February 2011
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Bike storage may be needed after all!

Following submissions by Spokes and several individuals, the Scottish government has accepted that its proposed bronze/ silver/ gold standards for sustainable buildings may be too weak on bike storage and need reconsidered.  Thank you if you made comments to the consultation!

Last year the Scottish consulted on proposed award levels for sustainable buildings, including houses and flats.

Spokes was appalled to discover that it would be possible for a developer to achieve a gold award for a sustainable dwelling by providing a space which could accomodate either one bicycle or one pram!!   If the developer was really stingy, they could still achieve a bronze or silver sustainable-building award whilst providing zero cycle storage.

Such standards are way below the standards already applied to all new buildings by councils such as Edinburgh.  You would think that to achieve a sustainability award a developer should have to exceed the basic standards already set by councils, rather than undercutting them!

The proposed standards would also make a complete mockery of the government’s target for 10% of all trips to be by bike in 2020 – so much for joined-up thinking between departments!    What is more, Spokes had corresponded about bike storage with the relevant government department earlier in the year, and yet this is what emerged in the consultation document.

Following our website article about this consultation, several people made their own individual response to the consultation, in addition to the formal Spokes response [pdf 133k].

The Final Consultation Report [including government responses] is now out.  On page 23, the government says the proposals “will be reviewed” and they will “consider strengthening the standard (on cycle storage) to align with existing local authority guidelines within Scotland and SG targets on cycle use” – exactly the points we had been making.

We will be keeping an eye open for the the results of this review!

NB – also on the government website are the original consultation letter and the responses received during the consultation.   There is also a full list of outcomes of recent consultations on this and other topics.

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