Purpose

Integration of the 2026-2028 Integrated Settlement (IS) Active Travel Funding (£14,580,000) into the approved Active Travel Programme Business Case, enabling allocation of funding to Local Authorities and WMCA core programme functions.
 

Decision

1. The allocation of Active Travel Integrated Settlement Tranche 1 funding for 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 of £14.58m, as set out in Appendix A of the report was approved.
2. The immediate release of £3.61m of Active Travel Integrated Settlement Tranche 1 funding for 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 was approved, comprising of:

i.            Local authority scheme development awards of £1.69m

ii.            Revenue-ised capital for WMCA programme delivery of £0.86m, subject to approval of a compliant active travel resource plan as per Appendix D of the report.

iii.            Design assurance consultancy support of £0.42m

iv.            Centralised programme monitoring and evaluation of £0.643m.

1. The conditional release of £10.97m of Active Travel Integrated Settlement Tranche 1 delivery funding for 2026/2027 and 2027/2028 was approved, and authority delegated to the Delivery Director for Sustainable Transport to enter into delivery funding agreements with local authorities for individual schemes, as defined in Appendix A of the report, where the scheme's business case has been independently reviewed by the Programme Assurance and Appraisal team and satisfies all of the following:

i.            A Business Case Assessment Tool (BCAT) score of at least 70%

ii.            A Benefit Cost Ratio of at least 1.5

iii.            A formal PAA appraisal recommendation to approve

iv.            No unresolved conditions or red rated risks at the point of award

1. The release of up to £2.916m, being up to 20% of the Active Travel Integrated Settlement Tranche 2 allocation for 2028/2029 and 2029/2030, capped both per scheme and across the total Tranche 2 funding allocation was approved.
2. Authority was delegated to the Delivery Director for Sustainable Transport to approve scheme allocations and enter into development funding agreements with local authorities up to £2.916m, following completion of the call for schemes and the established internal bid assessment and prioritisation process.

Approval was granted subject to conditions noted within the report.

This decision was taken under the delegation provided at WMCA Board on 17 October 2025.