Active travel network maps: amended timescale for submissions

Direction amending the timescale for the submission of integrated network maps (with a consequential change in the date for submitting further existing routes maps) under the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 (WG23-50)

The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013

To all county and county borough councils in Wales

Direction amending timescales for the resubmission of existing route maps and integrated network maps, now collectively known as Active Travel Network maps

The Welsh Ministers, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by section 4(10) of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 (“the Act”), make the following Direction.

Statutory background

Section 3(10) of the Act provides that once an existing routes map prepared by a local authority has been approved by the Welsh Ministers, the local authority:

1. must keep it under review,
2. may revise it, and
3. must submit it to the Welsh Ministers for approval on each occasion on which the local authority’s integrated network map is submitted for approval under section 4.

Section 4(1) of the Act provides that each local authority must:

1. prepare an integrated network map, and
2. submit it to the Welsh Ministers for approval.

Section 4(9) of the Act requires that the next edition of the integrated network map should be submitted by local authorities within a period of three years following the day of the previously approved edition. The Welsh Ministers may however by direction given under section 4(10) of the Act specify a different period.

Under Direction from the Welsh Ministers the first edition of the existing route maps was submitted on the 22 January 2016, and the first integrated network maps on 03 November 2017. The second edition of the existing routes maps and the integrated network maps, which were combined into Active Travel Network Maps in light of the Welsh Government’s Active Travel Act Guidance 2021, were submitted on 31 December 2021, with seven local authorities directed to submit after an extended period.

As a result of a review of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 both the Active Travel Board and the Cross Party Group on the Active Travel Act have recommended that the cycle for future submissions be increased from three to five years. The Welsh Ministers agree that it is appropriate to extend the date for submission of the next round of integrated network maps and updated existing routes maps, collectively known as Active Travel Network Maps. They therefore make the following Direction.

The Direction

In exercise of their power under section 4(10) of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013, the Welsh Ministers direct that the integrated network map required to be submitted by each local authority under section 4(9) (c) of the Act to the Welsh Ministers for approval must be submitted to the Welsh Ministers for approval no later than 1 December 2026. When submitting their integrated network map for approval by this date, each local authority must submit at the same time to the Welsh Ministers for approval the existing routes map required by section 3(10)(c) of the Act.

Signed by Lee Waters MS,
Deputy Minister for Climate Change,
on behalf of the Welsh Ministers

Date: 23 November 2023