Woman cycling solo along segregated cycle lane by coast
Overview
Partner organisations from across Scotland – including local authorities and community-led organisations – joined us to hear about the essential Construction (Stages 5-7) deliverables, best practices and lessons learned from previous Construction projects, and to have a platform to ask questions and take part in discussions.
Simon Strain, Head of Programme (Grants) at Places for Everyone opened the session, acknowledging recent changes to the programme and how they are invaluable to creating impactful and successful active travel projects.
Introducing the deliverables and best practices
Marie-Claire Nyinawumuntu, Principal Engineer at Sustrans Scotland, kicked off the presentations, taking us through the essential deliverables, including hints and tips. She highlighted common deliverables to look out for including the Designer’s Risk Register, Permissions, Estimating and Procurement, and the Construction Phase Plan.
Michaela Jackson (Stirling Council) and Charlie Griffiths (Ironside Farrar) who were involved in Walk, Cycle, Live Stirling, described their experience of taking the project through the Construction stages.
Case Study: Penpont to Thornhill Safe Walking and Cycling Path
KPT Development Trust recently completed the Construction stages of this project, which will make it easier to walk, wheel and cycle between Penpont and Thornhill in Dumfries and Galloway. Caroline Buck provided us with an overview of the project and lessons learnt.
Case Study: Grampian Road / Dalfaber Drive Junction
Neil Young from The Highland Council spoke about the recently constructed project in Aviemore, highlighting what went well and key learning points to consider for the future.
Questions and Answers
Q: When it comes to the tendering process of contractors, is it better to select a contractor that has constructed active travel infrastructure before?
There are definitely pros and cons and a contractor’s experience is something that you need to be aware of. What we would say is that we’re moving into situation where we’re seeking to deliver more and more active travel infrastructure annually than we have previously, and we’re going to need every contractor that we can to be upskilled in delivering these projects. So we wouldn’t suggest ruling out a contractor with no active travel experience, and be supportive of new contractors coming forward to learn about active travel infrastructure.
Q: For Walk, Cycle, Live Stirling, was the reception from the community largely positive? You also have quite a lot of competition for space outside Stirling Railway Station. Did you work with disability groups and receive feedback from people?
Michaela: We engaged quite a lot with Stirling Access Panel and have had some feedback since the opening regarding how the station connects to the taxi ranks and potential lack of signage. It’s an interesting lesson that you can have a really good project but without something like signage being implemented, this can cause it to fall down. This demonstrates how small actions make a big project work well.
Charlie: Generally the project is quite well received and people are interacting fairly well with it. Looking at junctions, there are so many different views on how people will approach a junction, but we hope that in time, everyone will know how it works and be used to it.
Simon: PfE encourages partners who’ve completed a project and have any concerns or improvements you’d like to make, then we are more than happy to receive requests for additional funding for Stage 7 to make small additional changes. Whether it’s something to do with the light sequence signage, putting a new dropped curb that you hadn’t foreseen was going to be needed… We’re happy to look at that and try and improve projects wherever we can. We work very closely with our Research and Monitoring Units to do as much monitoring as we can on projects to capture these impacts.
Q: If all works were grant funded, how did Stirling Council satisfy in-houseprocurement rules?
Procurement legislation only applies when buying in external services, there is still a requirement on local authorities to demonstrate best value which is done by assessing the roads services rates against other commercial bids / contract estimate.
Transport Scotland (TS) recently wrote to project partners regarding the current financial climate and expectations for reporting on those receiving funding via Places for Everyone.
As such, all partners are now required to provide monthly financial updates via the project portal for all projects, due by the end of the 3rd week of each month.
You will need to provide the following information:
A forecast of total project expenditure for the next 3 months
Actual spend-to-date for the current financial year for the whole project
A forecast of the grant claims to be submitted each quarter
Having a clear, detailed and accurate picture of project positions allows the PfE team to make quicker decisions on use of that budget in year, reallocating budget as appropriate (to allow further grant awards and/or change requests to be progressed) and giving assurance to TS that the full budgeted award will be spent within the year.
