For two decades, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) published unchallenged plans regarding its Active Travel strategies. Like Tyrell Biggs’ pre-fight plan to defeat Mike Tyson, their plans eventually met reality on September 29, 2025.
In 1987 Tyrell Biggs said he had a plan to beat Mike Tyson. Tyson famously responded, “everyone has a plan until they get a punch in the face” and then proceeded to punch Biggs repeatedly in the face until his plan fell apart. The Department for Infrastructure’s Active Travel Plans finally got punched in the face when the NI Audit Office (NIAO) delivered its report on Active Travel on 29th September 2025.
The Audit Office did in 40 pages what Ministers, MLAs and Infrastructure committees have failed to do for 20 years – it checked whether DfI’s plans amounted to anything other than wood pulp. Engaged stakeholders could have told you most of the report’s content 10 years ago. The NIAO’s report finally confirmed it.
…the Department is not going to deliver against these targets. Significantly less infrastructure has been delivered than planned across both the Strategic Plan for Greenways and the Belfast Cycling Network Delivery Plan.
NI Audit Office, Sept.2025
There was no good news for DfI in the NIAO’s report – it effectively dismantled all the department’s plans. Writing the following day on its findings, Sam McBride – who’s been ringside at a few departmental bloodbaths – said, “Stormont’s shambolic cycling failures exposed by auditors: Millions spent, no evidence it’s worked, and massaging figures to try to make it lawful.”
Since publication of the report in September 2025 DfI has remained tight-lipped. They were recently called to the Infrastructure Committee on 14/01/2026 – 100+ days after the report was published – to answer questions. This was a sort of comeback fight for DFI – a shot at redemption, albeit against notoriously soft opposition.
Teddy bear pit
Committee hearings from Westminster to Washington are often referred to as bear-pits. Given the damning evidence collated in the NIAO report, this should have had a similar bear-pit atmosphere. Unfortunately, it had more of a teddy bear-pit atmosphere, a soft play area with softer questions and padded answers, ensuring no one got hurt during a bit of playful rough and tumble. The 3-man Active Travel unit was up against the 10-man Infrastructure Committee in a tag-team format. It shouldn’t have been close – miraculously it was!
Colin Hutchinson, Director of A5 WTC and Active Travel at DfI opened by saying his department “accepted the Audit Office’s report in full”, in much the same way Tyrell Biggs accepted Mike Tyson’s punches fully in the face – unconscious, on the canvas, counted out and stretchered off.
Stakeholders
Historic failure to deliver against high profile plans has significantly damaged stakeholder confidence in the Department’s ability to deliver significant improvement.
NIAO Sept. 2025
Chair of the committee – Peter Martin (DUP) – kicked off questions by quoting the NI Audit Office report on the Department’s “lack of transparency and stakeholder confidence”. Recommendation 2 of the report centred on DfI establishing a Stakeholder Forum. Martin asked, “has the Stakeholder Forum been established and when will it meet? I don’t know the answer to those – I should, to effectively ping an official, but I don’t…”
The Head of Active Travel replied “the short answer is no… not yet” and quickly tagged his deputy, who struggled to pluck a date from the air, finally saying “the implementation time for that is… May 2026?”. That will be a full 8 months after the recommendation was made. Worth noting that after almost 4 years in post, the Head of Active Travel didn’t feel establishing a forum was important until compelled to by the NIAO.
Climate Change Act
Some of the activities incorporated into planned future expenditure may be contentious.
There is a key risk that the Department’s actions are not within the spirit of the Act, instead applying a window-dressing approach.
NIAO Sept. 2025
After a few meaningless rounds of show boating – the committee moved to the Climate Change Act, introduced in 2022. Section 22 of the Act has one sentence: “The Department for Infrastructure must develop sectoral plans for transport which set a minimum spend on active travel from the overall transport budgets of 10%.”
Section 22 was a response to DFI’s constant heel-dragging on active travel and attempted to draw a baseline at current spend and compel them to ring-fence 10% of their budget going forward. Currently, that would amount to £85M annually.
In an Infra Committee hearing in Feb 2024 DfI stated that they currently spent £12–13M annually on Active Travel. 18 months later at a subsequent Infra Committee meeting they arbitrarily revised that figure up to £50M – and no one batted an eyelid – apart from the NI Audit Office whose job it is to follow the money.
Peter McReynolds (AP) asked where this extra money was going?
DfI proceeded to list new expenditure items: “£30.5M on wider spend for the benefit of cyclists and pedestrians… staff costs £8M… contribution towards street lighting £18M… Translink spent some money, £1.3M…” the list continued.
DfI’s latest debacle at Clooney Road is a current example of how DfI are arbitrarily dressing up road schemes as Active Travel schemes in order to hit the 10% target by 2030. They are ‘interpreting’ Section 22 of the Act in a way that suits historical spending. The audit office saw this type of revisionist accounting as “contentious” and “not within the spirit of the Act”.
More plans
The Department’s track record in the delivery of its active travel objectives is poor and has had little impact on active travel level
NIAO Sept. 2025
After more showboating for the home crowd in Newry – Justin McNulty (SDLP) eventually landed a blow, quoting the report on DfI’s track record of delivery, he said: “this is a damning comment for the Audit Office to make”.
Colin Hutchinson replied that “the cycle strategy of 2015 had very, very ambitious targets…” apparently unaware it was his own department who set the targets. He continued, “it’s one of the recommendations we’re grappling with and will be hopefully helped out by the stakeholders.”
Stakeholders feeding into the 2024 Active Travel Consultation Plan have said that DfI’s new Active Travel Plan is preposterously ambitious and stands even less chance of success than the 2015 version.
Knockout blow
The only meaningful punch landed throughout the whole session was when a member of the public gallery facepalmed themselves so hard there was a fear that the towel might be thrown in. This was a clear response to the lack of effort by everyone involved. Both by the majority of committee members to press the department in any coherent or strategic way, and DfI to show any grasp of detail or confidence in their answers. It was a fitting summary of the entire evidence session.
This soft-play, sham-fighting up a Stormont benefits nobody. DfI’s failure is the Infrastructure Committee failure, and Stormont’s by not testing their plans with any rigour. The real problem will be when DfI come up against a real challenger, quite possibly in a court of law. The NI Audit Report said the department’s massaging of figures were “not in the spirit of the act, window dressing” and “contentious” – in other words, legally they may be sailing too close to the wind.
If, or when they face a legal challenge with an impartial referee in a court of law – as they’ve recently experienced with the A5 – their complete lack of fitness on Active Travel will be exposed in round 1. It’s in the Infrastructure Committee’s and Stormont’s best interest to make sure DfI never gets into that particular ring.
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