Getting the Nation Walking, Wheeling and Cycling

Chair: Cara Jenkinson; Aide: Cllr Callum Robertson; Hall Aide: Chloe Hutchinson

Motion as passed by conference

Submitted by: 14 members 
Mover: Olly Glover MP (Spokesperson for Transport) 
Summation: To be announced

Conference notes that:

1. That enabling more people to walk, wheel and cycle short journeys eases congestion, improves local air quality and helps tackle the public health crisis driven by physical inactivity.
2. Research by Active Travel England indicating that 5.3 million more people being regularly physically active could reduce annual sick days by 4.4 million, free up 1.7 million GP appointments, help millions of households save around £1,700 yearly, prevent 2,500 premature deaths and boost the economy by £115 billion.
3. That active travel improves public health by integrating exercise into everyday routines, preventing serious conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
4. That active travel lowers stress, boosts mental well-being, reduces road congestion, and cuts emissions to clean up local air quality.
5. That the 2025 Walking and Cycling Index, produced by the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, estimates that everyday active travel prevents almost 156,000 serious long-term health conditions across the UK each year – from hip fractures to dementia and depression – saving the NHS around £1.94 billion annually.
6. That transport remains one of the largest sources of UK greenhouse gas emissions, and giving people easy, lowcarbon options for local journeys is essential to meeting the UK’s climate commitments.
7. That the potential for walking, wheeling, and cycling to assist in reducing congestion is illustrated by the fact that 59 per cent of car and van journeys are made for distances of five miles or under, according to the 2024/25 National Travel Survey.
8. 83% of school trips of between two and under five miles are made by children aged 5–10 years old were by car according to the 2024/25 National Travel Survey.
9. 22 per cent of parents whose children did not currently walk to school said safer roads would encourage their children to walk more, according to DfT National Survey 2024.
10. That the Department for Transport estimates that for every £1 invested in active travel, the government achieves around £4.30 in benefits.
11. That despite these structural savings, active travel funding remains volatile, piecemeal and repeatedly exposed to central government budget cuts.
12. Calls from 18 public health, environmental, and walking/ wheeling/cycling organisations for 10 per cent of the transport budget to be dedicated to walking, cycling, and wheeling investment.
13. According to Transport For All, only 20 per cent of disabled people feel they can easily access public spaces, walk, or wheel around their local areas. 77 per cent experience poor pavement surfaces, 65 per cent pavement clutter and 57 per cent pavement parking which forces them to go into the road or turn home.

Conference believes that:

1. Walking, wheeling and cycling should be safe and attractive choices for short everyday journeys.
2. Safe and continuous active travel networks are particularly important for young people and those who cannot access cars, while the proliferation of e-bikes is making longer active travel journeys feasible for more people.
3. Investment in active travel is not merely transport policy but a preventive intervention for public health, local economies and the environment.
4. Too many new housing developments still leave residents with little practical alternative to the car for everyday journeys, and better design from the outset can change that.
5. Children should be able to develop independence and confidence through walking, wheeling and cycling, and the design of local streets should enable children to travel safely and independently, including to school, where appropriate.
6. Active travel infrastructure must be designed to be accessible from the onset, not retrofitted as an afterthought.
7. A strategy for walking, wheeling and cycling that does not work for disabled people is not a national strategy, but a partial one.

Conference calls for:

1. The ring-fencing of 5 per cent of the Department for Transport’s annual budget for active travel infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling, with a trajectory to achieve the increase from current spending percentages to 10 per cent to be developed when finances allow.
2. A national ‘Greenways’ program to create traffic-free walking, wheeling and cycling routes between villages and rural communities and nearby cities, towns, places of education and transport hubs, including by converting disused railways corridors which cannot be brought back into use, towpaths and other redundant infrastructure.
3. A programme to deliver continuous, physically segregated cycle routes where traffic speed or volume makes cycling alongside motorised vehicles unsafe, with priority given to routes used by young people to reach schools, colleges, towns and city centres and public transport hubs.
4. A reform of the National Planning Policy Framework to require continuous, high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure in all new housing developments from the outset.
5. A requirement that new developments connect to existing active travel networks and public transport hubs, as well as town and city centres where appropriate, so that residents always have genuine, convenient options for short trips.
6. Encouragement and funding to be made available for Mayoral Development Corporations to deliver active travel networks within, and pedestrianisation of, key cultural and commercial areas in cities, such as Soho or around Covent Garden, if desired.
7. Encouragement and funding for the wider rollout of ‘School Streets’ and ‘Cycle Streets’, designing streets that feel safe for active travel to schools, and for people walking and wheeling while keeping traffic flowing smoothly at low speeds, while ensuring consultation with children, parents, carers and schools, and with appropriate consideration given to accessibility and the needs of disabled children and parents.’
8. Calls for further government support for the Bikeability scheme, with specific focus on the environment in which children live, enabling them to confidently travel by bike whether they live in the city or the country.
9. Accessible design standards for all new walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure including but not limited to dropped kerbs, tactile paving, adequate paving width and regular rest points with benches.
10. A requirement that disabled people’s organisations be formally consulted on the design of all active travel schemes receiving central government funding.

