Still ambitious in bid to match Sarah’s success

“We’re really ambitious for the Active Travel Commissioner role, and want to make sure the person we get can make the impact we need,” he said adding that his team is already working through a shortlist, but the new Active Travel Commissioner for South Yorkshire may not be announced until early next year.

Dame Sarah left her post in May and soon after took up the Active Travel Commissioner role in Manchester, from where she’s now joining fellow Olympian, Chris Boardman, the new head of the Active Travel England government agency, in round table meetings of all the country’s active travel commissioners.

The evidence seems to show that a ‘high profile’ individual gets attention, said Oliver Coppard, and his plan is for the new Commissioner to work with local ‘active travel champions’ to help get the message across.

The South Yorkshire combined authority have recently appointed Steven Pleasant, former portfolio lead for Manchester’s GM Moving activity promotion network, to help reduce health inequalities and improve healthy life expectancy in the region, and he’ll be working closely with the new Active Travel Commissioner and the active travel champions.

His work, said Mayor Coppard, “is part of our drive to make South Yorkshire the healthiest region in the country, and active travel is a big part of that.”

Wincobank GP Jo Maher is fully signed up as part of the ‘Move More Active Practice’ network of local medical professionals to enable more active travel in the area.

But like many of her colleagues who’ve been promoting walking and cycling for some years, she’s concerned at the delay in appointing a new Active Travel Commissioner, just when the high price of fuel means less wealthy Sheffielders are turning to walking and cycling to save money, and improve their health.

“It feels like it could have been kicked into the long grass,” she said. “Active Travel England formed in August, and as yet South Yorkshire has had no input into their discussions."

Mayor Coppard said he recognises the priority of making the appointment.

“It’s been too long already and I’m keen to make this happen as soon as possible, but it is really important to get the right person.

A delay for a few weeks is worth it, I think, because having the right person for the job means you can then move more quickly through the process.”

His team are currently working on a shortlist of ‘high profile people from the region’, said Mayor Coppard, and the possible candidates are not just sportspeople.

Professor Steve Haake of Sheffield Hallam University, who chaired the Active Travel Advisory Board for Dame Sarah Storey, said the work by her and her programme director Pete Zanzottera brought in hundreds of millions of pounds for active travel in South Yorkshire, along with a set of clear guidelines on ensuring infrastructure for walking, cycling and traveling by wheelchair actually works for all users (unlike quite a few existing walking and cycle routes).

The pandemic delayed some of the infrastructure work, said Steve Haake, but the new commissioner in South Yorkshire should be able to hit the ground running. “The system here now understands the benefits of active travel, we have the money, and a clear set of rules to follow. We’re all ready to go.”