The Government’s 1998 white paper ‘A New Deal for Transport: Better for everyone’ highlighted a change in national transport policy. It aimed to reduce dependence on the private car and promote other, more sustainable, modes of travel such as public transport, walking and cycling. Local authorities are expected to reflect this approach in their annual Local Transport Plan submissions. Walking, the second most significant mode (after car travel), has been identified as making an important contribution to these aims. Encouraging an increase in levels of walking activity is consistent with the development of integration, social inclusion and sustainability in transport and other areas of social activity.

As a mode of transport, walking is available to almost everyone. It is healthy, non-polluting, versatile and reliable, encourages local movement and hence supports local community facilities. Walking enhances a greater sense of community. A shift away from private car use to walking, including improving accessibility for the mobility impaired, has a key role to play in using the existing road network more efficiently and delivering significant potential economic and environmental benefits to society, alongside tangible health and lifestyle benefits for individuals.

In 2000 the Government published ‘Encouraging Walking: advice to local authorities’. This is a national strategy for walking in all but name. As the Unitary Authority with responsibilities for highways, planning, education and a number of other key activities, Bath & North East Somerset District Council (B&NES) has a major part to play in setting the local framework for encouraging walking activity. A local walking strategy, detailing objectives, targets, policy mechanisms and an action plan for increasing levels of walking activity, related to local conditions but consistent with Government guidance, is therefore essential.

Walking affects virtually everybody. If walking is to be made a more convenient and attractive mode of transport, some difficult decisions about council spending and even about our own personal transport choices have to be taken. For this we need the support of the people of B&NES. We consulted a wide range of people and organisations in order to develop and refine our draft Walking Strategy, to form the basis of future council policy.

The format used in the B&NES Cycling Strategy document has been adapted as the basis for this document. This is not intended to equate walking with cycling. Although both are sustainable and practical transport modes in need of support and encouragement, the facilities they need are usually significantly different.

Each element of the strategy has been written to reflect the local culture and the needs of people walking in B&NES, as well as the potential for further development. Continuous evaluation of the strategy will be achieved through annual progress reviews of various indicators, alongside key targets to be achieved at five and ten years.

The Walking Strategy is designed to support the Council’s Visions and Values statements. It recognises pedestrians as one of the high priority groups within the traffic management hierarchy and seeks to promote safe and efficient use of the highway whilst benefiting the local economy and tourist potential. At the same time, it should contribute to national efforts to reduce the growth in motor traffic.

The Strategy aims to deliver a significant increase in the current level of walking within a decade, whilst achieving the overall goals of Safety, Security, Accessibility and Sustainability.

The main emphasis in this Strategy is on Walking as a means of transport, in both urban and rural parts of the authority. Walking is of course one of the UK’s most popular leisure activities, and it is often hard to know how to draw a distinction between walking for ‘transport’ and walking for ‘leisure’. Many ‘leisure’ routes, such as the Norton to Radstock and Bristol to Bath railway paths, as well as B&NES’s extensive rights of way network of public footpaths and bridleways, also form direct and convenient routes for travelling to work, school, shopping or for visiting friends or leisure facilities. These are all activities which should be classed as ‘transport’. We have therefore referred to the needs of leisure walking where appropriate. A fuller statement of the Council’s policies on walking for leisure can be found in the Rights of Way and Leisure policy documents.

To avoid confusion, throughout this document footway means the ‘pavement’ next to any road used for general traffic, while footpath means a route for walking which does not follow such a road. These are the legal terms used in Highways Acts.

Our use of the words rural and urban is not quite so precise. We have used rural to describe the area outside the main towns: Keynsham / Saltford, Norton / Radstock and Bath City. We recognise that this includes many villages and small towns where there is just as strong a need to make journeys on foot in safety and comfort, but where traffic conditions may be much more hostile and intimidating. It also includes many rural major and minor roads which can be narrow or lacking in safe or comfortable verges, and are subject to excessive vehicle speeds.