General Election 2024: Labour’s position on active travel

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Update, 19 Jun 2024:

I’ve had a reply, and have also sent a final follow-up, both of which are published in today’s separate article.

Update, 18 Jun 2024:

I am yet to hear back from the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Nuneaton, Jodie Gosling. That’s fine; I appreciate this is a very busy time for candidates on the campaign trail. However, I did think it important to follow-up just in case the email was missed, but also given the “on the side of drivers” messaging that has been promoted by Labour in the past week.

Here’s a copy of the follow-up email; the original post and message can still be found below.

Dear Jodie,

I appreciate you’re busy, particularly as the election gets ever closer, but I wonder if you saw the email I sent last week and if you’ve had a chance to consider the points? That email is copied below.

Since writing to you, there have been a lot of comms from Labour with messaging about being “on the side of drivers”. This has left me and others who want and need to see better support for car-free transport, very concerned that active travel (and public transport too) is going to fall down the agenda and not receive the necessary attention and investment that is so important, as I’ve previously described. 

I would greatly appreciate some reassurances that Labour is not going to forget about those who cannot or choose not to drive, or who would rather not rely on the car for every single journey.

I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Thanks again for your time,

Ben

Email to Jodie Gosling, Labour candidate for the MP for Nuneaton. 18 June 2024.

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Original post, 11 June 2024

I have today written to Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for the Nuneaton constituency, Jodie Gosling, asking for views and positions on active and sustainable travel should she – and Labour nationally – win in the election in July.

With a Labour win looking very likely, it is important that the Party sets out a strong position in support of improved active travel, with funding behind it. But will they? Their Manifesto has yet to be published, so we wait to see. What is certain though is that an unlikely Conservative win would see a continued significant retrograde step with their Backing Drivers Bill.

That letter is copied here.

Dear Jodie,

I would like to ask for the position of both the Labour Party and yourself (should this differ), with regard to active and sustainable transport and the reduction of car dependency both in the constituency, but also nationally. 

One of the few positive aspects of the Conservative Government under Mr Johnson’s tenure had been at least a moderate improvement in the support for cycling. We saw the introduction of new design standards (see the DfT’s LTN 1/20), the creation of Active Travel England, and a degree of investment through, for example, the Active Travel Fund awards. While I do not think this went anywhere near enough in terms of funding and instructing local authorities and Highways England (as appropriate) to bring in the necessary infrastructure changes, this was a step in the right direction. 

Sadly, that direction has been lost in recent times with Mr Sunak’s government positioning to put primary focus on driving. The Conservative Party manifesto promotes a Backing Drivers Bill which rallies against important measures such as reduced speed limits, low traffic neighbourhoods, ultra-low emission zones etc. Their Manifesto makes no commitment to active travel funding which has been cut in recent years.

This is a significant backwards step at such a crucial time.

If, as is expected, Labour comes to power in July, what will its position be with regard to supporting and improving access to active travel? Will it provide the necessary funding – in the region of about £2.25bn per year* – to allow for the rapid creation of high quality cycle infrastructure? Will it support and continue Active Travel England as an overseeing body that ensures and funds high quality schemes?

Locally, we have a real opportunity to reduce dependency on car-based transport – not to say that nobody should ever drive, but to give people a real, meaningful choice in how they move. We have an urban corridor running from Hinckley, through Nuneaton and Bedworth, down into Coventry, but no truly good facilities to allow and enable people to cycle any journeys along this corridor should they choose to do so. We have small towns and villages that in theory should be easy to access and connect by cycle, especially with the growth of e-cycles, but with inconsistent and inaccessible infrastructure at best, and very heavy, fast and/or intimidating traffic when riding on roads, it’s not an attractive option. We have a congestion issue which can be helped not by inducing more motor traffic through road building and expansion, fuel duty freezes etc., but by offering people a true alternative for their local transport needs. 

While there have been positive soundings from Warwickshire County Council with its new Local Transport Plan, Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan, and listed schemes under development, its actual movements on the ground have been muted, hindered not least by budgetary restrictions, but also local politics which can be very anti-cycling.

This picture is not unique to our area, but applies right across the country. People are making short, local journeys by car which have the potential to be walked/wheeled, or cycled; some local authorities want to do more but don’t have the funding available to realise their ambitions; others are held back by local politics supported by driver-centric messaging communicated from central government.

While I know local authorities themselves are outside the remit of MPs, this is still an area where central government has a crucial role to play – by setting a clear, unambiguous direction and intent through policy, and providing essential regular, predictable, and substantial funding to allow high quality urban and rural networks to be built.

Active travel has so many cross-cutting benefits, and infrastructure offers a significant positive cost-benefit ratio, that ignoring it or not treating it as a priority makes no sense and really is not an option. It benefits the economy, energy security, the cost of living, climate change mitigation and local air quality, noise pollution, physical and mental health and a reduction on NHS demand, road safety, congestion, isolation and loneliness, and offers independence to those who cannot or do not want to drive (including young people below driving age, people who cannot drive for medical or physical reasons, and older people who may no longer be able to drive). 

To conclude then, will a Labour government treat active travel as a top priority for investment, providing the necessary budget to support a rapid network build, while also setting that direction to say to highways authorities that they must build these networks, must do so to current design standards, and must prioritise active and sustainable transport first before considering alterations or new schemes for private driving?

Will you as an individual MP also actively support and push for this, even in the event that a Labour government itself does not?   

Thank you for your time; I look forward to your comments.

Ben

Nuneaton resident and active travel advocate

P.S. Given public interest, this letter and your response may be published and shared.

Email to Jodie Gosling, Labour candidate for the MP for Nuneaton. 11 June 2024.