Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 September 2012
511. Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport the objectives of the sport active travel towns funding scheme; the grounds on which an application for funding under the scheme by an organisation (details supplied) was turned down; the scheme's objectives that were not met by this application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40516/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraActive Travel Towns is a Smarter Travel Programme designed to secure modal shift to walking and cycling in towns by engaging with the local community, allied with infrastructural change.
The rationale underpinning the development of an Active Travel Towns programme was that in order to continue on a trajectory towards securing our national cycle policy target of 10% of all trips to be made by bike by 2020, securing increased bicycle (and walking) mode share requires a focus to be placed on population and employment centres, i.e. delivery of increased cycling and walking mode share in urban areas.
There was considerable interest in the programme and significantly more proposals were submitted than funding was available. An assessment panel considered all the applications submitted and selected those applications which best met these objectives i.e. that can deliver modal shift to walking and cycling within their town through the delivery of infrastructure and measures to promote behavioural change.
The proposal submitted by Ballina Town Council was considered worthwhile in its support for active travel, leisure cycling and tourism. The assessment panel considered that while the proposal contained links from existing infrastructure to the town centre it lacked sufficient focus on urban modal shift and focused instead to a great degree on leisure cycling. It therefore did not fully meet with the objectives of the Active Travel Towns programme and was not ranked high enough for inclusion in the final selection.
