Worcester City Council elections: who's saying what regarding active travel?

This coming Thursday (2nd May 2024) it's election day in Worcester, where 35 council seats are up for grabs, and the successful candidates will hold those posts for the next 4 years, which gives plenty of time for changes to be made in how the City Council is governed, and what the aims and objectives are taking us all the way to 2027.The City Council is not responsible for all things in the city, it's a bit more complicated than that. You can see what services the City Council are responsible for here, and what services the County Council (elections in 2025) are responsible for here. In addition to this the area governed by Worcester City Council sits snuggly next to Wychavon District Council to the East and Malvern Hills District Council to the West on the city's borders, the other councils sometimes covering areas that seem like they're in the city. Yes, it's complicated.Anyhoo, lets take a look at the manifestos of the local political parties that are defending council seats, in order of their current number of councillors, to see what they're offering in terms of active travel in the city over the next 4 years. If you didn't catch it, last month Bike Worcester wrote to all the party leaders offering a smorgasbord of potential improvements to enable and encourage more active travel in the city...pray tell, did any of them make it into the manifestos?

Labour

So starting with the Worcester Labour Party, and their manifesto here. It's easy to find on the website, and is a lovely looking 14 page document (albeit only 6 pages of detailed text), with pictures of Lynn Denham (current joint leader of the City Council) and Tom Collins (parliamentary candidate). The manifesto recognises that the city has poor air quality and high levels of pollution which are driven by traffic congestion; bingo. There's then a couple of mentions of bikes in the 'A sustainable city for current and future generations' section, and a bit on active travel in the 'Take back our streets and get the NHS back on its feet' section:'We will launch bicycle hire schemes with Beryl Bikes, and work with local groups to develop a bike recycling scheme to extend cycle ownership across the community.', that they will 'Enhance existing cycle paths to ensure they are inter-connected.', and 'Enhance and build on our Active Travel Plan to enable more people to walk and cycle as well as encouraging running and outdoor sports.'This sounds great, but the Beryl Bike deal is done and dusted and launching city wide in June, and the bike recycling scheme has been operational for the last 18 months, implemented by Crowngate Shopping Centre and another rag tag group of troubadours called (checks notes) Bike Worcester. Oh, if you're looking for a low cost recycled bike with a comprehensive safety check, have a look at available bikes here. It's then a bit disappointing that in 4 years they can only stretch to enhancing existing cycle paths. Hmmmm. Honestly, I was hoping for a little more.Not mentioned is that Tom Collins has been instrumental in setting up and volunteering on one of the City Bike Buses (Nunnery Wood Primary School) so he can have that plug for free, although he's not standing in these city council elections, instead keeping his powder dry for the big one (I'm going for an announcement by Rishi on Monday).

Green

OK. High expectations, this should be right in the Green Party's wheelhouse. The manifesto is a little harder to find on the website, but only two clicks on the homepage, so no great shakes, link here. A bit annoyingly its spread across 6 web pages rather than a single document, but again, c'est la vie. [Correction 27/04/24: there is a link to the full manifesto on the website, here.] About the same size as Labour's, not quite as swish, but probably more words (if that's your cup of tea).As expected references to walking, cycling and active travel are aplenty, with examples of stuff the candidates have already done:

• Taken part in many bike rides to highlight the need to travel sustainably. Organised bike security marking and free bike maintenance
• Cllr Katie Collier set up the school bike buses which are expanding across the city and runs women’s confidence cycling sessions
• Helped set up and run bike buses for local schools and supported the Bike Worcester bike recycling scheme
• Worked to improve planning applications for new developments with inadequate sustainable transport plans
• Installed new benches to encourage walking

There's a 15 minute city mention 'Good planning should enable most people to live no more than a 15-minute walk from public transport hubs, shops, workplaces and community facilities.' Strong agree. A mention of being able to walk to green spaces 'We want everyone to live within easy walking distance of a high-quality public green space, for relaxing, playing and growing food.'Under priorities in the Transport section we have the following:

• it easy for visitors to the city to use sustainable transport such as park and ride schemes, electric taxis, buses and bikes
• Implement schemes to encourage children to get to school by bike, bus or on foot
• Provide safe, secure and accessible parking for cycles across the city
• we want safe walking and cycling routes integrated with high-quality, electric-powered public transport that is affordable for everyone - including free or affordablebuses

In summary, not bad...but it could be so much more! I'm going 2 out 5. Must try harder.

