Emergency Active Travel Fund: Ten things local authorities need to know about Tranche 2 funding.

On Friday 10th July, the Department for Transport issued guidance to local authorities on tranche 2 of the Emergency Active Travel Fund (ETAF) guidance.

Tranche 2 of the Emergency Active Travel Fund amounts to £180m in total and local authorities will have until August 7th to submit their bid for the second tranche of funding.

Following the issuing of guidance, myself and colleagues at WSP brought together our thoughts on ten key points that local authorities need to know before submitting their bid.

Ten things you need to know:

1. Local authorities need to make clear that they have quick and meaningful plans to reallocate road space to both cyclists and pedestrians, including on strategic corridors, to help avoid public transport overcrowding.
2. Schemes need to show real ambition and must meaningfully alter the status quo on the road, otherwise they will not be funded.
3. Measures that deliver benefits both for cyclists and bus users will be particularly welcomed. Local authorities will need to demonstrate they’ve considered the impacts of their proposals on bus and other public transport services.
4. All cycling schemes, permanent or temporary, will need to include segregation or point closures to through traffic. White paint advisory cycle lanes will not be funded!
5. Funding in this second tranche will depend on how swiftly and effectively local authorities have implemented their funded plans for tranche 1.
6. Tranche 2 funding can be used to support both temporary, low-cost schemes, and permanent schemes with a short lead time.
7. Local authorities will need to show they can spend or fully commit the funds in this financial year. If this condition is not met, the Department will reserve the right to claim the funding back by adjusting a future grant payment downwards.
8. Local authorities should also consider and take steps to mitigate the wider impacts of any proposals, particularly on people with disabilities and other people with protected characteristics as part of their Public Sector Equality Duty.
9. The Department will also expect the impact of schemes to be monitored and evaluated. This will be a requirement for all permanent schemes costing £2 million or more, and is recommended for other significant schemes. Guidance on this will follow shortly.
10. The great majority of the funding provided will be capital funding: local authorities can bid for small amounts of revenue funding, but only up to a maximum of 20% of their total bid.

Alongside the ETAF guidance, the government also announced that a new cycling and walking vision will be announced this summer, something our team at WSP has contributed our thinking to.

A new 'Rapid Cycleway Prioritisation Tool’ will also be made available to help identify promising locations for new cycleways, complementing local knowledge.

There was also interesting inclusion of the right to bid for small amounts of money to support the implementation of e-scooter trials where they complement schemes with walking and cycling.

Do you need help in putting your bid together?

As with tranche one, DfT will require the completion, as before, of an online bid proforma, allowing the Department to assess the strategic, financial, management and commercial case for investment.

Where it is not possible to provide this assessment and S.151 officer confirmation as part of an authority’s bid by Friday 7 August, these may be provided separately and no later than Friday 11 September

During tranche one of WSP successfully worked collaboratively with local authorities across the UK to help them to swiftly access and then successfully implement schemes.

This is in addition to helping the DFT to update their Active Modes Appraisal Toolkit (AMAT) user guidance for the ETAF in May, and their Local Transport Note on Cycling Infrastructure.

So we would be delighted to support your tranche 2 bid, and we can quickly mobilise a team so support you in the coming weeks. Please do get in touch if you think we can be of assistance.