Active Travel England - Boardman

Stevek76
Posts: 2085
Joined: 28 Jul 2015, 11:23am

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by Stevek76 »

Technically arup design rather than do the actual building (though they may manage/supervise), most of the engineering firms have been doing AT stuff to some degree and the larger ones generally have a small team or two of genuinely good (from an AT perspective) highway engineers and plenty more of dinosaurs working on the far greater workload of dross demanded by national highways :?

Appointments like these I tend to consider to mostly be corporate hobnobbing. Seems to be typical for global/national leads to spend most of their time messing about on appointments like this in the hope of getting a competitive advantage on work, even though that seems like it wouldn't be entirely in line with competition law...
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
basingstoke123
Posts: 202
Joined: 13 Feb 2008, 10:05pm

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by basingstoke123 »

ratherbeintobago wrote: 14 Oct 2022, 8:42am The other thing here is that the current government isn’t likely to be in power for long?
It wasn't!
ChrisButch
Posts: 1188
Joined: 24 Feb 2009, 12:10pm

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by ChrisButch »

I see that Jesse Norman is now back as a DfT minister and has the Active Travel brief. I seem to remember he was well thought of by CUK etc when he was last at the DfT a few years ago, so to that extent encouraging.
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by mjr »

Jdsk wrote: 22 Oct 2022, 11:01am
awavey wrote: 22 Oct 2022, 10:58am they seem to have appointed Chris Whitty among others to some advisory panel https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir- ... sory-panel
Excellent. Thanks for posting.

There are many problems where a public health approach offers the best way out of what seems insoluble. Recreational drugs is probably the most well-known. This might well be another...
Maybe, but the almost-total failure of NHS England to implement their own public health advice to support cycling (or even the legal minimum of following planning law about it) makes me wonder why it would succeed in general when it hasn't yet in the NHS.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
Vorpal
Moderator
Posts: 20700
Joined: 19 Jan 2009, 3:34pm
Location: Not there ;)

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by Vorpal »

mjr wrote: 3 Nov 2022, 2:14pm
Jdsk wrote: 22 Oct 2022, 11:01am
awavey wrote: 22 Oct 2022, 10:58am they seem to have appointed Chris Whitty among others to some advisory panel https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir- ... sory-panel
Excellent. Thanks for posting.

There are many problems where a public health approach offers the best way out of what seems insoluble. Recreational drugs is probably the most well-known. This might well be another...
Maybe, but the almost-total failure of NHS England to implement their own public health advice to support cycling (or even the legal minimum of following planning law about it) makes me wonder why it would succeed in general when it hasn't yet in the NHS.
The NHS needs to be provided with the means and expertise (i.e. active travel & planning advisors on staff at local trusts) in order to do that. They never have been, and yet some areas have tried without being given resources to do so.

15 years ago, my local trust (I think they were called Mid Essex NHS Trust at that time) made some improvements; they put good cycle parking outside of new & improved facilities. A new facility had good cycle access designed in. They added cycle paths at one facility and improved cycle access at a couple of others. Some local surgeries recruited volunteers to do health rides & walks (at least one of which is still going).

Since then, though, they have been persistently underfunded, and like other trusts, rationing is increasing, waiting lists are getting longer, and staff feel overworked and underpaid.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by mjr »

Vorpal wrote: 4 Nov 2022, 9:26am
mjr wrote: 3 Nov 2022, 2:14pm
Jdsk wrote: 22 Oct 2022, 11:01am
Excellent. Thanks for posting.

There are many problems where a public health approach offers the best way out of what seems insoluble. Recreational drugs is probably the most well-known. This might well be another...
Maybe, but the almost-total failure of NHS England to implement their own public health advice to support cycling (or even the legal minimum of following planning law about it) makes me wonder why it would succeed in general when it hasn't yet in the NHS.
The NHS needs to be provided with the means and expertise (i.e. active travel & planning advisors on staff at local trusts) in order to do that. They never have been, and yet some areas have tried without being given resources to do so.
Some of it needs that. The basics like complying with planning law should be handled by the architects and so on that they already hire in, but managers would rather do less than the minimum and argue the toss at planning hearings and whine when there's a delay getting their new building approved, then finally do the minimum, mess up the implementing and not get close to NHS policy or NICE recommendations, but it's OK because no one enforces them.

It needs the policies enforced, or some other way to make the project leaders actually do it. You can provide all the resources you like, but if it is optional, most car -brained managers won't do it and it'll remain a postcode lottery, with nothing better than substandard, as the internal market races to the bottom.

