Active travel strategy approved

A strategy which aims to encourage healthier and more sustainable means of travel was approved by Moray councillors today.

The five-year active travel strategy sets out how the council will promote more non-motorised travel for residents and visitors, such as walking and cycling.

The strategy has been developed following consultation with a wide range of interests including health professionals, transport organisations, planners and sports groups.

The Scottish Government wants to see 10% of all journeys made by bicycle by 2020, by which stage it would like active travel to be the norm for all short journeys.

The council’s economic development and infrastructure service committee heard today that Moray already had a good track record on active travel and had gone a considerable way in terms of providing the appropriate infrastructure in support.

Funding had come almost exclusively from external agencies and amounted to nearly £1million in 2015-16 and more than £550,000 last year.

Moray Council area stretches from Tomintoul in the south to the shores of the Moray Firth, from Keith in the east to Forres in the west. The council and its 4,500 employees respond to the needs of 95,510 residents in this beautiful part of Scotland, which nestles between Aberdeenshire and the Highlands.

Famous for its colony of dolphins, fabulous beaches and more malt whisky distilleries than any where else in Scotland, Moray is a thriving area and a great place to live.

Headquartered in  Elgin, the administrative capital of Moray.