Support
To support you with this, the PfE team has produced guidance which is now available on the Sustrans Scotland.
You can also catch up on this short webinar recording. We heard from Nico Jensen, Project Accountant at Sustrans, who introduced the guidance, provided more information on the process and answered questions from partners.
Q: In order to have an accurate number against the forecasts, what do you suggest for Local Authorities who experience delays with spend?
Each organisation has their own internal financial processes and we understand the timings may not be ideal for everyone. As we are mostly asking for forecasts, we suggest you provide your best estimation given the information you have available at that time.
Q: What day of the month do we need to submit the forecasts and the actuals to meet your reporting deadlines?
Partners will receive a reminder each month (on the 1st and 3rd weeks of the month) and the deadline for this will be the last day of the month, and this will be done one month in arrears.
So, for example, we are currently in July, and you would fill in the actual spend from April, May and June (Q1) and the forecasts for July, August and September (Q2), by the last day in July.
Q: While my forecast may have information for the three months, if we do not spend within the quarterly claim, does that have any impact and what are the consequences for any over or under spend?
We are working on extending the thresholds on the portal so that it picks up claims that were submitted maybe two weeks after the quarter ends. We’ll come back to you on once finalised.
Q: What is the impact or what is the monitoring process and the reason for the three month spend profile?
These are both monitoring tools and will be used to manage information and support our decision making. While we expect the three months spend to be aligned with the quarterly claims, they wouldn’t always be the same of course. And, the claims that you forecast won’t always match the actual claims that you submit.
The idea is for us to have an insight on when you think you’ll be submitting claims and a ballpark figure of what those claims are going to be, so that we know when we must make payments and when money is going to be out the door. If some projects are delayed or going to be claimed later in the year, that will allow us to fund other projects earlier in the year. There aren’t really any hard implications on this, it’s just a tool for us to have a better way to track project finances.
Q: Can we still complete quarter one spend, or is it blanked out at the moment?
At the moment, it is greyed out. It should include your claims that you submitted before the end of June. We are working with our development team so that it also includes any claims that were submitted a week or two after the June close, so that it aligns better with what your claims were.
Q: Is the forecast for the following month, or the project as a whole?
The spend forecast is three months in advance. For example, in July, you would forecast July, August and September. For the claims, we are asking for the whole year, but on a quarterly basis, not a monthly basis.
Q: Will the actual and projected spend include partnership funding as separate figures from Sustrans funding?
For spend, we ask you to submit anything that you are spending on the project, either from Sustrans or other funding you may have. We just need to have an indication of how the project is spending basically.
Q: When you say ‘Spend’, you mean invoices and internal costs that appear on ledgers etc. You’re not talking about level of effort, earned value type things. You’re just talking about actual invoices received – is that fair?
Yes, that is correct.
Q: Every month our cost consultant produces interim certificates for us. Is it good enough to show issue the interim certificate which basically shows the money that’s been passed on to the contractor. Is that the sort of evidence you’re looking for?
Yes, but at the same time, we are not asking for evidence here. We just need a flat number – the evidence will need to be submitted when you claim, as always. Here, we are just asking for your actual spend as a number, or the forecast of what you think you will spend. There is no need to submit any documentation to back up your spend. When you submit claims, you will be asked to provide the relevant information as always.
Q: If we’re claiming staff time, should these be included within the monthly and quarterly returns?
Yes. Anything that you would normally claim, please include on the spend.
Q: How does it work in Q4 then? We might only get our valuations at the end of quarter, but Sustrans usually have a cut-off point at some point towards the end of Q4.
