Where have all the children gone?

Posted on National Trust Outdoor Nation blog on 21 March 2013



I’m not yet 40, but when I was growing up I fondly remember playing in the street with my neighbours, kicking a ball, running around, riding our bikes – even splashing in puddles. I’m not being nostalgic – everyday wasn’t summer, but we did have carefree play; we had a taste of freedom, independence and risk. We could leave the house from our front door straight into our own playground.


My children do not play on the street, even though we live in a quite cul-de-sac. As a parent I am scared.

What’s changed? Well the pictures below – the same street from a Valleys community in Wales half a century apart – tell a better story than any words can.

The first thing that strikes me is that there are no children in the modern pictures. Come to think of it how often do we see children playing in the street? Do you hear them laughing?

What’s changed? Cars, plenty of them, moving quickly. Our communities are no longer places where people, and children, come first - instead the car has become king. Speeding traffic now blights many of our residential communities, meaning parents feel the need to keep their children inside and occupied with television or computer games.

Childhood obesity is costing the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds every year and our lack of physical activity increases the risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and some cancers.

Whereas once we used our local shops on an almost daily basis, we now load up at the supermarket, which is bad for our high streets and the local economy, including local farmers.

This change doesn’t have to be an inevitable part of modern life. Of course, we won’t go back to how things were in the 50s and 60s, but we can change our streets for the better to make them places where children can feel safe to play, to ride a bike and to meet their neighbours.

Already we are seeing more communities calling for 20mph limits across residential communities. A child hit by a car at 20mph has a 95% chance of surviving, but hit at 35mph and there is an over 50% chance they’ll die. This one change alone could make our streets safer for play once again.

However, these lower limits must be enforced by the police. Giving evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Enquiry to ‘Get Britain Cycling’, the Association of Chief Police Officers said they weren’t minded to enforce 20mph. Over the coming days they tried to clarify their position, but the worry for many communities is that the police aren’t on their side when it comes to speeding traffic. That will need to change.

We can also redesign our streets. Sustrans’ own DIY Streets programme is just one example of how communities come together to reallocate space in their area, adding greenery, benches and new road markings to show that the street is a place for people – and for play.
We must also make sure we have safe routes for walking and cycling linking local communities and linking people from where they live to the places they need to go: local shops, schools, jobs, leisure centres. Here Wales is leading the way, with the publication this year of the Active Travel Bill, which will place a legal duty on local authorities to provide a safe network of routes.

But across the UK as a whole too little is being done and our communities are poorer for it. We can change our streets for the better. If we don’t, we’ll never hear the sound of children playing on the street again.



Lee Waters is the National Director of Sustrans Cymru. He has two young children who he wishes could play outside more than they currently do. Previously he worked for ITV Wales as Chief Political Correspondent and prior to that as a BBC Producer.

Active Travel Bill

Posted on Click on Wales on 26th February 2013

If UK is in danger of becoming the ‘fat man of Europe’, as the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has claimed, then what does that make Wales? And what are we going to do about it?

With 36 per cent of children overweight or obese Wales has the highest rates of childhood obesity in the UK – and not far behind the US. And it is not just a matter of appearances. Carrying too much weight has a direct impact on our health: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and some types of cancer, are all consequences of the obesity epidemic. It is estimated that the NHS in Wales spends £1 million every week treating obesity related illness.

Tackling the fast food and fizzy drink culture is a key part of the effort to tackle this modern scourge, but so too is getting people moving. Physical inactivity and sedentary living are among the leading causes of chronic disease, ill health and death in Wales. In fact as many people die from physical inactivity each year as from smoking.

Last week, the Welsh Government introduced their ‘Active Travel’ Bill into the Senedd. It marked the first time legislation has been framed to place a legal duty on central and local government to encourage more people to walk and cycle.

The focus is on short everyday journeys. In 2011, over 20 per cent of the car journeys we made were under two miles, a distance that could easily be covered on foot or by bike. A survey by the road safety charity Brake (echoed by a similar Sustrans sponsored poll) found that 46 per cent of people would be persuaded to cycle on local roads if conditions are improved.

