It was a real pleasure to be alongside a really engaged and enthusiastic group of delegates at the Transport Smart Class for Wales & the West in Cardiff on 5th December. The attendees, keynote speakers and innovation sponsors were all focused on how to take the latest innovative practice and embed it to make our transport networks more effective, integrated, accessible, and sustainable.
In 2019 Wales was the first country in the world to declare a climate emergency and in 2023 Welsh Government set up Climate Action Wales to better communicate and engage with the population around the subject.
Transport is the third largest carbon emitter in Wales and Climate Action Wales is keen to communicate how adapting or changing our travel behaviour can contribute to not only reducing the emissions but also another host of benefits like improving air quality, saving money and enhancing our health and wellbeing overall.
This year I have had the pleasure of working with Lynsey Hargreaves at the West Glamorgan Regional Partnership who has been working with people with lived experience of learning disabilities around their issues with transport.
“It’s been a really interesting process over the past three years. The only way I can describe it is that it’s like a relationship – we started out as friends, then we dated for a while, and now we’re official!”
Listening to Elenid Roberts describe how an informal partnership of CT operators in north Gwynedd developed was both informative and entertaining. Our Working Well sessions create space for operators to share experiences and learn from each other.
As part of CT Week, I met with Huw Davies at Partneriaeth Ogwen to discuss community-led climate action. Partneriaeth Ogwen is a social enterprise in Bethesda in the beautiful Ogwen valley in North Wales.
From 14-18 October 2024, communities across the UK will celebrate CTWeek24, highlighting the vital work of the Community Transport sector. Inspired by our Manifesto, this year’s theme, Celebrating Community Solutions, spotlights the impact of accessible, inclusive, and affordable transport in strengthening community bonds.
In this session you will get peer to peer support, insight from professionals, a place to share your concerns or experiences whether they are positive or negative and just be a part of something that will lead us to providing the best experience for all.
Join us online during this CT Week 24 special to hear directly from CT organisations about what they’ve learned about partnership working with other operators, the challenges that need to be considered and the added value that collaboration brings.
There’s a wealth of expertise within your organisations so how can we work together to grow mentoring, consultancy and peer support opportunities within the CT sector?
In today’s challenging financial climate, it can be increasingly difficult to manage your income streams and ensure your services are sustainable, so we’ve highlighted here some sources of additional funding and support that we think are worth exploring.
The Mapping Wales survey is now closed, and we are currently analysing the data.
More than 50% of our ‘primary purpose’ members in Wales helped us with our research, giving a really important snapshot of the Welsh Community Transport sector. Thank you to everyone who took part in or promoted the survey; your help is greatly appreciated. The results will be posted on this page once the analysis and reporting are complete. Please contact gemma@ctauk.org if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further.