Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether overwhelming public opposition expressed through a consultation exercise is considered sufficient grounds for a local authority to decide not to progress with a scheme developed under the Emergency Active Travel Fund.

The Department has consistently made clear that local authorities should seek the views of a representative sample of the local population as a whole on their proposals and provided guidance on how best to do this, including via polling and public opinion surveys, which can help provide a more accurate understanding of public views than a traditional consultation exercise. Local authorities do not need to show that schemes are universally popular at the time of introduction, but should be prepared to make changes if there is strong evidence that their original proposals are unsuitable. The views of the local Member of Parliament should also be taken into account.

We have revised our Network Management Duty guidance to state that measures should be "taken as swiftly as possible, but not at the expense of consulting local communities" and that "local residents and businesses should... be given an opportunity to comment on proposed changes" to schemes. Please note these requirements also apply as much to the removal or modification of existing schemes as to the installation of new ones.