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Swingeing cuts to public spending on cycling and walking in England<\/a> should be overturned as government expenditure was already insufficient to meet legally binding climate targets, the high court has been told.<\/p>\n Campaigners are challenging a decision in 2023 to cut more than \u00a3200m<\/a> from Department for Transport\u2019s active travel budget for the following two years.<\/p>\n In a judicial review hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday, lawyers for Transport<\/a> Action Network (Tan) argued that the cuts threatened a key plank of the UK\u2019s carbon reduction strategy.<\/p>\n The DfT\u2019s budget for cycling and walking was cut by more than 50% in March last year in a move that was overshadowed by accompanying cuts to the HS2 high-speed rail scheme<\/a>, announced the same day.<\/p>\n Lawyers for Tan argued that the decision was incompatible with the government\u2019s net zero strategy and transport decarbonisation plan, which set out proposals and policies required to meet carbon budgets. The first of the strategic priorities outlined in the plan was to accelerate \u201cmodal shift\u201d from car use to sustainable travel.<\/p>\n Accompanying targets included doubling cycling journeys and ensuring more than half of primary school age children walked to school by the middle of this decade.<\/p>\n David Forsdick KC, representing Tan, said in written arguments that the DfT had decided not to cut funding which was \u201ccentral to achieving the objectives for active travel, was important for equality ambitions, for air quality targets and for delivery confidence in meeting carbon targets, and had a very high cost-benefit ratio\u201d.<\/p>\n The barrister said that \u201cimmediately prior\u201d to the March 2023 decision, the Treasury and No 10 required the transport secretary, Mark Harper, \u201cto impose \u2018additional savings\u2019\u201d. Forsdick said: \u201cThis appears to explain, at least in part, the illegalities in the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n In November 2023, a critical Public Accounts Committee report<\/a> found that the DfT had made little progress against its objectives to increase active travel, and was not on track to meet its 2025 targets.<\/p>\n Although Dame Bernadette Kelly, the DfT\u2019s permanent secretary, told the committee hearings that she \u201cwould not identify funding as the key issue\u201d in missing targets, TAN claims that the money allocated was already inadequate to meet the climate pledges.<\/p>\n Tan\u2019s lawyers also claim that the funding decision last March was only made after an 11th-hour intervention from the Treasury that did not allow time for proper consideration. They also argue that the move failed to take into account air quality considerations.<\/p>\n