Please submit your expectations for what you will claim in Q4 (normally will be the remainder of your award). When claims are submitted, they will override anything that you submitted in your forecast. As we approach the end of the year, new quarters will appear for the first few quarters of the new year, and you can input your expectations to claim there. If you think you’ll need to move funds, put those in the following quarters, but still do submit your change control as usual, as that is the formal process for you to change your award.
Q: With the spend profile, what do we if there is an underspend? Do we pass it on to the next quarter, or does it go into minus?
We ask you to realign anything within that financial year. If you underspend, please input the actuals of your spend, and move the spend forward if you think you’ll use it in another month.
Q: I learn by doing. Will I have the opportunity to play about with the spend and claim profiles in draft form in the portal?
We are working on this on a phased period, and don’t expect everyone to pick it up straight away. The idea is to start using it, try it out, see how it goes, and direct any questions or feedback to your Grant Advisor in the first instance.
Q: Given that we haven’t yet received our Sustrans funding award letters, are you expecting us to submit these profiles as of July?
Please check with your Grant Advisor. In some cases, some projects have funds that remain from last year and what you’re expecting is approval to move it onto this year. In those cases, please do start submitting your expectations on claim and spend. But if it is a new award that you requested, please wait until that’s approved.
We looked at the key changes with the previous 2014 guidance, and it was put into the context of Transport Scotland’s Cycling Framework, which highlights the need for Active Travel Strategies in setting out partners’ approaches to enable active travel.
Stuart Logan from Transport Scotland kicked off the session setting the scene with National Policy Content. We then heard from Matt Davis from Sustrans who gave us an overview of the guidance document and highlighted key changes.
Following this, other members of the Steering Group who oversaw the development of the document, joined us for a panel discussion and Q&A, including:
Anna Gale, Public Health Scotland
Rona Gibb, Paths for All
Gail MacFarlane, SCOTS and West Dunbartonshire Council
Session recording
An Introduction to Active Travel Strategy Guidance
Questions & Answers
Q: I would like to know more about what the challenges/developments are for rural Active Travel Strategies or rural linking into and out of urban areas.
Each local authority should look at the key challenges in their area and work with the stakeholders in their area to develop their strategy.
There are lots of discussions going on just now about about 20-Minute Neighbourhoods and the links between rural and urban communities, and it’s all part of a wider package that we must be thinking about about how we connect these. There are also discussions about how 20-Minute Neighbourhoods might work within a rural setting and an urban setting, and these are very different things.
Q: Were interventions like Road User Charging considered as part of this work?
This is a broader transport intervention that would be covered in local transport strategy, and authorities will need to have a local transport strategy before they can implement things like this.
This guidance aims to support colleagues deliver active travel strategies. Road user charging is more around a ministerial/governmental policy. There wouldn’t be a huge impact of road charging on active travel initially because if it’s brought in, it would be trialed on major trunk roads, which are not the kind of roads we’d be looking to implement active travel interventions.
Q: Is there a call in the guidance to work regionally towards certain outcomes, and if not, is this something that is recommended?
There is an opportunity to work regionally here. Be it logos on signage for example. Discussions around cross-boundary and inter-regional work would certainly make it a more comprehensive system for public use. It comes with difficulties just now in terms of how the structure of funding and other things come in.
TS has increased funding available to Regional Transport Partners and RTPs should be looking at that regional overview. Cross-boundary is becoming more of a focus as TS look to increase funding.
Q: Is there an issue with the long term maintenance of active travel infrastructure that is being created?
As we know, every local authority budget is stretched. Road Asset Management Plans set out key priorities for the year ahead and how funding, revenue and capital are allocated. As we develop the strategy that shapes where that money is allocated, we are now looking at how we maintain active travel infrastructure. It’s challenging because people tend to report potholes rather than damage to a cycle lane. Our inspection regime needs to reflect that; ensuring checks are in place and feeding into the prioritisation of spend.
This online session introduced the Network Planning Tool, which predicts the relative demand for cycling on the majority of streets and paths across Scotland.
