Campaign group Cycling UK says that transport project promoters will be motivated to think more deeply about their rationale if in-house teams are required to prepare a “case for change” at the outset of all projects.
The group was commenting on changes to the Welsh Transport Appraisal Guidance (WelTAG) which may prove to be a pathfinder for changes to appraisal guidance elsewhere. The Welsh Government is overhauling WelTAG so that the guidance better reflects its commitments on climate change and in other policy areas.
Updating LTT on the WelTAG revision, a government spokesman said last week: “We are currently reviewing the responses to the WelTAG consultation and will be updating the guidance to take account of the comments. We will publish the consultation responses shortly, together with the final version of the main guidance.”
One of the changes in WelTAG 2022 is the addition of a new “Stage 0 case for change”. The government said: “This sets out the objectives of the programme or project [and] should not be specific to any transport mode. It should be developed by the in-house team and not consultants.”
Many Cycling UK members and volunteers provided input for the group’s WelTAG consultation response, which was coordinated by campaigns officer Cherry Allan. In the response, she wrote that Cycling UK warmly welcomed the introduction of Stage 0, because it would require a clear statement of the case for change at the outset.
“We also generally support the idea that the Stage 0 ‘case for change’ should be produced exclusively […]
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