The Lothian Cycle Campaign

Cycling, walking, and safer streets (CWSS) seem about to be downgraded in a reshuffle of staff at the Scottish Executive. It is not clear if this is fully appreciated and intended by Ministers or is purely an internal reordering of priorities by officials, possibly before new transport Ministers Wendy Alexander and Lewis Macdonald have got fully to grips with the departmental setup. In either case, it casts a cloud over government promises, initiatives and targets on cycling (and on CWSS in general).

The Scottish Executive has 4 transport Divisions, each with various branches. Division 3 has always had responsibility for CWSS, within one of its branches. However, last year an entirely new branch [branch 4] of Division 3, dealing solely with CWSS (including Home Zones), was created under Sally Thomas. The Minutes of the Scottish Executive Cycle Forum [9.3.2001] make it quite clear that the aim was to give higher priority to CWSS...

"Mr Rennie explained that a new branch would be set up with resources dedicated to walking, cycling and safer streets policy ... This was an indication of the importance the Executive attached to developing opportunities for more sustainable travel choices".

But in the reshuffle Sally Thomas is to be given different transport responsibilities, and not replaced in CWSS. Branch 4 of Division 3 will merge with branch 2 (under Alan Brown), whose main responsibility is road safety. As far as we understand the new setup, it means that...

• The importance of CWSS within government policy is down-graded, as it no longer has a branch of its own - only a year after the branch was created to enhance CWSS importance! This is quite the wrong message to give to councils, who need to feel that the Executive places real importance on cycling [see later].
• CWSS policy will lose the time of its lead official Sally Thomas, instead coming under Alan Brown on top of his existing full-time Road Safety remit. CWSS needs considerable high-level staffing as it is an area of rapid policy development. We don't know what staffing/priority it will get within the merged branch, but clearly it will not have a branch head dedicated solely to it.
• CWSS, instead of being an independent element of integrated transport policy in its own right, is now part of 'road safety'. This could, at the worst, move the emphasis from increasing cycle use levels, and back to cyclists protecting themselves!

Please write to your MSP urgently about these decisions. Ask your MSP to take the matter up with transport Ministers Wendy Alexander and Lewis MacDonald, and the Scottish Parliament Transport Committee. Whilst Spokes has of course already written to the Minister, our letter will have much greater weight if individuals write too. Find the name of your MSP by phoning 0845.278.1999, and write to them at The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh EH99 1SP. Copy us your letter and the reply.

The decisions are all the more surprising given recent speeches and statements by both First Minister Jack McConnell and Transport Minister Wendy Alexander. These may provide useful quotes for you. In his widely-lauded speech on the environment [overleaf] Jack McConnell said, "In transport, where some of the toughest sustainability issues are faced, we are putting sustained investment into public transport, and we recognise cycling and walking as a mode of travel. Most car journeys are short and there are alternatives - but we must make them better."

And introducing a new booklet Sustainable Jobs by the Labour Environment Group SERA, Wendy Alexander said, "Labour members of the Scottish Parliament ensure that environmental issues are central to debates regarding everything from access rights to the water industry. The Scottish Parliament may have seen the election of Britain's first Green but we, in the Labour Party, have been extolling the virtue of planet-friendly policies before it was fashionable". ['Sustainable Jobs', details from 01382 204 4412 or email secretary@serascot.org.uk].

As stated earlier, it is not clear if Ministers are fully aware of the Scottish Executive changes in officials and structures, and the implications for cycle policy. But Ministers must be made fully aware - so it becomes clearly their decision whether or not cycle use is to be downgraded on the policy agenda.

See Diary in Spokes 81, plus...

Mar 14 remember - SPOKES PUBLIC MEETING - see Spokes 81

Mar 16 2^nd-hand Book Sale Peace and Justice Centre, St Johns Church, West End - please also hand in your unwanted tomes [we mention this non-transport event as the P&J advertises our events].

Mar 23 2^nd-hand Bike Sale by Royal High parent teacher assn. Details: Dave Dickson info@scotquest.org.uk. Phone unknown.

