South Yorkshire Active Lives Commissioner - Ed Clancy OBE

I started my role in early 2023. Since then, I’ve met with hundreds of different community groups, businesses, employers, members of the public and elected politicians to find out what they want, and need, to help more people walk, wheel and get on their bikes. And most importantly, I’ve spent a lot of time with our incredible local authority partners who work tirelessly day in, day out, to make our region a better place to walk, wheel and cycle. 

It quickly became apparent that we couldn’t ‘cut and paste’ a strategy from somewhere else. We’re different from other places. We’re a collection of strong communities. Communities where families have, for generations, worked hard to fuel this country’s industrial revolution, especially in coal and steel. And although those communities were hit hard when many of those industries closed, they’re rightly proud of where they live – I’ve met so many people who work and volunteer to make their neighbourhoods better places to live right now. 

So many people told me how, when they were kids, they walked to school, played out in their street, or went out on their bikes out for the day with their mates, just like I did. They want the same for their children and their grandchildren. And that shouldn’t be too much to ask. That’s why a major priority for strategy is creating safer neighbourhoods – where parents are happy to let their children walk to school, practise on their scooter outside their front door, ride their bike to the park. We know this is not just what children and parents want, but it was also a great way to help people get a little bit more active every day. 

Our focus will be on the neighbourhoods that have the most challenges, where people have the least choice to get active now, and the biggest financial stress. But to really create long-term change in those places, the leaders have been clear with me that we need to connect those neighbourhoods to better opportunities. 

So our second big priority is working alongside bus, tram and train projects to create routes to opportunities. As a region, we will soon have control over our bus network, we already run the tram and we will have much more say in rail. Every one of those journeys will start and end with a walk, wheel or a bike ride. I want everyone to feel safe, welcome, and able to access bus and tram stops, and train stations—so they can get where they need to go, regardless of age, ability, or circumstance. And we want to support more people to feel happy and able to cycle on safe and accessible routes to get to work, college and other places, if it works for them. 

I’m so pleased that each of our local authorities: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield, have been working so hard on their own investment plans and pipelines for projects. It means we’re in a great position to create places where everyone has the choice to walk, wheel and cycle and no one is left behind. I can’t wait to get cracking.