Too often at the moment the paths that are built don’t link up, are poorly designed and are not well maintained. We’ve all seen random pieces of coloured tarmac that stop all of a sudden, leaving cyclists marooned in traffic. No wonder research finds that people think cycling is eccentric and that only a minority would choose to brave such an experience.

A major study led by Lancaster University found that most people don’t regard cycling as something for them.  “It is regarded either as a toy for children or a vehicle fit for the poor and or strange,” said Dave Horton one of the research authors. “Many regard cycling as a bit embarrassing”.

This is hardly surprising really, given that just two per cent of journeys are by bike. Clearly it is not something that most people currently do. It is therefore, by definition, unusual.

But survey after survey has shown that it is something that many more people would consider doing. The Lancaster University research shows that habits, working patterns and current road conditions put people off getting on a bike. However, a package of measures to make cycling easier and more attractive has the potential to reverse the long term decline. The researchers suggested some of the things that can be done:

• Fully segregated cycle and pedestrian routes wherever feasible.
• Restrictions on traffic speeds and parking provision; a change in legal liabilities on roads to protect the most vulnerable road users.
• Changes to structure of cities to make accessing services on foot or by bike easy.
• Changes to give people more flexibility to travel more slowly (for example, flexi hours).

All these actions are realisable and taken together they could and a change the image of cycling and walking.

The Active Travel (Wales) Bill won’t tackle all of these, but it will make a start. When the Bill becomes law in October, councils will have to map out an ideal future network which plugs existing gaps, and extends routes to schools, workplaces and residential areas. Crucially it will be underpinned by a set of design standards that will ensure that new infrastructure conforms to best practice and doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

Local Authorities will also be expected to maintain and improve the networks. Naturally there are concerns from local government about the cost of these extra duties, especially since the Welsh Government stress there will be no additional funding. Around £14 million is being spent on safer cycling, and if all the Bill achieves is to spend that in a more joined up way then it will be worthwhile.  However, to really make a difference it needs to be backed with additional funding.

For the Active Travel Bill to reach its full potential, Wales needs to follow the lead of countries such as Holland and Denmark. They haven’t always been filled with cyclists. Thirty to forty years ago, the Dutch were like us – wedded to their cars. Their government made a conscious decision to invest in making walking and cycling the normal way to get around everyday. Now they spend around £19 per head on walking and cycling schemes. In Wales, if the same level of investment was made it would equate to £60 million a year – the cost of a couple of miles of new road.

Of course, the passing of this Bill will not see mini versions of Copenhagen popping up across the Welsh valleys. The barriers to getting more of us cycling are many and varied. However, it will address some systemic barriers which are preventing the growth of a cycling culture. The Welsh Government has set out an ambitious vision which will require considerable resources and political will to implement over a generation. The combined pressure of rising petrol prices, climate change and an obesity epidemic means it is a vision worth striving towards.

Parliaments, paradoxes and salvos

Posted on Click on Wales on August 10th 2012

When crafting the message of the Yes for Wales campaign ahead of the referendum we were at pains to agree a line that would allow all four parties to unite behind.

A Yes vote would allow decisions that only applied to Wales to be made in Wales.

But surely this is a slippery slope, came the inevitable question. No, we would reply, a Yes vote is supported by every Conservative AM and they wouldn't support anything which posed a threat to the Union.

We worked very hard to keep the debate focused on the question at hand, and not get into what might happen next. After all this was a question for each of the parties, and not for the cross-party campaign.

The Welsh Conservatives were officially neutral, and although their AMs were in favour of a Yes vote, there were many in the wider party (most notably in the Wales Office) who would not have been unhappy had Wales voted No. We were especially sensitive to this during the campaign and bent over backwards to ensure we didn't upset the Conservative sceptics - which was one of the reasons why our message was on occasion anodyne. The last thing we wanted was Conservative MPs adding fuel to the fire and giving credibility to the weak No campaign.

