Spokes note - para 147 is particularly important in the immediate future. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finance Committee Report ANNEXE K – REPORT FROM THE TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE COMMITTEE Report on the Scottish Government’s Draft Budget 2010-11 The Committee reports to the Finance Committee as follows— Introduction 1. The Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee is required to report to the Finance Committee on its consideration of the Scottish Government’s Budget for 2010-11, which was published on 17 September 2009. -------------------------------------------------------------- Sustainable Travel and Active Travel 137. The treatment of active travel in the draft budget once again gives the Committee cause for concern. 138. In its report to the Finance Committee on the 2008-09 draft budget, the Committee recommended that a gradual transfer of resources be made from the relevant components of the health budget to the active travel line, in order to realise the public health benefits from investment in walking and cycling projects. In its report on the 2009-10 draft budget, noting that its previous recommendation had not been acted upon, the Committee again recommended that the Scottish Government should give consideration to increasing the active travel line in the budget. 139. The Committee notes that, despite these previous recommendations, the sustainable transport and active travel line has decreased from £11.5m in the 2009-10 budget to £11.2m in the 2010-11 draft budget. 140. The Committee also notes that in the foreword to the recent consultation on the Scottish Government’s Cycling Action Plan for Scotland, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change states that his vision is that ‘by 2020, 10% of all journeys taken in Scotland will be taken by bike.’ 141. However, in written evidence to the Committee, the cycling campaign group Spokes suggests that, in recent years, the total investment from all main sources has remained no higher than the equivalent of 1% of the transport budget, with the result that cycle use in Scotland has remained at around 1% of all journeys. They indicate that this compares to 5%-30% of journeys in other European countries. 142. When the Cabinet Secretary was questioned on this issue during oral evidence, he responded by suggesting, as he had when similar points were put to him during previous draft budget considerations, that funding for cycling is also provided from other areas of the budget: ‘Money is spent on supporting cycling development in a number of parts of the budget, but that is not always immediately obvious. I have made the point to the committee that we are spending money in parts of the trunk road network budgets to develop cycling infrastructure. It is possible to arrive at a compartmentalised figure for that, but such a figure does not appear in the budget document.’87 143. In their written evidence, Spokes propose that the draft budget be amended to allow for a £20m Cycle Projects Fund to be administered by the Scottish Government’s own sustainable transport team. The Cabinet Secretary responded to this proposal by saying that: ‘An extra £20 million is quite a sum of money to be wrestled with, given the financial constraints within which we are operating.’88 144. The fact that proposed spend in this area is declining at a time when one of the stated objectives of the Scottish Government is to achieve a ten-fold increase in cycling journeys, appears to the Committee to be contradictory. It considers that a reduction in the sustainable transport and active travel line suggests that the priorities of the transport agenda are, in budgetary terms, moving in the opposite direction to those outlined in the draft Cycling Action Plan for Scotland. 145. The greenhouse gas emissions reductions required by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 represent a hugely significant challenge for the Scottish Government. The Committee is of the view that, that if the Scottish Government is to be perceived as taking seriously the need to encourage modal shift to more sustainable transport modes to reduce emissions from transport, it must begin to make more practical moves towards doing so. It considers that if significant progress is to be made, new methods of delivering funding need to be developed, perhaps in the direction being argued by Spokes in its well argued submission to the Committee. 146. Whilst the Committee acknowledges the pressures on the draft budget, it is concerned at the continued gradual reduction in the sustainable transport and active travel line. It is of the view that the decline in the funding of sustainable transport and active travel line needs to be not only reversed, but significantly increased. However, the high-level nature of the information contained in the draft budget makes it difficult to identify where specific capacity exists for a reallocation of resources. 147. The Committee therefore recommends that the Scottish Government should conduct an exercise to establish what scope exists across the transport budget for reallocating resources in order to reverse the incremental decline in the active travel line. It further recommends that this exercise is conducted prior to the debate on the Finance Committee’s report on the draft budget and that the results are submitted to both committees. 148. As this is the third consecutive year in which the Committee has sought an increase in this area of spend, the Committee requests that the Finance Committee endorses this recommendation. 149. The Committee also acknowledges that spend in other areas of the budget, such as health and local government, contain elements which are designed to support initiatives to encourage active travel, healthier lifestyles etc.. However, it also notes that there appears to be a lack of information on the nature of these allocations and how effective they are in achieving these objectives. 150. The Committee therefore requests that full details of the different elements of spend across the budget which relate to active travel should be provided by the Scottish Government. It also recommends that the Scottish Government conducts an assessment of how proactive the bodies in receipt of this funding are in delivering such initiatives, and that steps are taken to ensure that a greater emphasis is placed on the need to produce tangible results. 151. The Committee also considers that there would be merit in considering how these various allocations might be spent in a more coherent and co-ordinated way and contribute more effectively towards meeting the Scottish Government’s objectives on active travel. 152. The Committee is currently conducting an inquiry into active travel which is focused on how an improved uptake of walking and cycling might be delivered. The formal remit of the Committee’s inquiry is to consider the progress being made in developing active travel; any barriers to further progress; and the further action that may be required by the Scottish Government, local authorities and other bodies to ensure that significant progress is made in the development and implementation of active travel in Scotland. The Committee will be particularly interested in establishing whether any of the barriers to progress are related to lack of available funding at a national or local level. 153. The Committee anticipates that its inquiry report, due to be published early in 2010, will help inform the Scottish Government’s proposed Cycling Action Plan for Scotland. In the meantime, it hopes that the development of CAPS will include a full and realistic assessment of the budgetary provision that will be required to provide significant progress in the development of cycling in Scotland.