Stormont has been building fake greenways to pretend it is meeting a legal target. On Tuesday, Northern Ireland’s independent Audit Office called it out.
The problem began with the 2022 Climate Change Act, supported by every assembly party except the Traditional Unionist Voice. The Act requires 10 per cent of the overall transport budget to be spent on “active travel” – walking, wheeling and cycling – by 2030. This year that would mean spending £85 million.
Stormont’s Department for Infrastructure, responsible for all roads and transport, clearly considers the target impossible, so it has embarked on some creative reclassification. The most blatant example is describing road resurfacing works as “active travel schemes” by marking out a cycle path on the adjacent pavement.
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