The tool will provide a national and objective evidence base, which Places for Everyone partners will be encouraged to use, to help identify and prioritise infrastructure proposals in their Active Travel Strategy. Ahead of the completion of the tool, scheduled for the end of 2023, a prototype was released to partners in April.
This session covered:
why the tool is being developed
how it works
how the prototype compares to the complete tool
how it is envisaged the tool will be used by Sustrans and partners.
Session recordings
In the first recording below, we hear from:
Simon Strain, Head of Programme (Grants) at Places for Everyone;
Matt Davis, Principal Mobility Planner at Sustrans Scotland; and
Robin Lovelace, Associate Professor of Transport Data Science at the University of Leeds, and one of the developers of the tool.
In this second recording, we hear from Russell Pepper, a Sustrans Senior Project Officer embedded in Dundee City Council. Russell talks about his experiences of using the tool alongside the Council’s Cycling Strategy.
Questions and answers
Q: Can the tool accept data from Local Authorities and other partners to make it more accurate at a local level?
Great question. No, the tool only takes input datasets that are available for all of Scotland currently. We may in future versions allow locally specific input datasets but that is not in the near-term roadmap. You will be able to download datasets to compare with locally specific datasets such as new housing developments, planned interventions, however. Which local input datasets were you thinking of Vikki?
Q: Will the Network Planning Tool be integrated into any of the Regional Transport Models?
We do not control regional transport models so this is not within our gift. However, we are open to conversations about sharing NPT outputs to feed in, or using outputs from other models to feed into the NPT although we will prioritise national and open input datasets.
Q: How can we ensure that rural areas that don’t necessarily have as much demand as cities, can still get funding for these important corridors?
The addition of other trip purposes (e.g. school) will help with that. The Phase 2 option of adding public transport integration and showing the cycling components of longer mutli-modal journeys will help in the longer term.
Q: How effective is the tool in less urban areas? (, Argyll and Bute Council)
This early prototype version of the tool is less effective in rural areas as it’s based on commute data, which accounts for a disproportionately low share of cycling trips in rural areas. This will be addressed as we add more trip purposes in future versions. School and other everyday journey purposes will be included in the release of the tool at the end of 2023. In the future there is the possibility to include leisure/recreational journeys as well as the cycling component of longer multi-modal journeys, which will further increase the effectiveness in rural areas.
Q: How will tool take account of increase of e-bikes? As distance and especially hills become less relevant to e-bike riders.
We will include an E-bike scenario and E-bike specific routing options.
Q: How does the tool deal with identifying origins and destinations in rural areas where most data zones are quite large?
The tool uses a Jittering method to disaggregate flows in large data zones. Currently we’re using Output Areas for subpoints but we can use other subpoints for origins and destinations. Any suggested datasets for origins and destinations in rural areas? See here for an overview of the Jittering approach used: https://findingspress.org/article/33873-jittering-a-computat…
In future versions we will use smaller zones as the basis of the commuting origin-destination data and we have commissioned this data from NRS. This will be completed for inclusion in the release at the end of 2023.
Q: The test version of the NPT doesn’t appear to show any cycle data in many rural areas and islands. I understand some locations may not show potential for many cyclists but nothing is shown for Cycle Friendliness or Gradient either, can this be shown for all roads/routes irrespective of use forecasts?
As per the ‘effectiveness of the tool in rural areas question’, the current lack of cycle data in many rural areas and islands is expected to be addressed by inclusion of additional trip purposes into the tool.
In terms of not showing cycle friendliness or gradient where there are no forecast trips, there are several practical reasons why this is done. Firstly the cycle friendliness and gradient are generated at the routing stage. So, any road with no cycle demand in our model has no data to visualise. To infill these missing roads, we would have to create additional routes to fill in the gaps. This would require an enormous amount of additional routing, and it would undermine our goal of updating the tool on a monthly basis. Secondly, by only showing data for roads that have some cycle demand we significantly reduce the volume of data that is stored on the server and sent to the user’s device. Including data for every road in Scotland would increase the data requirements by about an order of magnitude. This would significantly reduce the performance of the tool and increase the cost of web hosting.
