Beginner's mindset...
...and a fresh start for councils?
After last week’s elections, it’s abundantly clear the current system isn’t vibing with people – something far more politically astute people than me have written at length on. What’s far less clear is what better might look like in a political landscape that is more polarised than ever. With national parties spinning wildly different narratives about what ails us and what the solutions are, those parties being forced to share ‘no overall control’ within local authorities could make things, well, interesting.
With active travel, a niche pursuit to many (but probably not you if you’re here), there will be winners and losers, and plenty of cases where it’s anyone’s guess. Some councils could end up in long, costly stalemates in which no one benefits, bar the lawyers – but there is also potential for something a bit better.
In Westminster Council’s Tory majority, re-elected after four years of Labour rule, the new leader, Paul Swaddle, has pledged to fight Sadiq Khan on pedestrianising Oxford Street. Many of Labour’s pipeline of bike lanes could also face the chop. As Adam Tranter pointed out this week, this kind of regional in-fighting could be repeated elsewhere, in mayoral authorities split several ways, including in constituent councils under no overall control.
In Wales, active travel was rather downgraded under Labour after the departure of transport lead, Lee Waters, in favour of potholes. Under Plaid Cymru control, new minister Dafydd Trystan (whom you may remember from my book), describes himself a lifelong social justice and environmental campaigner. He told me recently ringfencing active travel funding is essential, and he reflected general frustrations at slow progress on Cardiff’s cycleways, for example – and a lack of connection between routes. Trystan wants to see more school streets, and a bit more creativity and flexibility around building routes to speed up delivery - but he also wants to make sure lots of people use the routes, to demonstrate their worth. Watch this space, I guess.
