreading himself too thinly across all of his work & progress slows, and this is going to be a tough job.

making change in Manchester or even London is relatively easy, and I know people will say but what about Kensington or whatever, trust me its still easier even with those councils undermining things all the time, than pushing the same kind of stuff out into the regions where theres been no cycling revolution, most regional councils are still firmly welded to motor vehicles, not active travel.

Even those that hint they might just get it, like the East Suffolk cycling and walking strategy had over 200 recommended changes for active travel, but covering a tiny fraction of their area, and the majority of which Chris B would laugh at as outdated not meeting any national standard & about as much use as a chocolate teapot. But they are the only council in Suffolk who have produced anything, Babergh, Mid Suffolk, West Suffolk, Ipswich arent doing anything, and most of the changes Suffolk county council (yeah local government gets complicated) installed as part of the emergency active travel funding are slowly being unwound for fear of upsetting the motorists.

And thats one county, multiply that kind of stuff as Im sure its no different elsewhere, by the 47 other counties in England and you get a feel for the kind of job he has on his hands.

what we really need is 48 mini Chris Bs able to push the kind of change through at the local level, because just having the 1 at the national level, I think the messages will be too diluted by the time they hit the ground.

we shall see, Im generally always pessimistic in my outlook, but I wish him all the success & support in it as I think he will need it.

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EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
6 likes

BOARDMAN FOR PRESIDENT!!!

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Rendel Harris replied to EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
10 likes

EddyBerckx wrote:

BOARDMAN FOR PRESIDENT!!!

He's honest, personable, intelligent and talks sense, he wouldn't stand a chance.

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Rik Mayals unde... replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
3 likes

I remember chatting to Chris at the end of a stage of the PruTour at Blackpool. Earlier on in the stage they had gone over the Nick 'O Pendle and on the descent Chris had T Boned a sheep which had been spooked by the helicopter. Even though he was cut and bruised, and about to go to hospital for checks, Chris was happy to chat to me and pose for a photograph. A truly fantastic down to earth guy.

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ktache | 2 years ago
3 likes

The hate filled, institutionally anti cyclist guardian has a bit by Chris 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/22/walking-cycling-sa...

Unfortunately not behind a paywall...

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ktache replied to ktache | 2 years ago
4 likes

And of course, best of luck Chris.

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Rich_cb | 2 years ago
4 likes

Good news.

Harrison and the DfT have shown some real ambition in appointing Boardman. They know he's going to hold them to a high standard so must have confidence in delivering.

The DfT have done some great work on active travel recently, hopefully this will be a continuation of that.

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hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
7 likes

Excellent news! If anyone can prise people from cars, it's going to be St Boardman. I hope he gets the permanent role.

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Ride On | 2 years ago
5 likes

Hopefully he will be able to get local planners to adopt a consistent and effective definition of what constitutes good cycling infrastructure and then start to build it.

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Rik Mayals unde... replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
10 likes

Why do you turn up to play Devils advocate all the time? Nothing better to do. He's done a lot more than you have. What have you done for cycling in your lifetime?

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mdavidford replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 2 years ago
7 likes

biker phil wrote:

Why do you turn up to play Devils advocate all the time?

Seems an undeservedly generous description.

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chrisonabike replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 2 years ago
2 likes

biker phil wrote:

Why do you turn up to play Devils advocate all the time? Nothing better to do. He's done a lot more than you have. What have you done for cycling in your lifetime?

The double Garage is responsible for an outbreak of politeness and courtesy on the roads apparently, although maybe not so much on the forums...

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Miller replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
7 likes

Hey garridge why don't you just fuck off you complete waste of space.

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eburtthebike | 2 years ago
7 likes

It remains to be seen how effective ATE will be, but with St CB in charge, it has a chance.

In an incredible break with tradition, the BBC mentioned this on R4 news this morning!  Maybe they'll even mention cycling and walking as much as 1% as they mention electric cars.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to eburtthebike | 2 years ago
9 likes

Exactly, he has done well at Manchester helping with and promoting the bee network of joined up cycling infrastructure. Whilst a metro conurbation is smaller then the country, he might at least be able to put in place joined up thinking nationally which several of us have lamented the lack of previously. 

Still, at least someone to stand up against the anal openings who promote tabards and lying videos of legal cycling. 

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aegisdesign replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
0 likes

Action on the ground in Greater Manchester has been notably slim pickings though. Some of that is because he's got no real teeth so getting all the GM councils to actually do anything is difficult. They can just ignore the bee network plan if they want to. Andy Burnham has no teeth either. Bolton or Rochdale can just ignore them.

I hope ATE have greater powers than Chris has had at GM otherwise ATE will get nothing done but from the looks of it the "interim" role is just to set it up and recruit a full commisioner and team.

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geomannie 531 | 2 years ago
10 likes

"Today, the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes"

£5.5 million is surely a typo as it would take £5.5 billion to actually start to get people using active travel as their default option. £5.5 million wouldn't even pay for a politician's wallpaper.

Unless the government wants active travel to fail......

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Rendel Harris replied to geomannie 531 | 2 years ago
14 likes

Such cynicism! Come on now, £5.5M would buy almost 300 yards of motorway, or one five-thousandth of a failed track and trace system, how can you accuse them of a lack of commitment? 

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mdavidford replied to geomannie 531 | 2 years ago
4 likes

Also apparently not 'new funding' - just reannounced funding.

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Rik Mayals unde... replied to geomannie 531 | 2 years ago
1 like

Yeah, I saw this and thought it must be a typo, as £5.5 million wouldn't go far at all.

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iandusud replied to geomannie 531 | 2 years ago
1 like

geomannie 531 wrote:

"Today, the government has also announced £5.5 million of new funding for local authorities, train operators and businesses to encourage various active travel schemes" £5.5 million is surely a typo as it would take £5.5 billion to actually start to get people using active travel as their default option. £5.5 million wouldn't even pay for a politician's wallpaper. Unless the government wants active travel to fail......

^ This. I read the Guardian article this morning and the item came up on the Today programme whilst I was preparing breakfast, so I drew my wife's attention to it. She said "that's good", I then pointed out the level of funding which she hadn't picked up on.

It's great to have CB in this role. I only hope he can do something get the required funding. 5.5 billion would be a start.

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