However, some of the missing roads will be added as we add different journey purposes. Experience from England, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland show that the non-commute purposes produce very different networks. So, it is likely that this will also be true in Scotland.
One thing to note is that when viewing the cycle friendliness or gradient maps the choice of network type matters. For example, a busy road with no cycling demand under the “quietest” type will not show a gradient of cycle friendliness even if the data is available. You can check for this by switching between the different network types. This is an aesthetic choice we made to make the network confident with the number of cyclists view. But we would welcome your feedback.
Q: Will cycle tourism data be a filter options in later versions?
Including recreational cycling as a journey purpose is under consideration for development during 2024 .
Q: Can you export maps and GIS file formats from the online platform?
Not currently, but we plan to add this functionality when we publish v0.2, which will include travel to school potential in a combined network.
Q: Is the ‘number of cyclist’ filter ‘per day’?
Yes, this corresponds to the number of cyclists on a typical day. We will shift to AADT (annualised daily traffic) estimates for the final version.
Q: What data/information is used to determine cycle friendliness i.e. hostile or quiet, how up to date is this?
Q: Rural recreational cycling is also an economic growth opportunity. Will this be considered more going forwards?
Yes, there’s potential to include this in phase 2.
Q: How can you ensure that the Go Dutch model is accurate if the data used is 12 years old? Can you provide a link to the methodology for this model, please?
The current prototype does use 2011 census commuting data. This will produce networks which emphasise arterial routes to major employment centres. The current distribution of residential and major employment sites is likely to have many similarities to that in 2011, so we expect the results to be broadly applicable to the current picture. We are also updating the commuting layer prior to the end of 2023 to take account of recent population growth estimates. However, once the 2022 Census journey to work results are released, we plan to update this layer.
In addition, prior to the end of 2023 release we will also include travel to school and other everyday trips which will have different source data and baselines. For example the travel to school data was collected in September 2022, so the baseline for the Go Dutch Travel to School layer will be more recent.
This information will also be included in the Network Planning Tool manual prior to release at the end of 2023.
Q: How is the baseline data calculated and how often is the website kept up to date?
The current prototype baseline data is from the 2011 census for journey to work. We plan to update with the 2022 census data when this becomes available. The website is currently kept up to date on a monthly basis.
Q: What is the network based on? I looked up Inverness. It did not show remote paths / routes for example locks are used to cross the canal. This means that a busy active travel route is not showing up on the tool.
The current prototype only includes commuter flows so routes that are heavily used by other trip purposes (such as shopping, recreation, school travel) will not show up. We will be adding more trip purposed before the full launch at the end of the year. Also by default the tool shows the fastest routes, these may be on very busy roads that in reality cyclists avoid. We do this to highlight places that cyclists may wish to cycle, but can’t due to a lack of suitable infrastructure. Finally our routes are calculated by cyclestreets which is in turn based on the OpenStreetMap (OSM). It is possible that an error in the OSM (e.g. a missing path link) is preventing routing in this area. So we suggest checking planning a cycle route on the cyclestreets website, in the immediate area where this issue occurs. This should identify if cyclestreets is picking up the path(s) in question, as part of cycle route planning. If an error is identified it is possible to edit paths in OSM, which may fix this problem.
Q: Are there any plans to link this tool with existing cycle counter data?
Cycle count data will be one of the data sources used to validate the tool’s outputs prior to release at the end of 2023.
Q: Is there more info on how cycle friendliness is calculated, that can be put on the system in the help section?
