Thread/

Yesterday I had an email from local branch of political party. Top item ‘council doing stuff on cycling without consulting community’. I responded thus:

The world is on fire; climate change is an existential threat; we have a physical inactivity pandemic alongside the covid pandemic. While community consultation is important, I have no time for political parties that use it to delay and block improvements to our streets.

Let’s be clear: residents were not consulted about giving over so much space for parking in their streets; they were not consulted about breathing polluted air; they did not support measures to allow pavement parking and deny children and others safe places to walk;

And citizens were not consulted about providing ongoing public subsidy for a mode of transport that kills people EVERY day.

I am happy to support *any* political party that takes meaningful action to enable active travel. That means supporting change and doing things and not standing in the way, wringing your hands about ‘consultation’. /end