It is more than a little ironic therefore that since the referendum that calls for the Assembly to have revenue raising responsibilities and a Commission to look into further powers have come from the Conservatives. The tin hat has been put on this morning with a call from Andrew RT Davies for the Assembly to change its name to 'Parliament':

In this, the week of the National Eisteddfod, the most important Welsh cultural event in the calendar, I feel it is now time to have a Welsh parliament. Polling and the recent referendum show that the electorate want an institution as strong as a parliament, and in reality the national assembly is in all but name the Welsh parliament.

Personally, I have no quarrel with the point. But the irony of the Conservatives making the running on this, when placating them caused me such grief, does rankle a little. 

Add this latest salvo to Andrew RT Davies' conversion to the argument that the Welsh Conservatives should have a separate leader - something he dismissed during his own leadership campaign - and it all starts to make greater sense within the context of the internal party debate.

ARTD - as he was called by his Chief of Staff on Twitter this morning - does not disagree with the Treasury that devolved institutions should be more accountable for the money they spend, and it may temper their appetite for demanding more. But he does bristle at the tone with which the arguments are made from within the Wales Office. And he wants to asserts his own position having been outfoxed by central office loyalists who ignored his protestations against cancelling his first Welsh conference as leader. His first salvo was on ITV Wales last night:

“That conference would not have been cancelled if I was leader. I am categorical about that and I was very disappointed that it was cancelled".


This morning's call for a Welsh Parliament is the second salvo in a power struggle within the Conservative Party in Wales. The Wales Office's frosty reply that this is 'not a priority', was followed up on Twitter by the Welsh Secretary's PPS suggesting ARTD may not have the support of his own backbenchers. Glyn Davies tweeted: "Interesting call by Andrew RT Davies for Welsh Assembly to be re-named Welsh Parliament. All he needs to do is ask his AMs to use new name".

But as Andrew RT pointed out in his Face to Face interview last night, he is a 'bruiser and a fighter' with a coded message of his own:

"I don't think many people patronise me, just by being nineteen and a half stone really and having a very loud voice"

Wales leads the world with plans to make councils provide routes for ‘active travel’

Posted on Left Foot Forward on May 10th 2012

If local councils are expected to provide a network of roads for cars, why not a network of routes for people to walk and cycle?

That was the initial thought that sparked the campaign which yesterday saw the Welsh government announce plans to make Wales the first country in the world to place a legal duty on councils to provide a network of routes for ‘active travel’.

If local councils are expected to provide a network of roads for cars, why not a network of routes for people to walk and cycle?
That was the initial thought that sparked the campaign which yesterday saw the Welsh government announce plans to make Wales the first country in the world to place a legal duty on councils to provide a network of routes for ‘active travel’.

As the bill’s ‘active travel’ title suggests, the proposal is as much about health policy as it is about transport. The NHS in Wales spends £1m every week treating obesity-related illness.
As some of the country’s leading health experts said in an open letter to the newspapers this morning:

“Physical inactivity and sedentary living are among the leading causes of chronic disease, ill-health and death in Wales.

“Obesity amongst children and adults in Wales has increased to an extraordinarily high level and, as a consequence, we are beginning to experience an epidemic of type 2 diabetes and other conditions related to this weight gain and sedentary living. These conditions have an enormous personal and financial cost but they are largely preventable if people change their behaviour and take every opportunity they can to be physically active.”

To reverse the infamous entry into the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘For England, see Wales’.

There’s no doubting the potential is there. UK-wide statistics show more than half of all car journeys are less than five miles, and 20% are less than two miles, distances that could easily be covered on foot or by bike. With families struggling with the costs of running a car and prices at the petrol pumps set to rise even higher, how can we make ‘active travel’ a viable option for more people?
We need to approach the problem from the point of view of an unaccompanied 12-year-old child. What make them and their parents confident to cycle on their everyday journey?
The Lancaster University research points to some of the things that can be done:

• Fully segregated cycle and pedestrian routes wherever possible;
• Restrictions on traffic speeds and parking provision;
• A change in legal liabilities on roads to protect the most vulnerable road users;
• Changes to structure of cities to make accessing services on foot or by bike easy;
• Changes to give people more flexibility to travel more slowly (for example, flexi hours);
• A change the image of cycling and walking.