Q: Are there any plans to develop a layer to map existing cycle use-age / counts to assist in validating the tool? Strava heat maps are only partial data but can be an eye opener on what is actually being used
We are not currently planning to add visualisations of cycle count data into the tool. Cycling Scotland have an open data platform that displays Scotland-wide cycle count data. However, we are planning to use this cycle counter data to validate the tool’s outputs prior to release at the end of 2023. Strava data has a bias towards leisure & recreation journeys so we are not currently planning to use this in validation. However predictions of leisure & recreational journeys are being considered as a function to add to the tool during 2024. If so Strava data will be one data source that is likely to be used to build this function.
In the second edition of the series Active Travel in Europe, we explored low traffic neighbourhoods, also known as superblocks, across Europe with practitioners from five different cities – Barcelona, Utrecht, Vienna, Berlin, and Edinburgh.
The fantastic selection of keynote speakers brought different perspectives and experiences in this year’s theme. Ragnhild Sørensen, Head of Communication at Changing Cities, discussed how they are creating superblocks (kiezblocks) from a bottom-up view in Berlin. Florian Lorenz and Georg Wieser of Studio LAUT presented their work on the first pilot superblock (supergrätzl) in Vienna, and the ongoing pan-European r+d project TuneOurBlock – which examines how to expand the superblock concept as a policy and strategy tool. Hans Karssenberg, partner at STIPO, gave a presentation about their work in creating a low traffic neighbourhood from scratch – in a new residential district of Utrecht.
Sílvia Casorrán Martos, Deputy Chief Architect at Barcelona City Council, discussed how superblocks (superilles) form a critical component of the city’s Urban Mobility plan. Patrick Kappert, board member of the Collective Superblock Poblenou neighbours organisation, joined us in our closing panel session to shed light on community organising through the development of Barcelona’s first superblock in Poblenou. Bringing the series back to Scotland, Miles Wilkinson, Senior Project Manager at City of Edinburgh Council, shared his experience of delivering Leith Connections, reducing traffic and improving walkability in Leith.
Finally, we closed this second edition of Active Travel in Europe with a panel session to address recurring themes such as community engagement and participation, political challenges, and placemaking.
You can revisit last year’s discussions by checking out the 2022 Active Travel in Europe event page.
Event Recap and Recordings
Recordings from presentations are available below and slides are posted where available. In addition, a resource pack is available that includes a number of articles, videos, and tools that speakers mentioned within their presentations. It is a non-exhaustive list and serves to provide additional reading.
‘Challenges in transforming public space and mobility in Barcelona’ was presented by Sílvia Casorrán Martos, Deputy Chief Architect at Barcelona City Council.
‘Leith Connections: navigating design and engagement in Edinburgh’ was presented by Miles Wilkinson of City of Edinburgh Council.
Panel Session
Speakers from the series were invited back for a closing panel session to be in conversation with each other and address recurring themes throughout the series. The panel session includes an additional speaker, Patrick Kappert of Collectiu Superilla Poblenou, a community group in Barcelona that was critical in the implementation of Barcelona’s first superblock.
Watch the recording below as we discussed engagement and participation, political challenges, and placemaking.
Event video: Catch up on the highlights of the day
Welcome to our event! On this page you’ll find all the information about the agenda, speakers, and resources. Simply click on the headings below or scroll through to see the relevant section.
Collect your badge and enjoy breakfast bites, teas, and coffees.
🎤 10:00 – 11:00 – Welcome and keynote
Room: Proclaim
Why does creating for and with young people matter? Karen McGregor, Director of Sustrans Scotland, opens the day with welcoming remarks. Afterwards, hear from colleagues in Orkney Islands Council discuss the creation of the intergenerational Papdale Park.
Presented by: Garry Burton (Orkney Islands Council), Michael Harvey (Sustrans embedded officer at Orkney Islands Council), and Liz Leech (HarrisonStevens)
☕ 11:00 – 11:15 – Coffee Break
💡 11:15 – 12:35 – Spotlight Sessions
In this morning block, you’ll have the opportunity to attend two case studies. The sticker on your badge lets you know which room to go to first. There is a 10 minute comfort break in between sessions.
