Mr. Hugh Creegan:

We agree that a lot of local authorities are learning their way through building these types of schemes. They are a new type of infrastructure for them and they might seem very simple but actually they are more complex than people might think. We have tried, and continually try, to reduce the cost of the schemes. We produced a low-cost guidance note, which we issue to local authorities. We arrange webinars and give training and we continue to do that. In fairness, most local authorities are embracing that now. It is always going to be a specific solution for every scheme and it is hard to be general but they now have a portfolio of lower-cost ways of building it than the Rolls Royce version that occurred in some places.

On the urban-based policy only, I kind of understand how that has emerged. We have been saying generally that when it comes to a choice between schemes, we favour the ones that get more usage, which is usually in urban areas but there is no policy preventing us doing schemes outside of urban areas. Generally we find that some footpaths schemes might be problematic in places with not a lot of use, but we are definitely doing non-urban schemes in lots of places around the country.