Until the NHS figures out how to put its own house in order, what can they teach ATE?
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
Jdsk
Posts: 24628
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by Jdsk »

mjr wrote: 4 Nov 2022, 10:26am
Vorpal wrote: 4 Nov 2022, 9:26am
mjr wrote: 3 Nov 2022, 2:14pm

Maybe, but the almost-total failure of NHS England to implement their own public health advice to support cycling (or even the legal minimum of following planning law about it) makes me wonder why it would succeed in general when it hasn't yet in the NHS.
The NHS needs to be provided with the means and expertise (i.e. active travel & planning advisors on staff at local trusts) in order to do that. They never have been, and yet some areas have tried without being given resources to do so.
Some of it needs that. The basics like complying with planning law should be handled by the architects and so on that they already hire in, but managers would rather do less than the minimum and argue the toss at planning hearings and whine when there's a delay getting their new building approved, then finally do the minimum, mess up the implementing and not get close to NHS policy or NICE recommendations, but it's OK because no one enforces them.

It needs the policies enforced, or some other way to make the project leaders actually do it. You can provide all the resources you like, but if it is optional, most car -brained managers won't do it and it'll remain a postcode lottery, with nothing better than substandard, as the internal market races to the bottom.

Until the NHS figures out how to put its own house in order, what can they teach ATE?
My comment was about a public health approach not the NHS or NHS England. The enormous health benefits from cycling and walking should be a major part of the debate in publicity, in planning and in evaluation.

Of course for cycling this in the context of something that is widely perceived to be dangerous. This isn't surprising because the harms are often sudden and dramatic whereas many of the benefits are subtle and long-term. (One of my criticisms of the Panorama programme was the imbalanced presentation of this.)

Jonathan

PS: Since the abolition of Public Health England and the creation of the UK Health Security Agency it's hard to work out who is responsible for many aspects of public health.
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by mjr »

Jdsk wrote: 4 Nov 2022, 10:32am My comment was about a public health approach not the NHS or NHS England. The enormous health benefits from cycling and walking should be a major part of the debate in publicity, in planning and in evaluation.
Yes, and my question is basically: if the public health approach led by those people hasn't even convinced the NHS, why should anyone expect it will work on people not as interested in health?
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
Vorpal
Moderator
Posts: 20700
Joined: 19 Jan 2009, 3:34pm
Location: Not there ;)

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by Vorpal »

mjr wrote: 4 Nov 2022, 10:26am
It needs the policies enforced, or some other way to make the project leaders actually do it. You can provide all the resources you like, but if it is optional, most car -brained managers won't do it and it'll remain a postcode lottery, with nothing better than substandard, as the internal market races to the bottom.
That is a nearly universal problem in the UK, not just the NHS. This is a systemic problem, and cannot be resolved within the the NHS.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Jdsk
Posts: 24628
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Active Travel England

Post by Jdsk »

"£32.9 million to create national network of active travel experts":
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/329- ... el-experts

Jonathan
Jdsk
Posts: 24628
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Active Travel

Post by Jdsk »

Jdsk
Posts: 24628
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Active Travel England

Post by Jdsk »

"Cycling UK writes to MPs to call for reversal of “devastating” cycle funding cut"
https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/cycling- ... unding-cut

Form to support writing to your own MP:
https://action.cyclinguk.org/page/12425 ... 1675166268

Jonathan
Vorpal
Moderator
Posts: 20700
Joined: 19 Jan 2009, 3:34pm
Location: Not there ;)

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by Vorpal »

That's okay. They've got Shell on board.

https://road.cc/content/news/shell-uk-c ... and-300167

[/sarcasm]
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
User avatar
mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
Contact:

Re: Active Travel England - Boardman

Post by mjr »

Vorpal wrote: 28 Mar 2023, 12:10pm That's okay. They've got Shell on board.

https://road.cc/content/news/shell-uk-c ... and-300167

[/sarcasm]
Don't ask Boardman about it or he'll block you. Lovely guy who does some good work but with similar stuff having happened with his bike business and British Cycling, he seems to be fine with lending a hand to greenwashers.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
MikeF
Posts: 4339
Joined: 11 Nov 2012, 9:24am
Location: On the borders of the four South East Counties

Re: Active Travel England

Post by MikeF »

Jdsk wrote: 6 Jan 2023, 6:46pm "£32.9 million to create national network of active travel experts":
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/329- ... el-experts

Jonathan
More millions wasted in the pretence of doing something. Note that £32 million isn't being used for actually implementing anything.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
Post Reply