Connecting Woodside – Garscube Road Room: Proclaim 🚲Bike Group – 11:15-11:50 👟Walking Group – 12:00-12:35
Connecting Woodside is an ambitious area-based project forming a key component of Glasgow’s proposed city-wide cycle network. Glasgow City Council have recently completed Phase 1 of the project, a 1km bi-directional, segregated cycle route on the A81, Garscube Road. The Council, through a number of community engagement events and focus groups undertaken with disability groups, developed a fully inclusive design that prioritised those walking and cycling.
Presented by: Aidan O’Meara, Assistant Group Manager, Glasgow City Council and Malcolm Hall, Engineering Officer, Glasgow City Council
Engagement Techniques in Kilbarchan Pocket Place Room: Aspire 👟Walking Group – 11:15-11:50 🚲Bike Group – 12:00-12:35
Activate your senses and let a charming pig on a scooter bring a smile to your day. Join us to hear about how between June 2019 and June 2020, we co-designed and trialled changes to the street outside a school in Renfrewshire. The project aimed to encourage walking and wheeling through the creation of a safer and more pleasant urban environment.
Presented by: Christina Eley, Delivery Coordinator, Education and Young People
Apply this morning’s learnings and take a deep dive into the Designing with Children and Young People toolkit. You will stay in the same groups as this morning (check your sticker).
How to apply child-friendly design in School Streets
Room: Proclaim 🚲Bike Group -13:20 – 14:35 👟Walking Group – 14:45 – 16:00
Let’s put the 12 dimensions of child-friendly design into action! Facilitated by the Sustrans design team, this workshop invites participants to think like a designer and consider the needs of a school street from a child’s perspective. Using the dimensions of child-friendly design from the toolkit, you will apply these to a real-life scenario.
Presented by: Paul Ruffles, Principal Urban Designer, Sustrans and Leti Valle, Urban Designer, Sustrans
Codesigning places with Children and Young People: Why, How and When?
The goal for this session is for you to gain a sense of what good engagement in place-based projects looks like from the perspective of children and young people. We will work with you to reflect upon:
Why engagement with children and young people is important;
Why different ages and settings require different approaches;
What ‘good’ looks like in your own and others practice, and how to measure success;
How to align the Places for Everyone toolkit with the process and outcomes of engagement; and
Fears and prejudices towards meaningful engagement of children and young people, and strategies to overcome them.
Presented by: A Place in Childhood; Dr. Jamie Hamilton and Dr. Jenny Wood
Protected junctions introduced as part of the South City Way Places for Everyone project in Glasgow.
Overview
Partner organisations from around Scotland – including local authorities and community groups – joined us to hear from speakers in our Design & Assurance teams.
They looked at the Design deliverables, shared best practices and lessons learned from previous projects. The webinar also provided a platform for partners to ask questions and take part in discussions.
Opening the session, Chiquita Elvin, Head of Programme for Places for Everyone (Services), explained that with the recent changes to the programme, these events aim to support applications and make projects more successful and impactful.
Introducing the Design deliverables, best practices and lessons learnt
Kieran Ward, Construction (CDM) Manager, kicked off the presentation with a brief overview of the RIBA stages. Darren McHattie, Capital and Technical Advisor, spoke about areas of project documentation that commonly fall short – programmes, risk registers, costings and permissions – based on experience from previous projects.
And Paul Ruffles, Principal Urban Designer, offered simple hints and tips when it comes to drawings, EqIAs and communication. The session concluded with an overview of CDM duties.
Colleagues from partner organisations around Scotland – including local authorities and community groups – were invited to attend the session online, to help get their projects off to the best possible start.
