Bristol Mayor and Bristol City Councillors
BWA has chosen five key goals that we are asking 2021 election candidates for Bristol Mayor and Bristol City Council to include in their manifestos. They all are focused on the overall aim set out in the Bristol Transport Strategy 2019:
Walking to be safe, pleasant, accessible and the first choice for local journeys and combined with public transport for longer journeys.
The five goals we suggest could be included in manifesto commitments are:
- Acknowledge and promote walking as a distinct and important mode of travel that requires the level of commitment and funding shown by Manchester and other cities.
- Identify, prioritise and improve pedestrian routes, including those along main roads and to work, to schools, to shops, to healthcare and to parks.
- Remove obstructions to walking that deny access to many, including bins on footways, and introduce a London-style ban on pavement parking.
- Extend School Streets to all primary schools on suitable roads.
- Create Liveable Neighbourhoods across Bristol, piloting two of them within two years and implementing four per year subsequently.
For further details on each of these five goals, see 2021 BWA Election Asks (pdf).
WECA Mayor
We have different set of five goals aimed at the 2021 candidates for the mayor of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA):
- Acknowledge and promote walking as a distinct and important mode of travel, with the level of commitment and funding shown by Manchester and other cities.
- Be open and transparent in developing transport policy. Give organisations like BWA a voice through a regular communication channel with WECA officers and the Transport Board.
- Align transport policy with climate emission and air quality aims. Give more priority to active travel and less to road-building. Fund a major programme of Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) schemes.
- Put sustainable travel and place-making at the heart of spatial strategy, including adoption of the 15-minute walkable neighbourhood principle and a programme of Liveable Neighbourhood schemes.
- Implement the Joint Green Infrastructure Strategy, with priority given to a network of green, attractive walking routes within cities and out to the countryside.
For further details on each of these five goals, see 2021 BWA Election asks to WECA mayoral candidates (pdf).
Police and Crime Commissioner
Elections are also being held in 2021 for Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC). Police are involved in enforcing illegal parking and speeding, so the PCC can help set priorities that will help create a safer walking environment.
See our 2021 BWA PCC Election Asks (pdf).