Government and local councils in England are failing to take value-for-money steps proven to cut traffic and carbon emissions - despite the advice of the Government's own expert advisor, a new report from Friends of the Earth and Sustrans shows today.
The research comes on the same day as the Government publishes new statistics showing that over the last year traffic has barely fallen and congestion has not improved, despite soaring fuel prices and recession causing many motorists to cut journeys.
The two charities say that to reduce traffic and carbon emissions from transport, councils should urgently increase their spending on greener travel and the Government should help by putting a duty on them to produce low-carbon strategies.
The report, written by built environment consultancy Halcrow, shows that only a tiny fraction of the £6 billion allocated to councils for Local Transport Plans is being spent on sustainable travel. This is despite specific recommendations by the Committee on Climate Change for a phased roll-out in towns and cities across the UK of Smarter Travel Choices - schemes that promote greener travel, including walking and cycling, public transport and car sharing.
Richard Dyer, Friends of the Earth's transport campaigner, said: "Despite rising petrol prices and ongoing congestion problems, local councils are failing to deliver schemes proven to get more people out of cars and onto cleaner and healthier forms of transport.
"The Government must heed the advice of its own green adviser and ensure every local council plays its part by boosting their spending on schemes to get people walking, cycling and using public transport.
"Smarter Travel Choices are a win-win for councils and people - they are an easy and value-for-money way to cut congestion and emissions and protect people from rising petrol prices."
Jason Torrance, Sustrans Policy Manager, said: "A greater proportion of existing budgets needs to be spent on enabling people to make smarter travel choices if carbon reduction targets are to be met and people's quality of live is to be improved. Our experience is that there is a huge potential to transform the way that people are able to travel for their everyday journeys - all that is needed is the political leadership to spend existing budgets cost effectively.
"National government must ring-fence funding support within existing budgets to levels that brought about results in the Sustainable Travel Towns. And this must be followed up with evaluation of past LTPs to guide future cost-effective funding, something that is desperately lacking at the moment."
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