Local Elections – campaigning kicks off!

On May 5th, Scotland will be going to the polls again in this year’s local authority election and once more we’re asking candidates if they support our three asks for accessible active travel for all.

This election we’re keeping things simple with one page per local authority area, with a list of the parties standing and their social media accounts, as well as a link to Who Can I Vote For which will allow you to find your candidates by postcode. We’ve contacted as many as we can to ask them to support our three asks and we’re adding endorsements as they come in so you can see which parties and candidates have signed up in your area.

Man in wheelchair using pedestrian crossing with 'I support active travel for everyone'

If you’re a candidate or involved with a party campaign, and you haven’t heard from us yet (or haven’t managed to reply!) then please get in touch – we’re on by TwitterFacebook and we can be contacted by email on walkwheelcyclevote@gmail.com. We’ll then add your response to our pages.

And if you’re a voter – now’s the time that you can guarantee that your local politicians are listening! Please let your candidates know that you want to see accessible streets and conditions where everyone can walk, wheel or cycle for everyday journeys.

We’d also love to hear from you about any positive changes you’ve seen in your area that have made life better for you or people you know. We asked this question a couple of weeks ago:

From the replies, we’ve seen lots of love for changes big and small – from major cycle routes and pedestrian bridges to a humble bench.

What would you like to see more of?

Pestering more politicians: Perth, Glasgow, Aberdeen

As the local election campaign nears, things are starting to get busy! Not only has We Walk, We Cycle, We Vote been gaining new supporting organisations almost faster than we can keep up (see here for the full list – so far!), we’ve had people at the last three party conferences, spreading the word.

In Glasgow, we were grateful to GoBike for taking our message to the Green party last weekend

In Perth (again), the tireless Emilia and Esmond were tackling Lib Dems:

This weekend was the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen – but the real good news came first from Glasgow

Hopefully a little cargo-bike love from the Aberdeen Cycle Forum will help persuade other parties to follow suit, up and down the country

Thanks  to everyone who gave up a Saturday to help out with these – now all you have to do is forego breakfast in bed next Sunday and help us really kick off our campaigning effort!

Activists Assemble – in Edinburgh and Glasgow

We’re still working on the details of how we’ll organise our campaign for the local authority elections in May 2017 – but if you want to get more involved in campaigning, here are two opportunities. We Walk, We Cycle, We Vote are joining forces with Friends of the Earth Scotland which is running free campaigning workshops in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

They are:

  • Activists’ Assembly – Working together for a fossil-free Scotland on Saturday 24th September in Edinburgh (more details…)
  • Campaigning for Cleaner Neighbourhoods: Training Day on Saturday 8th October in Glasgow (more details…)

Both will be a great chance to learn new campaigning skills, meet others, exchange ideas and generally re-energise your campaigning.

 

Candidate info base is now live!

We’re delighted to announce that our ‘find your candidate’ system is now up and running – just enter your constituency or your postcode to get a list of all your candidates running for Holyrood – and their position on our three asks.

Andrew Burns and Cara Hilton
With Andrew Burns and Cara Hilton at the Labour Party conference last year – Cara Hilton was coincidentally the first of our MSP candidates to respond

We’ve also added contact details for them so you can get in touch directly. If they haven’t responded to us yet, please ask them to do so and invite them to Pedal on Parliament (especially if you’re going to be there too). If they have responded – thank them for doing so and let them know what you think, whether it’s congratulations if they have supported us or (politely) taking issue if they aren’t on board.

Our list isn’t exhaustive – so if you spot a candidate who’s missing or any other mistake then please let us know by emailing contact@walkwheelcyclevote.scot. Nor have we been able to contact all of the candidates directly yet, although we’ll be working on that as the campaign wears on. And finally, if you get a response from them, please do pass it on so we can keep our database up to date.

A few stats as of 28th March 2016 (not all the candidates fully answered all of the questions …):

Number of candidates identified: 516
Number contacted: 292
Number responded: 19
Number fully or partially supporting us on investment: 11
Number fully or partially supporting us on infrastructure: 11
Number fully or partially supporting us on road safety: 7

As the number of responses increase, we’ll provide a party breakdown

Have a go now and find out where your candidates stand!

Green Party Conference ride – 11th October

Glasgow's "Bridge to Nowhere"
The ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ became a bridge to somewhere when it was finally completed as a cycling and pedestrian bridge – but how well do the streets it connects to enable everyone to cycle through the city in Scotland with the lowest levels of car ownership – and the greatest problems of poor health and inequality?

Sunday 11th October, 12:30, outside the SECC in Glasgow – more details (Facebook event)

Join us and members of the Scottish Green Party on a lunchtime ride to explore the best and worst of Glasgow’s cycling infrastructure. This will be the first of our party conference rides when we’ll be inviting politicians and local campaigners to come together and see and discuss the problems and opportunities for active travel for themselves.

If you can’t make it, please contact your local Greens and let them know you’d appreciate it if some of them attended. You can get the contact details of your local party branch here