Dear Cllr Bev Craig,
We wanted to write to you today, in the wake of what can only be described as a remarkable set of election results for Manchester. The Green wave seen across the city is indicative of something we have felt during our campaign work when engaging with communities on School Streets, pavement parking or clean air: people want radical change. 17 Green gains and 37% of the vote share tells you something about the character of this city. Manchester is more progressive than recent Labour positioning has given it credit for, and the idea that caution on active travel is a political necessity looks considerably harder to sustain.
Walk Ride GM has spent the last eight years making the case for an agenda that has sometimes been treated as politically difficult. This caution has often beenjustified internally as a response to political pressures from the public. We havealways felt that in Manchester, these concerns were overblown. Last night’s results make the case to go bigger and to go further.
Since you became leader of the council, we have been supportive of policies you have introduced to improve our streets. The Sustainable Transport team has transformed how the city develops policy and delivers infrastructure. Cllr Tracey Rawlins’ backing of our Walking and Cycling Bus project, with the council resources that it brings, will be transformational for communities who want to see their children travel independently to school.
Your commitment to road safety and reducing speeds to 20mph has been politically brave and will have a massive impact on the safety of residents of Manchester. The fast rollout of cycle hangers has also been flawless. We were excited to see them full within weeks of being rolled out, further proof thatthere is massive demand for cycling in Manchester. This hard work accumulated in Manchester City Council winning the award for Best Council at last year’s Walk Ride GM awards, as voted for by our 450 members. Cllr Mandie Shilton-Godwin was very happy as you can imagine!The Walking and Cycling Bus Project has been a huge milestone for our campaign.
We were successful in bringing £99k of central government funding to Manchester and Trafford to deliver a network of bike and walking buses, which will transform the school run for many families across the city. The project is progressing well, we have recruited a Project Coordinator and are preparing for delivery in September. This, paired with the council’s delivery of School Streets and quiet 20mph streets will be transformational for our communities. There is a story for the council to tell here, and we want to help you tell it.
Our Asks
- Commitment to working with TfGM to secure long term funding for the Walk Ride GM Walking and Cycling Bus Project.
- Funding for dedicated walking and cycling infrastructure around schools, including protected cycle lanes.
- Commitment to rolling out 20mph on all appropriate roads across the entire city.
- Commitment to ensuring all 20mph streets meet traffic reduction levels required for children to cycle safely on them.
Pavement Parking
On pavement parking, we continue to hear from residents across Manchester for whom this is one of the most consistent everyday frustrations, particularly disabled people and parents with pushchairs. 83% of UK drivers support a ban on pavement parking, provided sensible exemptions are made for narrow streets. New powers for councils are coming later this year – we would like to see a clearer commitment to using them.
Our Asks
- Commitment to use the new pavement parking enforcement powers as soon as secondary legislation allows.
- Work with Walk Ride GM to develop a pavement parking map hotspot.
- Pilot 10 streets / areas for a pavement parking ban pilot.
Clean Air
On clean air, the GM Clean Air Plan remains weighted towards transitioning vehicles rather than reducing the number of them. As we have set out in our analysis of the latest NO2 data, none of the monitored sites in Greater
Manchester currently meet WHO targets. That is not a small gap to close with vehicle grants alone. A more radical car reduction policy is needed.
Our Asks
- Commitment to exceed legal NO2 limits and meet WHO interim air quality targets by 2030, with a clear plan for how Manchester will get there beyond the current vehicle transition programme.
- Outline pollution hotspots and commit to introducing car reduction policies like bus lanes / gates and localised reduction in parking provisions.
City Centre
With regards to the city centre, we are yet to see the long awaited movement plan. There is huge demand from residents and businesses to pedestrianise vast parts of the city centre, but the council has been slow to take radical action, with only isolated streets closed to traffic.
There is a growing gap between how radical people want the council to be and the reality seen on our streets.
Our Asks
- Net reduction in council-controlled car parking capacity inside the ring road, with no new car park permissions granted in the city centre.
- Develop a City Centre Circulation Plan committing to the removal of all through traffic from the core, with a published timeline.
- Ten pilot pedestrianised Cyan Line streets inside or adjacent to the ring road delivered by 2028, using Deansgate as the blueprint.
With all of these issues, we believe the window to act more ambitiously has opened, and we would welcome a conversation about how we can enable such changes.
Yours sincerely,
Harry Gray
On behalf of Walk Ride GM