Mar 23/24 Canal Clean-Up 9am-4.30pm (part-time help welcome) A major event. Compulsory advance registration 01786 471333 steven.morin@encams.org. Team leaders also needed.

Mar 27 Cycle Tourism Forum Sustrans day conference, Glasgow. Free. 0131.554.1795

Apr 6 Rally for a Sustainable Britain SERA conference (Labour Environment Group), London. Top speakers. Workshops - Transport, Energy, Planning, etc. Gerry Lawson of Spokes Midlothian leads Planning workshop. Details: seraoffice@aol.com.

Apr 8 Sustainable Transport Debate Organised by transport professional bodies, open to all. European Room, City Chambers, Edinburgh. 17.30-20.30. info: alice.mcglone@ukgateway.net

Apr 9 Edinburgh Crossrail Project [provisional] CRAG meeting, City Chambers, 1900 for 1930. John.Webster.balerno@talk21.com

June 6 Responding to Death and Injury day conference, London, by RoadPeace national charity for road traffic victims. Info: 020 8838 5102 conference@roadpeace.org.uk.

June 11 Managing to be Sustainable conference for businesses to consider Sustainable Development challenges in the light of the forthcoming Johannesburg Conference. enquiries@scotlink.org

June 16 BIKEFEST There will now be a Meadows Edinburgh Bikefest, despite earlier uncertainty. For info, or to help, contact Callum MacDonald 538.0148 callum@bikefest.org.uk. More helpers/ ideas are needed, to create a truly cosmic event. And for the same day's Glasgow BikeFest see the draft events programme now at www.scottishcycling.co.uk/events/gcf/gcf2002/programme.html.
 

Because of the importance of First Minister Jack McConnell's recent environment speech, we reprint relevant extracts below. The full speech can be found at www.scotland.gov.uk - go to the News section, then 18 Feb, then follow the link to the full text.

Even normally-severe critics were moved to statements such as...

"... the most significant environment speech from a Scottish politician in at least a decade. Its hallmark to me was the clear personal commitment of the First Minister..." [Kevin Dunion, Director of FOE Scotland]. "... the environment has been the poor relative of politics in Scotland. Mr McConnell's speech is the first major signal from the top that this is about to change." [Simon Pepper, Director of WWF Scotland].

In view of such comments, the apparent downgrading of CWSS at the Scottish Executive [main article overleaf] is incomprehensible - unless Ministers did not appreciate what was happening. It must be noted, too, that transport was the weakest section of Jack McConnell's speech - and this is hardly surprising when the Executive has committed itself to £500m of expenditure on new trunk roads [Spokes 81] - none of which were in the Scottish Parliament election Labour or Liberal manifestos! Such a scale of expenditure without question means less for sustainable alternatives, will make them less competitive, and will increase motor traffic and pollution. And it is feared that even this huge sum will be increased yet further, when plans are announced for the A80/M80 and A8/M8 corridors.

EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECH...

Today I will set out why Sustainable Development matters to me. Why the environment is central to my political priorities and most of all why sustainable development matters to the people of Scotland

...

We increasingly know the damage, not just in Scotland, that is being inflicted on our world every moment of every day. As the years go on the implications of this damage become clearer and clearer. The world's climate is changing, and is changing too fast for comfort.

We are living lifestyles and building economies which waste the world's limited resources. The more we use, the less we replace. Unless we change these habits in our lifetimes, there will be insuffic-ient natural resources to meet the needs of the poor in our generation; and we will leave a shocking legacy for our children and children's children. We must take responsibility for the world we live in...

We know this damage to the environment hits the poorest hardest. Traffic fumes, pollution, and poor quality housing all affect the most vulnerable: the old, the very young, and those who have least.

...

Although there has been far too little research into the social effect of environmental degradation, we do know that ... child pedestrians from poorer communities are 4 times more likely to be killed by vehicles than children from the most affluent areas.

...

Our great natural heritage is under threat - climate change alone means that habitats will change, we will lose species, coastlines will erode, and our towns and cities will suffer from flooding.