They are all doable.

The forthcoming Active Travel (Wales) Bill will not be a panacea. Its vision is an ambitious one which will require considerable resources and political will to implement over a generation. The combined pressure of rising petrol prices, climate change and an obesity epidemic means it is a vision worth striving towards across the UK.

Wales leading the way with world first

Published in the Western Mail on 10 May 2012

Wales is to become the first country in the world to require councils to provide routes for walking and cycling 

A stereotypical cyclist, Boris Johnson explained during the London mayoral campaign, is someone with whippet-thin brown legs or dreadlocks who charges around in Lycra, jumping lights.

Not the most seductive role model.

The sense that cycling is a fairly eccentric pursuit has been widespread, and confirmed by a major study last year which suggested that most people don’t regard cycling as something for them. “It is either a toy for children or a vehicle fit for the poor and or strange. For them cycling is a bit embarrassing” according to Dave Horton one of the research authors at Lancaster University.

Hardly surprising really given that just 2% of journeys are by bike. By definition it is not something that most people do. But survey after survey has shown that it is something that many more people would consider doing.

The Lancaster University research shows that habits, working patterns and current road conditions put people off getting on a bike, but a package of measures to make cycling easier and more attractive has the potential to reverse the long term decline. This was reinforced last week by a survey from the charity Brake which found that 46% of people would be persuaded to cycle on local roads if conditions were improved – echoing an earlier poll by Sustrans.

Does it matter? Well, the NHS in Wales spends £1m every week treating obesity related illness and as some of Wales’ leading health experts said in a letter to the Western Mail yesterday, “Physical inactivity and sedentary living are among the leading causes of chronic disease, ill-health and death in Wales. Obesity amongst children and adults in Wales has increased to an extraordinarily high level and, as a consequence, we are beginning to experience an epidemic of type 2 diabetes and other conditions related to this weight gain and sedentary living. These conditions have an enormous personal and financial cost but they are largely preventable if people change their behaviour and take every opportunity they can to be physically active”.

Yesterday’s publication of a white paper setting out the detail of the Welsh Government’s plans for an Active Travel (Wales) Bill, is therefore as much about health policy as it is about transport. In fact the World Health Organisation has shown that investment in getting more people walking and cycling not only saves our economy money from reduced congestion, but health benefits from better air quality and increased physical activity can bring a £9 return for every £1 invested.

But these are long term savings, and local authorities – who will be expected to create the networks of routes under the new initiative – are facing short-term financial pressures. So how is this affordable? Local Authorities and the Welsh Government already spend around £10 Million a year on creating cycle paths. Although this sounds a lot, in transport terms this is a very modest sum – it works out as the equivalent of building half a mile of road. Nonetheless it’s a tidy sum which needs to spent smarter if the Government is achieve their ambitious targets to get people out of their car and travelling actively.

At the moment too often paths are built that do not link up, are poorly designed and are not well maintained. We’ve all seen random pieces of coloured tarmac that stop leaving cyclists marooned in traffic. No wonder the research find people thinking cycling is eccentric – who would choose to do such a thing under current conditions? There’s no doubting that the potential is there.

More than half of all car journeys are less than five miles, and 20% are less than two miles, distances that could easily be covered on foot or by bike. With families struggling with the costs of running a car and prices at the petrol pumps set to rise even higher, how can we make ‘active travel’ a viable option for more people?.

We need to approach the problem from the point of view of an unaccompanied 12 year old child. What kind of provision would it take for them and their parents to be confident to cycle on their everyday journey?

