Meeting of the Parliament 07 January 2015
I am delighted to be here for my first Government-led debate as Minister for Transport and Islands. I welcome David Stewart to his position in the Labour Party group. We have worked together well in the past, including when the Government supported his bill. Maybe that consensual and constructive approach is one that we can take forward in the transport and islands agenda.
On a wider note, that offer of consensus and a constructive approach is, of course, made to all parties. There is a great deal of agreement and consensus on the vision of the Scotland that we would like in terms of transport and active travel.
The purpose of the motion is to celebrate and share the success of active travel projects in Scotland since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, and to take stock and consider further actions, so I will be keen to hear all members’ views. On that note, I say that I intend to accept the Labour amendment as a reasonable contribution to the debate.
I want to celebrate and build on the projects that are making a difference to participation in action travel. Although we have some way to go in the general population, young people are leading the way. For example, a survey showed that more than 50 per cent of schoolchildren travel actively to school.
It is fitting that in this year, which is the 20th anniversary of the national cycle network, we recognise the efforts of all partners and commit to working together to continue to promote active travel. I look forward to hearing from Sustrans about the celebrations that it is planning for the national cycle network anniversary and I hope to take part in some of them.
As the motion says, we have made progress since 1999. We now have the “Cycling Action Plan for Scotland 2013”—the second such plan—which outlines 19 actions that will help us to achieve our shared vision of 10 per cent of everyday journeys being made by bike by 2020. We also have our first ever national walking strategy, “Let’s Get Scotland Walking”. The Paths for All Partnership is leading on development of the action plan for the strategy, which will be launched in spring 2015. It will include actions that will be aimed at improving walking environments to help to increase levels of functional walking.
Most recently, we published our active travel vision, which sets out what Scotland will look like in 2030 if more people choose walking and cycling as their everyday forms of travel for shorter journeys.
We also have “National Planning Framework 3”, which includes plans for a national long-distance walking and cycling network and plans to implement the town centre action plan through the charrette programme, which will complement the community links programme that is run by Sustrans. I am keen to ensure that the planning system makes all the right connections. Members will pardon the pun. That is something that I pursued when I was the planning minister, and I intend to meet my former planning officials again to continue that work.
I thank all the stakeholders who contributed to all the documents and strategies that provide us with the vision and action points. I look forward to working in the future with all stakeholders on delivering them.
This year sees the largest-ever Scottish Government investment—almost £40 million—in cycling and walking. Members should bear in mind that much of that investment is matched by partners. For example, through the community links programme of £19 million, Sustrans generated some £25 million in match funding in 2014-15.