Worcestershire Active Travel Stakeholder Forum (WATSF) update

Introduction

Last Thursday 25th January 2024 we (Dan and Sam - also Parish Councillor for Powick) attended the 4th Worcestershire Active Travel Stakeholder Forum (WATSF) meeting at the Countryside Centre in Worcester.The what again?Yep it's a bit of a mouthful, but a brief background. Bike Worcester is here to enable and encourage more people to use bikes as a mode of transport in and around Worcester (an aim shared at every level of government), and to represent the views and needs of current and future riders of bicycles at as many forums and events as we can manage. A notable part of this is engaging with decision makers (councillors and officers), at parish, district, county and national levels of government; at the end of the day if you want change, you've got to talk with the folk in charge.Most of the infrastructure used by people on bikes is the responsibility of Worcestershire County Council (WCC) under the portfolio of Highways and Transport, which politically is the responsibility of Cllr Mike Rouse. After making a nuisance of ourselves as politely as possible, and making (we hope) informed and sensible suggestions as to how Bike Worcester and County could work together to increase active travel rates and all the benefits it brings, the suggestion was made to expand the conversation to include other countywide interested parties. This also provided an opportunity for conversations around active travel to happen openly in a single forum, including councillors, officers, health professionals, advocacy groups, and charities.It was thus called the Worcestershire Active Travel Stakeholder Forum. If we're being honest, it has been an emotional roller coaster ride since.

Previous meetings

The first meeting was essentially a meet and greet, an introduction, and some information shared by the County. We were immediately concerned at the size of the group and the variety of interests, and with no agreed aims on how meeting outputs might feed into official decision making processes, might this actually be of little practical use. It was identified that smaller subgroups would be sensible.At the second meeting Mike had similarly reflected on the potential problems, and as well as some updates from County the attendees worked on developing a series of aims and ambitions to define the group. Fantastic!At the third meeting we were presented with a draft of the document incorporating the groups Vision, Aims and Values. On first review it hadn't really captured the discussion at the previous meeting. Concerns were raised, and comments were invited, but we left a little deflated.

Mission statement / vision / aims / values / where the meeting fits in the County Council structure

So onto the fourth meeting, on Thursday. In the interim we'd made suggestions in the form of a revised document, which was duly tabled, reviewed and tweaked (my bad, I've still got a blind spot for including equestrian activities in my thinking), but is now largely representative of earlier discussions, and seems to meet the expectations of those present of how the group should exist. It's bold and ambitious, and hopefully will be available in its approved version before the next meeting. In addition Mike and his team had given a fair degree of thought as to how the group can feed into the workings of the County Council, both politically and functionally.For suggestions that require wider policy implementation and oversight the group will feed into the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board (OSPB) at County, the council's main overview and scrutiny committee. It has a decision making function, or can direct decisions to other committees, such as vertically to the cabinet or full council. For the majority of the group's suggestions, it was indicated that they could be acted upon by WATSF attendees, under delegated powers. The WATSF would continue to meet quarterly, but more localised or specialised subgroups would be created to focus on more detailed local or specialised issues. Examples of this might be a geographical subgroup created to cover Worcester, consisting of interested stakeholders, or a specialist subgroup focussed on the collection and use of data (eg. from vehicle counters).At this point we'd like to apologise if you're finding this all fairly tedious. Talking about documents and systems might sound dull and bureaucratic, but from our perspective both seem essential foundations for making the WATSF a successful tool in progressing change within the County to achieve both Council's and Bike Worcester aims. In summary, we were overjoyed at this point in the meeting, and would congratulate everyone involved in getting to this point.

LCWIP and ATE update

Officers then provided a progress update of the LCWIP process in each area. It was acknowledged that this would also need to extend between areas, or on outlier villages (as an example Powick and Callow End, located between Worcester and Malvern), however priority at present is to complete the LCWIPs for urban areas, and this will be a secondary element of work. Also of interest was that the Redditch LCWIP is nearing completion, and had included a site visit to potential development areas by councillors and officers. We suggested this would be improved by also including local stakeholders, and by making use of bikes and adapted cycles, which was agreed. The Sustrans rep advised that adapted cycles for people with disabilities could be made available for events, which was also advised by one of the charity reps (Parkride).Officers also provided an update on the most recent Active Travel England (ATE) Capability Assessment process, and subsequent bid for ATE tranche 4 funding, all of which had to be undertaken essentially behind closed doors between the Council and ATE.

AOB

Our Rob Collier was on the agenda to do a Bike Bus presentation but was unable to attend, although there was insufficient time anyway. We advised the presentation could be done at a later meeting, but also invited anyone who was interested to attend any of our Bike Buses at their convenience.It was noted that the far reaching benefits of active travel means it actually spans multiple County cabinet portfolios, and committee meetings. The suggestion was made that the role of an active travel champion is created within the Councillor structure, with that person then inputting into all relevant meetings. Mike advised, as an example, that there is already and Armed Forces champion, and this idea had merit and would be investigated. It was also suggested that this person could fulfill an education and advisory role to councils across Worcestershire.During discussions the Worcester City centre TROs were mentioned as a possible barrier to the success of the Beryl Bike hire scheme, and that their relaxation to enable cycling on a Share with Care or Give Way to pedestrians basis would be welcomed, and also show the city and county are moving forwards with their aims to increase active travel rates. Mike advised this could be reviewed, but was at the request of the City Council to request the change, and as such we would pick this up with the local members.We made the meeting aware that Bike Worcester are now having regular meetings with the active travel team at Worcester City Council, that this is essentially the start of a Worcester subgroup, and we would like to extend an invite to these meetings to any parties interested in being part of this group.We made reference to the Active Travel Café weekly video conference. Notably the recent episode attended by Leicestershire County Council (LCC) officers, in which they outlined how they'd implemented School Street trials. Of note was that LCC officer's had approached schools in the first instance to ask if they'd be interested in a trial, whereas at present WCC are waiting for schools to contact them. Mike advised the County would be proactively contacting all schools in the near future.So in summary: a very productive meeting, further networking opportunities with other stakeholders, and an optimistic view at the start of 2024. Fingers crossed we remain encouraged and optimistic in 12 months' time!