Rhiannon Letman-Wade has been appointed as the new strategic lead for SWestrans (South West of Scotland Transport Partnership), the statutory Regional Transport Partnership (RTP) for Dumfries and Galloway.
Ms Letman-Wade is currently the active travel commissioner for the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority and plans to continue in this position alongside her new Scottish role.
Her previous experience includes serving as sustainable travel manager for just shy of three years with Shropshire Council, as well as just over two and a half years with Cardiff Council, first as an active travel school consultant and then as lead officer for active travel and sustainable transport projects.
She is also the managing director of Letman Associates, a specialised transport and traffic consultancy focused on active travel and community safety initiatives.
As the first active travel commissioner for York and North Yorkshire, Ms Letman-Wade identified safer school journeys as one of her priorities and has argued that active travel should complement other modes of transport, saying that it should be ‘making it easier to walk to a bus stop, or cycle to a station'.
Established under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, SWestrans provides strategic leadership on transport across the region.
Its main responsibilities include preparing and implementing the regional transport strategy, planning and coordinating transport across the region and managing supported local bus services. It also promotes sustainable transport and advises on regional investments.