The research led by Lancaster University points to some of the things that can be done: Fully segregated cycle and pedestrian routes wherever feasible; Restrictions on traffic speeds and parking provision; a change in legal liabilities on roads to protect the most vulnerable road users; changes to structure of cities to make accessing services on foot or by bike easy; changes to give people more flexibility to travel more slowly (for example, flexi hours etc; and a change the image of cycling and walking. They are all do-able.

The forthcoming Active Travel (Wales) will not be a panacea. Its vision is an ambitious one which will require considerable resources and political will to implement over a generation. The combined pressure of rising petrol prices, climate change and an obesity epidemic means it is a vision worth striving towards.

Lee Waters is National Director of the Sustainable Transport charity Sustrans Cymru

I usually prefer the other Mr Benn...

I'm no great fan of Tony Benn, but I was struck by a line of his quoted in Chris Mullin's diaries:

radical reform has three stages. First those in favour are virulently denounced. Then it all goes quiet as it gradually dawns on the denouncers that change is inevitable. Finally, a year or two from now, no one will even be able to recall that they ever held a different view

The challenges for Welsh Labour

Posted on Progress online on March 1st 2012

With the UK going though a period of flux who would bet against an independent Scotland in three years time? Of course, the prospect has countless permutations but for Labour’s there’s one that stands above others: without Scottish MPs, and with the significant cut in the number of Welsh MPs we’re now seeing, Labour could struggle to govern alone at Westminster again.

But as the party still strives to the performance of Labour is Wales will become even more important in showing our values, and our competence to rule.

As we’ve seen in recent weeks David Cameron will seize on any opportunity to shine a light on the party in Wales to score a point in Westminster. Labour in Wales therefore has a huge responsibility to our party across the UK to show the way. And to discharge that responsibility we’ve got to get serious.

If we are going to be in Government in Wales for the long-term – either in coalition or on our own – we need to take a good hard look at ourselves. What might have served us well enough for the last 20 years, will not do for the next 20. We need to look critically at our cultures and structures, and ask – is this the best we can do?

My first job after leaving University was as a speechwriter to the Secretary of State for Wales. It is of course a Chinese curse, ‘may you live in interesting times’. Well, it was an interesting time. And though it is the bit of my CV I sigh at, because of the sad way it all worked out, I am very proud to have worked for Ron Davies at that time because Labour changed Wales.

Though we have always had politics in Wales, for the first time we created ‘Welsh politics’. We should claim that achievement and celebrate it. It was a time of great promise and excitement. As is now.

I was very grateful to Carwyn Jones for the opportunity to play a role in last year’s referendum as the party’s representative on the cross-party ‘Yes for Wales’ campaign. I realize it marks me out as suspect, but I enjoy working across party divides.

In that campaign we assembled a talented group of individuals. And though it was just a couple of months before an election campaign, we all worked in common purpose. To me it demonstrated the potential there is to make Wales better when we work together.

Carwyn and Leighton Andrews showed great leadership in that campaign, as did others at a local level. But overall, as Vice-Chair of the cross-party campaign, I was conscious of the party’s unease at working with others.

Now, that’s not a new development – it was the same in 1997, in 1992 and even as far back as the 1950s during the first Parliament for Wales campaign. The attitude was summed up well by the Secretary of what was then the Welsh Council of Labour, Cliff Prothero. Refusing to take part in a cross party campaign he said in 1955 that “any kind of devolution required in Wales can be discussed within the confines of the Labour movement”. Labour should not look outwards to address the constitutional future of Wales, but only inwards - within the confines of the Labour movement. The die was cast. But although this tribal dominance may not be new, it is a problem now more than ever.

We designed and delivered devolution but we appeared reluctant to develop it. But with friends from across the political spectrum we did so and last year led the campaign that secured a Parliament for Wales. We have every right to claim credit for that.

We brought pluralism to Welsh politics. Some may actually regret it rather than celebrate. It isn’t going away so we have to deal with it?

