As our Spring Public Meeting, Spokes will hold a 2016 Holyrood election hustings on Monday 21 March, to discuss cycling issues…
Click to download pdf
CORRECTION – Our hustings is at St Brides Centre, 10 Orwell Terrace, not Orwell Place [poster has been corrected].
We have invited all the parties currently represented at Holyrood to send a speaker – who must be a candidate for any Edinburgh/Lothians seat or for the Lothians List. Details confirmed so far are…
- Con – Cllr Nick Cook [candidate for Edinburgh East & Lothian List, Conservative Transport Spokesperson on Edinburgh Council]
- Green – Alison Johnstone MSP [candidate for Edinburgh Central and Lothians List, Spokes member]
- Lab – Sarah Boyack MSP [candidate for Edinburgh Central and Lothians List, Spokes member]
- LibDem – Emma Farthing-Sykes [candidate for Edinburgh Pentlands]
- SNP – Jim Eadie MSP [candidate for Edinburgh Southern and Lothians List]
Where: St Brides Centre, 10 Orwell Place, Edinburgh
When: Monday 21 March 2016, 7.30pm – doors open 6.45 for coffee, stall and chat
Format: The meeting will begin with the candidates giving short talks, from the platform, on their party’s concerns and commitments on cycling and any related transport policy issues they wish to mention.
We may then use the very successful format of our Scottish Parliament hustings in March 2011, where the audience splits into groups and the candidates spend 10 mins or so in each group. This gives you a much greater chance to engage with the politicians, rather than the usual format of a speaker panel sitting on the platform and a limited number of questions from the floor.
Finally, the speakers will close with a brief summing up of what they have learned from the meeting.
Any questions? Email spokes@spokes.org.uk
OTHER ELECTION BACKGROUND
- If you tweet about the meeting (before, during or after!) please use the hashtag #SpokesMtg. The most popular general hashtag for the elections is probably #Holyrood2016.
- Retweet our tweet advertising the meeting.
- Please download and use our Hustings poster [pdf]. Printed copies will be available and sent to members in our Spring mailout at the end of February.
- Spokes is part of the #WalkCycleVote campaign which brings together many Scottish cycling/walking groups from Sustrans to Living Streets. Top aim is “sustained, long term investment in both cycling and walking, reaching 10% of the transport budget.”
- Manifestos are still being discussed by the various political parties, so now is the time to email your existing MSPs and tell them what you’d like to see in their party’s manifesto. On investment, we’d like them at least to follow Edinburgh City Council’s great example, allocating 5% of the transport budget in year 1, rising by 1% a year, to 10% by the end of the Parliament.
- Once the election is close, and details known, we’ll do a further website article, notify emailable Spokes members, and also list any Spokes members known to be standing in the election.
- Go-Bike, Strathclyde Cycle Campaign, is holding a hustings on Weds 16 March.
- The Election is on Thursday 5 May 2016. Here are some election FAQs from the Scottish Parliament.