The event included insights from senior colleagues from Sustrans’ Places for Everyone and Engineering & Assurance teams, and from two local authority partners who have recently completed exemplary Concept stages for Places for Everyone funded projects. Attendees also had the opportunity to take part in Q&A sessions with the speakers.
Setting the scene
Chiquita Elvin, Head of Delivery for Places for Everyone (Services), opened the session. She explained recent changes to the application process and funding requirements, and how these will make projects – and the programme as a whole – more successful and impactful.
Stage groupings, deliverables, and lessons learnt
Andrew MacFarlane, Sustrans’ Capital and Technical Advisor, explained the stages of a Places for Everyone project, and the requirements for projects in the earlier stages of development. He also offered advice on areas where project documentation commonly falls short, based on experiences from previous projects.
At a recent funding panel, Falkirk Council were awarded Design (Stages 3-4) funding for their project, which will provide a high quality active travel connection between three settlements. Lynn Slavin, Transport Planning Officer at the Council, described their experience of taking the project through the Concept stages.
City of Edinburgh Council have recently completed the Concept stage of their Western Villages Active Travel Route project, which will make it easier to walk, wheel, and cycle around the Granton Waterfront development. Cameron Baillie, the project lead from the Council, provided an overview of the project, including what went well, and the challenges encountered.
Neil Hanna Photography
www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk
07702 246823
Neil Hanna Photography
www.neilhannaphotography.co.uk
07702 246823
The Spaces for People programme evaluation is split across three primary documents: an evaluation report, an equalities study and a lessons learned document.
Spaces for People Programme Evaluation Report
The Evaluation Report provides key insights into the data that was used to evaluate the impact of the programme.
This includes results from public perception surveys, counts of users at project locations, vehicle speed data, video interaction footage, and spatial analyses.
This data was combined and used to assess the extent to which the programme achieved its outcomes.
The Equalities Report aimed to better understand how the programme impacted different demographic groups. This report draws on attitudinal surveys and other data from across Scotland to better understand the impact of Spaces for People interventions with regard to the following categories: Disability, Age, Gender, Deprivation.
The Lessons Learned report provides an opportunity to learn from the rollout of temporary active travel infrastructure on a large scale in Scotland. These lessons are relevant for both Sustrans and partners delivering active travel infrastructure.
Easy read versions are available for each of the reports. British Sign Language versions are also available upon request.
Final submissions for Places for Everyone Concept (Stages 0-2) applications are due by the end of August 23rd 2022.
Ahead of this, an information session was delivered to community-led organisations, which had received a successful Expression of Interest outcome. A small cohort of the Places for Everyone team provided an overview of the Application Guidance and supplementary guidance for community-led organisations and outlined the next steps in the process.
Key questions answered
Are letters from stakeholders (for example, support letters) required? They aren’t required; however, they will support your application as evidence.
How detailed should the estimated costs be, and do you have advice on what approach to take when calculating these figures? We don’t expect accurate figures, so provide your best guess at this stage.
Is there guidance on existing project costs to refer to? Sustrans have not created guidance for this because it can vary significantly. It is a good idea to use the resources you have, and you can search online for comparable projects. The important part is evidencing why you have come to that conclusion. Transport Scotland has some guidance on their website on to arrive at estimation costs.
Do you have a list of consultants and contacts that have been involved in similar work? We are unable to provide a list of consultants or to provide recommendations taking in to account it is public funding.
Is it possible to arrange an appointment with a Grant Advisor before submitting the full application? We can arrange individual appointments for those who would find this beneficial and have received a successful Expression of Interest outcome. To arrange this, please email PlacesForEveryone@sustrans.org.uk with suggestions of dates/times that are convenient for you.
Is it okay to have an overlap in the delivery team e.g., Community Engagement Lead and Communications Lead to be the same person?An overlap in the delivery team is acceptable.
Is an email sufficient evidence of support from local authorities? Yes, if it is clear and it has a signature with their name, job title and organisation.
Full slides from the session can be downloaded below:
