Full council: 19 December 2022

Motion: That the council outline the size of the gap in drawdown of allocated Active Travel  Budgets for Kildare this year and the reasons for the gap.  

Report: On 26 January 2022, the National Transport Authority informed the Council  of funding in the amount of €13,670,000 as part of the Active Travel Programme for  2022. This covered 26 Projects and an allocation for staff costs. The NTA has paid  

the Council a total of €9,707,909 in 2022 for works completed and recoupable from  the NTA. This represents 71% of the original allocation to the Council. 

During the year, as expenditure did not meet the expected levels envisaged by the  NTA, additional projects were assigned funding to replace the expected shortfall in  expenditure. A cumulative total of €19,170,547.54 was allocated to 30 projects in 2022 as there is no mechanism to substitute grants between projects. The total  drawdown of €9,707,909 in 2022 compares to a drawdown of €3,290,856 in 2021  which is a significant increase and reflects the workload being processed by the  Sustainable Transport Section. 

There are multiple reasons for the difference between the Government’s allocation  and the Council’s expenditure. The main challenges to increasing policy  implementation are consultant and contractor labour limitations, the complexity of  designing practical and suitable civil engineering interventions in urban contexts,  rigorous procurement and financial regulations and the timescales of statutory  planning approval processes. As an example, the Council has put in place robust  mechanisms to limit the delay in appointing service providers, however, one project  had to be re-tendered 3 times before any service provider engaged in the  procurement process. 

Issued by: Ms C Barrett A/Director of Services Roads Transportation and Public  Safety