Guy

If you want to be heard, you must speak up

One of the most mystifying accusations levelled at active travel advocates, is that we are part of some all pervading conspiracy where we are able to make councillors and officers (council staff) dance to our merry tune. And honestly, if we knew how to do that it would be just super and we could get so much done so quickly.

The recent work at North Parade was a golden opportunity to widen the pavements on this busy pedestrian route and introduce ‘shuttle working’ (aka “you go, then I go”) for motor vehicles. But the status quo was maintained- ‘motor normality’ still completely pervades
societal thinking.

In reality, even modest improvements to improve the options for walking, wheeling and cycling provoke bitter opposition, notably from parish and ward councillors. We saw this during the Upper Bristol Road scheme and Southlands Liveable Neighbourhood, and we are seeing it again with the Sydney Road/Place Liveable Neighbourhood and the A4 bypass scheme at Keynsham. The latter sees one local councillor essentially condemning a multimillion pound investment giving people travel options by rectifying the utterly bizarre situation where the fast bus between Bath and Bristol (X39) maintains a competitive journey times by, er… not stopping in Keynsham town centre. If the scheme sinks, the active travel elements will sink with it- so much for that cyclist lead conspiracy!

Tens of millions of pounds of investment can transform travel options- but don’t assume your elected representative will be supportive.

Councillors will say that they reflect the opinions that they hear, even if that means opposing staggering levels of investment that cannot be provided by other means (we are talking Ā£100s millions on the line here). So the message of this blog is a simple one:

Get your opinions heard!!!

Councillors still place a lot of store by what they get in their email inbox. So if you want to see:

  • Better pavement surfaces
  • Safer road crossings
  • Safe streets outside schools
  • Barriers removed from urban footpaths
  • Protected cycle lanes
  • More liveable neighbourhoods / LTNs
  • Tier escooters and ebikes universally available
  • Prioritisation of public transport
  • Universal 20mph in residential areas

…you absolutely must write to your councillor and tell them. They are not mind readers. As advocates, we are often staggered by how our councillors appear to parrot the views of a tiny number of (Salmon trousered?) people. But if those are the people who proactively get in touch with them, then those are the ones that get their points of view on the agenda.

Finding your councillor details is very easy- just stick your postcode in here.

Many councillors will simply represent whoever shouts the loudest – here the homepage of a group opposed to giving public transport priority on publicly funded roads.

You might fairly say “aren’t councillors supposed to actively seek out views and try and get a broad cross-section?”, “what about the areas where over 40% households have no private vehicle?” and “shouldn’t officers be actively seeking out best practise and implementing it?”

Our message is this:

Don’t take that risk- get your views in writing and emailed

Sloping ‘rolling coaster’ pavements are frankly a pain in the arse (and back, and arms…) for many, but the council continues to perpetuate these poor designs (here at the Weston High Street pavement relay). When challenged, they said
no-one has ever complained about them.

There are also several consultations running at the moment, notably

They are not terribly onerous. Simply filling in the basics and writing ‘I am supportive’ chalks one up for the evil cycling lobby progressive people simply asking for a range of affordable travel options.

I will end this blog here so you still have 2 minutes to write to your councillor!

Happy holidays šŸŒž

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