Since people have been talking about the dis/establishment and independence of new public bodies, a mini-thread of a few questions about Active Travel England (ATE) - the new commissioning body and inspectorate for cycling and walking. 1/

Firstly – what sort of body will it be? Transport already has Exec. Agencies (DVLA), NDPBs (Transport Focus) and other setups. Gear Change says it will perform a similar role to Ofsted, which is a non-ministerial Government Department so what's it going to be? 2/

Next, where will it be? 90% of central DfT staff are based in London (although the agencies are spread more widely). Could it be part of a new ‘DfT North’ hub that’s been announced? Would that mean relocating existing staff? https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/location-of-civil-service 3/

ATE will not only hold budgets but also assess bids compliance with standards, review planning apps. and inspect schemes. This requires specialist skills in highway design and town planning that the DfT may not have in enough of in-house. Recruitment campaign or consultants? 4/

It will also publish annual reports on highway authorities, grading them on their performance on active travel. @ibikebrighton and others had some really interesting insights on yesterdays #ideaswithbeers based on previous attempts to do this in 2003/4 - 5/

Will ATE try and generate these reports from existing data sources, get authorities to self-assess and audit or try and develop new data? Accurate cycling data can get very patchy in some LAs and local walking data is pretty poor 6/

Some other thoughts on ATE by @TfNhomes https://www.transportfornewhomes.org.uk/if-active-travel-england-is-set-up-right-it-could-increase-walking-and-cycling-for-residents-of-new-homes/ @sustrans https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/news/2020/july/big-step-forward-sustrans-reaction-to-government-s-walking-and-cycling-announcement/ and @utg_uk https://urbantransportgroupblog.org/2020/08/10/gear-change-is-it-finally-time-to-get-excited-by-the-governments-vision-for-cycling/ /Ends