Yes, it’s the moment no one has been waiting for, the 2023 Paper Plate Awards!!! What is such a thing you ask? Well, it is an award on a… paper plate! We had hoped for so much more- gold cups, fireworks… but after £300 million or so was lopped off the Active Travel England budget by a government minister (can’t remember who- they change so often) it is the best we can afford. 

So, with no further ado: 

Most dismal social media channel: Stiff competition, but in the end it had to be Nextdoor. Our reaction is 🤷‍♀️

Political high point: having a council constituted of more people who ‘get’ active travel than ever before. 

Political low point: disingenuous visitors to our great city. All together now, bye bye 👋

The Esther McVey award for road sign pointing out the blindingly obvious: Alway highly contested but the Highways Team swept in at the last moment with this beauty. A scale model can be purchased from the Walk Ride Bath online shop.

Policy high point locally: Adoption of Vision Zero 

Policy high point nationally: Delivery of the ULEZ expansion. It is a crucial public health measure and we will look back with incredulity in the same way as we do with indoor smoking in public places. We may also wonder why Bath adopted lesser standards (the ULEZ being essentially a CAZ ‘D’) 

Policy low point: withdrawal of ‘Traffic Management Act 2004: network management to support active travel’. We now have a diametrically opposed position on active travel between national and local government. Pity those in-between trying to make sense of what they are being asked to do.

Best event: Kidikal Mass. Reminding us that above all, active travel is supposed to be FUN!

Best active travel graphic sponsored by Immodium: WECA. Strangely, they didn’t do a campaign asking car drivers to turn their headlights on. Weird 🤔

Best active travel scheme delivered: Roll out of Tier ebikes. Shaky start but they are already changing Bath for the better. 

Best active travel scheme delivered- runner up: Bike hangers. Absolutely critical to enabling cycling, notably in the city centre. Great example of ‘build it and they come’. 

Best active travel scheme proposed: Keynsham by-pass redesign. This would totally change the dynamic of active travel on the A4 corridor and rectify the utterly bizarre situation we have where the ‘X’ in X39 means skipping Keynsham. A bus so ‘express’ residents can’t get on and off at present! 

Most promising proposed Liveable Neighbourhood: Circus Area. The peace will be deafening for the first month. 

Best officer: Unfortunately, like people who secretly refuse Knight/Damehoods, the officers are far too modest to accept awards, and anyway, a paper plate may be seen as bribery, particularly if it has a slice of cake on it. So we just offer our thanks to all who work hard on schemes to improve where we live. But no cake.

Outstanding brevity in responding to a Freedom of Information Request: The Pipe Bridge demolition diversion: “There is no Equality Impact Assessment held for this.” 

Winner in the school street catagory (sponsor still being sought): Unfortunately, we are all losers in this one. We haven’t got a single school street and can only look in envy at Bristol where they continue to be rolled out

National leadership in reducing road violence: DCS Andy Cox for relentlessly challenging the narrative on ‘accidents’ and the use of ‘exceptional hardship’ claims

Local leadership in reducing road violence: Joanna Wright for keeping road death and injury on the agenda and playing a key role in the adoption of Vision Zero by BANES

Roger Bannister Award for not going the extra mile: Last mile logistics – when are you scheduled to arrive? 

Captain Hindsight award: Bathampton Meadows. Some great proposals coming forward from National Trust for this area. “Pave paradise, put up a parking lot”. It nearly happened. 

Captain Groundhog award: Pavement parking. Of delivery vans, of escooters, of cars, of security barriers… pavements are for pedestrians, flower beds… nice things. Not private vehicles and electric vehicles charging points. 

And some predictions for 2024: 

•    Bath and ebikes are a happy marriage, and that will become very apparent in 2024. They are going to be everywhere, particularly long tail cargo varieties.

•    More consultations!!! 

•    Funding will be secured for Scholars Way 

• All residents of Bath will be given equal access to the Tier escooters and bike

•    Residents parking zones will continue to grow notably in North West Bath and Moorlands

•    Pavement parking will not be addressed by national government… 

•    …but we will see ‘on highway’ parking for Tier shared scooters and bikes. 

•    More bike hangers

•    We will finally see a school street (in Richmond?)- and then all schools will want them

•    We will have a London mayoral and a national election and issues around private cars, clean air zones, LTNs etc will not translate into votes. 

•  After a 4 year break, the RUH will start charging for staff parking again.

• There won’t be any ‘spades in the ground’. The best we will see is some ineffectual paint. All together “PAINT IS NOT INFRASTRUCTURE!”

•    Submissions of road danger recordings (from dash cams etc) to Avon and Somerset Police will continue to rocket and their actions based on these will rise proportionally. 

•    The use of the word ‘accident’ in reporting of road collisions will become unacceptable.

• The prospect of a work place parking levy will start to be openly discussed. But it won’t happen

• There will be no change to the contractural arrangements of buses (including the P&R)

Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2024 from all at WRB!