Applicability: England

Motion prior to amendment

Submitted by: 14 members 
Mover: Olly Glover MP (Spokesperson for Transport) 
Summation: To be announced

Conference notes that:

1. That enabling more people to walk, wheel and cycle short journeys eases congestion, improves local air quality and helps tackle the public health crisis driven by physical inactivity.
2. Research by Active Travel England indicating that 5.3 million more people being regularly physically active could reduce annual sick days by 4.4 million, free up 1.7 million GP appointments, help millions of households save around £1,700 yearly, prevent 2,500 premature deaths and boost the economy by £115 billion.
3. That active travel improves public health by integrating exercise into everyday routines, preventing serious conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
4. That active travel lowers stress, boosts mental well-being, reduces road congestion, and cuts emissions to clean up local air quality.
5. That the 2025 Walking and Cycling Index, produced by the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, estimates that everyday active travel prevents almost 156,000 serious long-term health conditions across the UK each year – from hip fractures to dementia and depression – saving the NHS around £1.94 billion annually.
6. That transport remains one of the largest sources of UK greenhouse gas emissions, and giving people easy, lowcarbon options for local journeys is essential to meeting the UK’s climate commitments.
7. That the potential for walking, wheeling, and cycling to assist in reducing congestion is illustrated by the fact that 59 per cent of car and van journeys are made for distances of five miles or under, according to the 2024/25 National Travel Survey.
8. That the Department for Transport estimates that for every £1 invested in active travel, the government achieves around £4.30 in benefits.
9. That despite these structural savings, active travel funding remains volatile, piecemeal and repeatedly exposed to central government budget cuts.
10. Calls from 18 public health, environmental, and walking/ wheeling/cycling organisations for 10 per cent of the transport budget to be dedicated to walking, cycling, and wheeling investment.

Conference believes that:

1. Walking, wheeling and cycling should be safe and attractive choices for short everyday journeys.
2. Investment in active travel is not merely transport policy but a preventive intervention for public health, local economies and the environment.
3. Too many new housing developments still leave residents with little practical alternative to the car for everyday journeys, and better design from the outset can change that.

Conference calls for:

1. The ring-fencing of 5 per cent of the Department for Transport’s annual budget for active travel infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling, with a trajectory to achieve the increase from current spending percentages to 10 per cent to be developed when finances allow.
2. A national ‘Rails to Trails’ programme to convert disused railway corridors, towpaths and redundant infrastructure into high-quality, interconnected routes for walking, wheeling and cycling.
3. A reform of the National Planning Policy Framework to require continuous, high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure in all new housing developments from the outset.
4. A requirement that new developments connect to existing active travel networks and public transport hubs, as well as town and city centres where appropriate, so that residents always have genuine, convenient options for short trips.
5. Encouragement and funding to be made available for Mayoral Development Corporations to deliver active travel networks within, and pedestrianisation of, key cultural and commercial areas in cities, such as Soho or around Covent Garden, if desired.
6. Encouragement and funding for the wider rollout of ‘School Streets’ and ‘Cycle Streets’, designing streets that feel safe for active travel to schools, and for people walking and wheeling while keeping traffic flowing smoothly at low speeds.

Applicability: England

Amendment One

PASSED

Submitted by: Lib Dem Women
Mover: Donna Harris
Summation: Cllr Hina Bokhari AM

After line 32 insert new viii) and ix): 

1. 83% of school trips of between two and under five miles are made by children aged 5–10 years old were by car according to the 2024/25 National Travel Survey.
2. 22 per cent of parents whose children did not currently walk to school said safer roads would encourage their children to walk more, according to DfT National Survey 2024.

After line 52 insert new d): 

1. Children should be able to develop independence and confidence through walking, wheeling and cycling, and the design of local streets should enable children to travel safely and independently, including to school, where appropriate.

At end of line 81,insert: ’…,while ensuring consultation with children, parents, carers and schools, and with appropriate consideration given to accessibility and the needs of disabled children and parents.’

After 6., insert new 7.:

1. Calls for further government support for the Bikeability scheme, with specific focus on the environment in which children live, enabling them to confidently travel by bike whether they live in the city or the country.

Amendment Two

PASSED

Submitted by: LDDA
Mover: Katharine Macy
Summation: To be announced

After line 42, insert new xi): 

1. According to Transport For All, only 20 per cent of disabled people feel they can easily access public spaces, walk, or wheel around their local areas. 77 per cent experience poor pavement surfaces, 65 per cent pavement clutter and 57 per cent pavement parking which forces them to go into the road or turn home.

After line 52, insert new d) and e): 

1. Active travel infrastructure must be designed to be accessible from the onset, not retrofitted as an afterthought.
2. A strategy for walking, wheeling and cycling that does not work for disabled people is not a national strategy, but a partial one.

After line 81, insert new 7. and 8.: 

1. Accessible design standards for all new walking, wheeling and cycling infrastructure including but not limited to dropped kerbs, tactile paving, adequate paving width and regular rest points with benches.
2. A requirement that disabled people’s organisations be formally consulted on the design of all active travel schemes receiving central government funding.

Amendment Three

PASSED

Submitted by: Young Liberals
Mover: Cllr Rory Clark
Summation: Louis Cummings

After line 45 insert new b): 

1. Safe and continuous active travel networks are particularly important for young people and those who cannot access cars, while the proliferation of e-bikes is making longer active travel journeys feasible for more people.

Delete lines 59 to 62 and insert: 

1. A national ‘Greenways’ program to create traffic-free walking, wheeling and cycling routes between villages and rural communities and nearby cities, towns, places of education and transport hubs, including by converting disused railways corridors which cannot be brought back into use, towpaths and other redundant infrastructure.

After line 62 insert new 3.: 

1. A programme to deliver continuous, physically segregated cycle routes where traffic speed or volume makes cycling alongside motorised vehicles unsafe, with priority given to routes used by young people to reach schools, colleges, towns and city centres and public transport hubs.