We may not have the problems of overcrowding and congestion suffered worst by many others in the world. But that should not mean that we rest on our laurels. Instead we should see this an opportunity but also an obligation. An obligation to do more than our fair share to protect future generations here and elsewhere.

...

[we now print the entire transport section of his speech]

In Transport, where some of the toughest sustainability issues are faced, we are putting sustained investment into public transport, and we recognise cycling and walking as a mode of travel. Most car journeys are short and there are alternatives, but we must make them better. We will not stop building or maintaining roads, but we must tackle the forecast growth in road traffic and the worsening congestion this will bring.

So our transport policy will focus on tackling congestion in metropolitan areas. Eight out of 10 of the priority transport projects are targeted at improving public transport and providing public transport alternatives for motorists where these do not already exist.

Improvements in public transport, which we are pursuing, will be of benefit to all, but of most benefit to those families which cannot afford a car. It is sometimes forgotten in our modern society, that in constituencies like mine 50% of the population don't have access to a private car. Public transport matters: it is a necessity. The substantial investment we have made through the Public Transport Fund and Rural Transport Fund has turned round the slump in bus passengers, and for the first time in decades the numbers of bus passengers has increased in successive years. In doing so, we help tackle climate change and air pollution.

...

A Sustainable Spending Review in 2002

I want action across the whole of the Executive and throughout those public services and budgets which are devolved to the Parliament in Edinburgh. And the first task will be to design this year's Spending Review so it contributes to Sustainable Development.

Jim Wallace and I have agreed that SR2002 will genuinely con-sider the environmental impact resulting from the spending decisions that are taken, department by department, before the final allocations.

Spending departments within the Executive, and the partners and agencies we fund, will need to demonstrate what contribution their proposals will make towards the achievement of sustainable developments objectives, and in particular how they would...

• lead to reductions in resource use, and assist in efforts to protect Scotland from over-use of resources
• reduce the amount of waste, and increase recycling
• reduce demands on energy from non-renewable sources
• and reduce the need for travel [our emphasis!]

I want to put on record my intention that Scotland should be rep-resented at the Johannesburg International Conference on Sustainable Development, the most important for a decade [it is reported that Mr McConnell intends to attend himself]. I think we will find we share with much of the rest of the world an appetite for and a commitment to social and environmental justice and sustainable development.

...

Truly developing Scotland in a more sustainable way means building sustainable development in everything that we do.. In this government's core priority areas of health, education, crime, transport and jobs, we must meet the needs of our current generations without comprising the needs of future generations.

The environment isn't just another public service to add onto our core public service areas. Protecting the environment will itself make our public services and communities stronger over the long term.

Just as economic prosperity and social justice must go hand in hand, for the long term in Scotland, economic progress and environmental justice must go hand in hand too. That is our challenge for the 21^st century - and this government will take the lead.

Spokes needs a volunteer who can spend an hour or two at the (unstaffed) Spokes office each week, probably during the day, dealing with various items of routine paperwork. If at a regular time we could possibly also advertise this as a time when people could come to buy maps etc. It would be very helpful if the volunteer could also sometimes attend the evening Resources Group meetings (held every 2-4 weeks or so), so we can keep in touch. Our previous volunteer has unfortunately had to stop through illness.

If you'd like to find out more, please phone the spokes number or email Dave.duFeu@ed.ac.uk.

PLEASE ACT ON ANY OF THE FOLLOWING THAT CONCERN YOU. If writing, copy your letter to Spokes.

• The council is advertising South East Edinburgh Local Plan for objections. Closing date 12 April. The plan can be seen at City Development, 1 Cockburn Street and on www.edinburgh.gov.uk.
• Lothian Health is consulting on the Lothian Local Health Plan, until end March. Find it at www.lothianhealth.scot.nhs.uk or enquire at 0800 015 2653. Although there is coverage of the need to increase physical activity and support for SRS projects there is little else on transport, even on such issues as green transport plans for hospitals.
• The World Wildlife Fund is trying to build up support across the world for positive action at the Johannesburg summit on sustainable development later this year. To see how to help, go to www.passport.panda.org.