Bath and North East Somerset Council, like most councils, is a hodgepodge of different departments looking after their own fiefdoms. This can result in very narrow thinking when it comes to individual projects. It also makes it very difficult for councillors to direct policy. Councillors are usually not experts in street design. Neither should they be.

We need to give councillors the tools to ‘manage’ all the departments delivering schemes in the public realm. This is something that the Wales recognised when they created the Welsh Active Travel Guidance. Inside this guidance was the Cycle Route Audit tool. A tool Local Authorities can use to look at existing and upcoming schemes and evaluate them. A tool that enables councillors to tell their council officers that a scheme MUST hit a score of 35 out of 50. A tool that allows councillors to drive policy. A tool that will give us better officers building better public spaces.

The Cycle Route Audit Tool