As you may know I am a strong believer in active travel. I have been an advocate for this long before it was fashionable! Perhaps more important than mere advocacy, I have lived my life accordingly. Cycling has my principal mode of transport for more than two decades.
You’ll recall that the Government has in the past funded so-called CCAGs (Cycling City Ambition Grant cities) like Bristol and Manchester, which have devised a wide range of cycling-promoting schemes. If I ran Cheltenham Council I would be instructing my officials to make contact with their colleagues in those authorities (say in Cambridge, which is flat like Cheltenham) to establish which schemes work best and could most readily be applied to Cheltenham.
Only recently, I travelled to Birmingham where I cycled across the city. There they have adopted innovative, cycle-friendly, schemes which separate bikes from the traffic. I think we could roll those out, or a variant of them, in Cheltenham. Not all segregation schemes require London Embankment-style concrete and tarmac. You can use so-called ‘armadilloes’ for example. Now, I know there is the sterile argument about Highways being run by GCC; but equally CBC has in the past produced a Cheltenham Transport Plan which it invited GCC to implement. There were positive features of that plan incidentally – making Albion Street two-way for example.
I also think we need to encourage people out of cars, not bully them. We need to show that it is easier, cheaper and more convenient.
Post-COVID the Government has announced further investment in cycling and walking infrastructure. This investment package includes plans to make cycling safer with new “mini-Holland” schemes. Mini-Holland schemes should be focused principally on making residential areas safer to walk, cycle and play in, while maintaining the vehicle access people need to get around. Such low-traffic neighbourhoods would work well in Cheltenham.
The Government plans to innovate our buses and enable fleets across the UK to become greener. In September 2020, £50 million was committed to create our country's first all-electric bus town. Moreover, in February 2021, funding of £120 million was announced to support the purchase of at least 4,000 new zero emission buses, as part of the £5 billion of new funding to boost bus and cycling links. This would represent 12 per cent of the local operator bus fleet in England. The Government recently published the 'Bus Back Better' strategy, which will see lower, simpler flat fares in towns and cities, turn-up-and-go services on main routes and new flexible services to reconnect communities. Backed by £3 billion, this new national strategy will deliver better, more reliable bus services for passengers, strengthening communities and sustaining town centres across the country.
In addition to enhancing connectivity, reducing congestion and improving air quality, these programmes will also support the UK’s bus manufacturing sector. I would also like to see anti-idling zones in front of schools, on the Promenade and in the bus station; and we could have a properly thought-out transport plan that doesn’t displace vehicles into residential communities and gets visitors safely and swiftly into affordably priced car parks.