There are those who lament conceding the principle of proportional representation for the Assembly back in 1996. I well remember an MP who sat on the Welsh Executive Committee saying to me when I was a Lobby Correspondent that the Welsh Executive only agreed to PR because Ron told them Tony Blair wanted it. But when years later he asked Blair about it he said he’d only agreed to it because Ron Davies had told him the Welsh Executive wanted it!

And that feeling of being hoodwinked persists. A bit like those in East Germany who look back to the days of the GDR with fondness, there are many who think that all will be well again if only we got rid of PR.

I put my head in my hands when the Welsh Executive announced it favoured a return to First Past the Post in Assembly elections. Not only was it bad politics – because it’s not going to happen – but it confirmed the prejudices people have about our party.

We think we are the natural party of Government in Wales and have allowed ourselves to be tricked into giving it away. But how does having 50% of the seats make us ‘in charge’? Not least when we got just 39% of the vote.

The Assembly’s voting system isn’t going away. We’ve got to get serious: Wales has changed. We changed it. Why don’t we get it?

During the debate in the 70s about devolution the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe warned of the risk of “the possibility of permanent one-party rule—a sort of Glamorgan County Council on stilts”. He was right. It is not healthy for any one party to push their weight around. The support for devolution was in part based on a reaction to the Thatcher years where ‘strong Government’ imposed its will. The Assembly was designed to be different.

Until we come to terms with the fact that the modern Wales we created is a multi party democracy, and though we are the largest party we are no longer the dominant party, we will be stuck in a timewarp.

We have to understand the new Wales we created if we are to be in tune with it, and have any hope of leading it in the future.

Looking outwards and embracing new ideas should be our natural habit. But old habits die hard. The party, both at a local and Welsh level, can feel too closed. Too resistant to change. Too defensive – resentful of challenge. That has to change.
I’m a school Governor and we are referred to as ‘critical friends’. I think that is a dynamic and constructive role that can help organizations improve. In my own organization I’ve set up an advisory board to do just that. But the Labour Party doesn’t feel as welcoming to ‘critical friends’.

When Carwyn announced Labour would govern as a minority Government he said this would be done without ‘triumphalism and with no trace of any political tribalism’. His instincts are the right ones.

To finish I want to outline a few areas where I think Welsh Labour needs to change for us to survive and prosper.

We have to learn to think. Sections of the party have a long tradition of being anti-intellectual. Traditionally our party structure and our energy has been focused on organization not on policy. That is entirely understandable but we need a greater focus on developing policy and ideas for Wales.

The UK is changing very fast. Policy agendas are diverging and we need to be equipped to think for ourselves. Just as we have created a policy institute for help Government originate and refine ideas, so too as a party we need to take policy development more seriously.

And like Scottish Labour we need the focus of our structures to be on our own devolved Parliament. It would be a mistake to organize our CLPs on the basis of parliamentary boundaries and not assembly ones.

We’ve developed Welsh Labour as a brand but not a political entity. The power to make laws has shifted, but the decision making in the party has not. As far back as 1999 Alun Michael pledged a Welsh seat on the NEC, Ed Milliband said he supports that too. But change has yet to take place.

And finally we need to invest in developing talent within the party. To return to my initial point. If we want to be the Government in Wales for the long-term we need to look critically at our cultures and structures. We need to think about how we do things, about political recruitment; about who we get as Assembly researchers; how we develop them. At the moment candidate selection feels too random; too focused on rewarding local activism and not concerned enough in nurturing future talent. With just 60 seats in the Assembly, we cannot afford to carry passengers.

If we have an organizers academy why not greater focus on developing the next generation of elected decision makers?

The devolution genie is out of the bottle. And as much of some of this will make some people in the party uneasy there is no going backwards. We can breathe fresh oxygen into the Union. It’s all to play for. But we need to be bold. Paralysis on our part will only cede the initiative to others.

We have a responsibility to the wider Labour movement, and to Wales, to get serious. That’s our challenge.


Lee Waters was the Labour Party representatives on the cross-party ‘Yes for Wales’ campaign in last years’ devolution referendum campaign. He is a former Chief Political Correspondent of ITV Wales