Conservatives

Oh, wow. Worcester appears to be getting an Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). I mean, I'm kinda dialled into this sort of local transport, active travel, air quality stuff, but somehow this has totally passed me by.Hold your horses, it's a load of dog whistle nonsense. I've followed the link to sign the petition to Stop ULEZ, which then bizarrely gives me the option to support ULEZ, but it's actually an underhand tactic to add me to a mailing list! Cheeky cheeky. It seems a lot of effort to campaign against something that no one has any plans to implement; why not campaign against something that is going to happen, or for something that would improve Worcester (please post suggestions in the comments below)? Curious.Anyway, to the manifesto!Wait.Hold on.Ah. No manifesto. Nothing. Nada. So I can't post the link. Here's the link to the ULEZ petition if you'd like to say you support it, like what I just done. OK, so I guess not having a manifesto means you don't get folk like me saying post election 'But you said you were going to do x, y and z and that's why I voted for you and you haven't done that yet', but really? Personally I think that's a bit shoddy, and taking the public for a ride. I've no idea how many people look at a manifesto before voting. But I do. So that's at least 1 vote.

Liberal Democrats

Super easy to find the manifesto with a single click from the home page here, and...sorry, is that it...?! 10 bullet points of text on a web page. I mean, maybe they figured less time on manifesto = more time for campaigning.I've just read the whole thing, and not a single mention of walking, cycling, or active travel (other than having a pop at the County Council's plans). Harrumph. In an attempt to find the good in everything and with a glass is half full mentality, there are some references of issues that active travel are most definitely part of the solution (clean air, safe place, carbon neutral, pavement parking) but strange it wasn't mentioned directly:

• Worcester Liberal Democrats want to see Worcester as a vibrant community-focused City with clean air, innovative green industries, and a safe place for residents and visitors alike
• We want integrated sustainable public transport, more green spaces, support for community projects and housing for everyone with carbon neutral solutions built into the specifications
• We want to prepare for the electric transport revolution that is coming and to support the development of alternative forms of transport to the car. This conservative Government castigated the Conservative led County Council’s plans for developing cycling as “lacking ambition”
• We want to explore innovative parking schemes that prioritise residents and stop commuter on-street parking. We want to prioritise pavements for people not cars

OK. This feels a little unfair to the other parties, as I've literally just copy and pasted 40% of the manifesto into the blog, but I think that says more about the document, so it stays. 

Summary

So there you have it. Given the multiple benefits to increasing rates of active travel (physical and mental health, local economy, better air quality, reduced noise, reduced emissions, reduced car ownership, improved road safety, MAKING WORCESTER A MORE PLEASANT CITY) it continues to blow my mind how it doesn't register higher up the political discourse in Worcester. As a result we continue to fall behind other town's and cities, as they race ahead with changes to enable and encourage more walking, wheeling and cycling.Finally, please take the time to vote. Local democracy can and does enact change; be the change you want to see. Over the last few years I've had conversations with many of the previous councillors and some of the current candidates; all encounters have been cordial, and I have no reason to doubt that they are all volunteering their time with the aim of steering the provision of the council run services to the best of their ability, and to continue to improve our city.So vote. And ride your bike. Ride your bike to go and vote.I'm finished now.Dan Brothwell, Chair Bike Worcester28/04/24 - Nope, not finished. An addendum following a conversation with a friend regarding the Conservative's campaign against an imaginary Worcester ULEZ. There is already a time restricted Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) in Worcester complete with cameras, where you will get received a Fixed Penalty Notice if you drive down it during the restricted time period. Like a mini ULEZ. This was introduced in September 2020 (article here) in an attempt to improve air quality, and was implemented by the Conservative led County Council, with personal credit claimed by Cllr Alan Amos. The article does however contain a minor error, as bicycles can also travel in the bus lanes in both directions at any time; I guess this depends on whether we're calling a bike a 'vehicle'.