Climate leadership, improving social opportunity and preventing ill health. Those are the sorts of change we thought the Government was promising and elected upon. Yet in this week’s budget, they seem to have got lost in the wash.

Rail fares up above inflation, bus fares surging while fuel duty frozen for the thirteenth year. Certainly unlucky for some. 

But what about walking, wheeling and cycling? Well £100m was announced, less than half in real terms of what was being spent annually before the cuts we're challenging. And don’t forget previous spending was only half of what the government’s own evidence, hidden away until we reached court, said was needed to meet its targets. That’s why we need certainty in funding.

Respected bodies like the Institute for Fiscal Studies say the real cuts will come from 2026. The Department for Transport has already taken the biggest hit on investment of any government ministry and it’s set to get worse. Meanwhile the Office for Budget Responsibility says the mounting costs of declining health and climate breakdown are set to tip borrowing over the edge. Isn’t it obvious by now that cutting investment in safe crossings, pedestrian zones and world class cycle routes is a false economy?

The good news is that in the week since we went public about our appeal, we’ve raised thousands more in donations! We’re ever so grateful that so many people care. But we still need to raise another £5,500 (to get to the £50,000 target) by 12 November to proceed with this historic case. 

Please can you donate if you haven’t already, and also share this with your friends, family and colleagues. We’ll all benefit from safer roads, lively high streets and less pressure on the NHS.

Thank you ever so much,

Chris, Nisha and all at TAN

Shortly before this summer’s general election, we learned that we’d lost our case. 

The hearing had revealed (as covered in that day’s The Guardian) that transport ministers had not actually planned to cut cycling and walking. But a last minute intervention by the Treasury forced their hand.

Sincere apologies for not updating you earlier but we were waiting to see what the new government would do. The future certainly looked bright over the summer with new ministers promising “unprecedented funding” for walking and cycling. But this autumn dark clouds have appeared on the horizon, with the Treasury threatening the Department for Transport with some of the worst cuts of any government body. 

A ray of sunshine has appeared however as the Court of Appeal has now agreed to hear our case! This would be the highest judicial consideration of walking and cycling in English history. The Court has paused the case until 12 November to enable us to try to raise the money so that we can proceed. To give us confidence to continue we need to raise a minimum of £12,000 by the 12 November (£50,000 total). In total we need to raise £30,000 more (£70,000 total) but we would have more time to do this. 

Why is this appeal so important and worth supporting? It turns on a simple yet crucial issue. When Parliament passed the Infrastructure Act 2015, it said ministers had to set out medium-term “financial resources” for walking and cycling, in order to provide certainty and stability. Before then there was simply piecemeal ad hoc funding.

By contrast the judge this summer (full judgment here) said he thought the most “natural reading” of the law, was that it only meant money "intended to be made available"; rather than "which must be made available as a minimum". This totally undermines Parliament’s clear intent to reduce the leeway ministers have of changing funding on a whim. Thankfully, Lord Justice Lewison ruled TAN had a ‘real prospect of success’ in overturning this interpretation.

Besides the legal merits, having this challenge as the Government carries out a multi-year spending review in spring 2025 would be incredibly good timing. It would raise the profile of walking and cycling funding at this crucial moment. Cycling and walking are essential to all the new government’s missions for growth, health, safe streets, climate and opportunity. Please help us take on the Treasury by donating to our appeal and sharing this widely with friends, colleagues and family.

Many thanks,

Chris, Nisha and all at TAN

We are busy preparing for our court hearing on Tuesday (30 April). The timing could not be more critical, coming less than 48 hours before local and mayoral elections. After the hearing we’ll be able to share a lot more information with you about the games the Government has been playing.

We now need your help to share the news and if you are in London on Tuesday, come along to the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand, from 1 - 1:30pm to show your support - we’ll be taking a photo around 1:15pm. If you can, please be dressed in normal clothes. And if you can’t make it along, please look out for the hashtag #FundHeathlyTravel on social media (and like and share).

Please also share this crowdfunder as we urgently need to raise £3,700 to cover our legal fees. As a tiny NGO, every penny counts.

Many thanks and hope to see some of you on Tuesday!

Chris, Nisha and all at TAN

At the weekend (is it too frightened to release this stuff during the week?) the Government published a whole series of new guidance about bus lanes, 20mph speed limits, camera enforcement and more. It was supposedly part of the plan for drivers, but the publicity around it was deliberately aimed at stoking culture wars.

Yet the Government’s insane position was exposed by more evidence published this week showing a continued lack of progress on decarbonisation. Even more worrying is that transport is responsible for most of the projected shortfalls. Reports, both here and in Europe, have called for a halt to roadbuilding and the need to get people out of their cars and onto other forms of transport. Yet the Government continues to make driving easier, while defunding walking, cycling and public transport. Not only is it reducing choice, but it is actively driving up emissions and making things worse. That’s why our challenge remains so important. We need to try and stop this madness.

The good news is that this week we met with the lawyers to start to flesh out our arguments that we’ll make in court on 30^th April. However, we still need to raise another £8,500 in the next 5 weeks to cover our legal costs. So please help where you can and continue to share the crowdfunder.

Help us make the Government see sense!

Many thanks for your support,

Chris, Nisha and all at TAN

It’s now a year since the cuts to active travel funding were made and when the Government said it would look for extra funding “soon”. Meanwhile in the Budget, ministers have kept the 5p fuel duty reduction and unleashed billions for extra road building. This has been paid for by the cuts we’re challenging and by cuts to public transport. And cycling isn’t even listed as an example of what the money redistributed from HS2 can be spent on. Doesn't the sheer madness of this make you angry?

But the good news is that we have a date (30th April) to take the government to court. Unfortunately we haven't raised all our legal costs yet and desperately need to raise another £10,000 in the next seven weeks. Please help where you can and continue to share the crowdfunder. 

Many thanks for your support,

Chris, Nisha and all at TAN

PS - we’ve made the Guardian again, commenting on how the fuel duty freeze will steal money from sustainable alternatives 

Good news! After much waiting, our case challenging active travel funding cuts finally made it to the High Court on 26th October. Mr Justice Jay, listened to our and the DfT’s barristers, before ruling that our case was “potentially important” and should proceed on all three grounds of challenge. This is a significant hurdle, as many cases are stopped at this stage, or limited in what can be argued at a full hearing.

Sadly on the same day, ministers flippantly dismissed the Climate Change Committee’s call to reinstate funding for walking and cycling. With the Government going into reverse gear on climate commitments, and with its ‘Plan for drivers’, our litigation has become ever more important. 

Indeed it was only due to your funding that we were able to start this case in the first place. We now have to prepare for a full hearing in early 2024. As our claim is focused on active travel laws that haven’t been considered by the courts before, as well as testing climate and air quality targets, the judge acknowledged it was complex. The DfT will also have to disclose the information that was before the Minister when he took the decision. This means that we will need to do a lot of preparation and urgently need to raise another £20,000 for this work and towards our legal costs. 

Please share this update with friends, family and colleagues, as well as on social media.

We’ll be in court on Thursday, 26th October for our permission hearing to determine whether we will be allowed to bring a judicial review of the Government’s decision to cut funding for active travel earlier in the year.

The Government claims it's still committed to active travel, but couldn't even come up with a single example in a £36bn list of transport projects that Rishi Sunak recently announced, on the back of cancelling HS2 north of Birmingham. This was a few days after Mark Harper had launched the ‘Plan for Drivers’, which will further undermine walking, wheeling and cycling. 

This will make it harder to reduce air and noise pollution and to reduce carbon emissions quickly enough. That’s why challenging these funding cuts is more important than ever.