Dame Sarah Storey soon to start her role as the new Walking & Cycling Commissioner for Greater Manchester

By GreaterSport | 08 April 2022 | TAGS: walking, Cycling

Sarah will be building on the work of Chris Boardman who was in the role since 2017, and has moved on to take up the role of England's Active Travel Commissioner at Active Travel England. Sarah will start the role in May and will continue the ambitious plans for a transformational growth in active travel, aided by the development of a joined-up cycling and walking network to form the BEE Network.

The original vision for the Bee Network was unveiled in 2018 by Chris as a 10-year, £1.5 billion plan to create 1,800 miles of walking and cycling routes and 2,400 new crossings connecting every neighbourhood, school, high street and public transport hub in the City-Region.

Since then, the Bee Network has evolved and it now represents a vision for a fully integrated London-style transport system which will join together buses, trams, cycling, walking and rail.

Sarah will be working closely with councils to make sure all residents are well connected to the transport network and will draw on her work with people with disabilities and long-term heath conditions in South Yorkshire.  As well as ensuring there is good infrastructure, Sarah has spoken about the need to support people’s access to bikes, including e-bikes, and to the wider support needed to enable people to regularly walk, cycle and wheel.

Eve Holt, Director at GreaterSport, provides strategic leadership for GM Moving with a particular focus on walking, cycling, wheeling and the design of active environments. 

Eve said, “Partners across GM are working together to achieve our GM Moving ambition to enable Active Lives for All. I’m delighted Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, has appointed Dame Sarah into this role.  Sarah really gets what needs to be done to make active travel an accessible option for all to enjoy, so everyone can experience the joy of the journey and the health, social, economic and environmental benefits that brings.

“Supporting people to get about in an active way is a great way to design moving into people’s lives.  Enabling more people to walk, cycle and wheel for active travel is essential to the physical and mental wellbeing of those living in Greater Manchester, to social and economic development and inclusion, improving air quality, reducing the impact we are having on our planet and creating better places to live, work and play.

“Making active travel the natural choice for as many short trips as possible is a key priority for Greater Manchester. The 2040 target is for walking trips to increase by a third and cycling trips to double and then double again.  Despite a lot of good work across the city region to make active travel a much safer, more attractive, convenient and inclusive option, we still have a long way to go to make it accessible to all and to realise the potential.

“I look forward to working with Sarah and to seeing us collectively accelerate progress in Greater Manchester.”

Sarah, who grew up in Salford, has been working as the Active Travel Commissioner in South Yorkshire.  Alongside other GM Moving partners we look forward to welcoming her home to Greater Manchester. 

Chris moved into the wider role of Transport Commissioner in 2021, this role will be taken up by former Transport for London Managing Director, Vernon Everitt going forwards.