Current council

East Dunbartonshire council is currently run by a joint administration of Conservative and Lib Dem councillors

According to the 2020 Hands Up survey 47.7% of children in East Dunbartonshire walked to school in 2020, 2.3% cycled and 1.7% scooted or skated. According to the 2021 Cycling Scotland annual monitoring report 3.8% of employees usually or regularly cycle to work and 15% of households have no access to a car. The council’s active travel budget for 2019/20 was £773,880.32 (capital) and £83,441.32 (revenue), which works out as a total of £7.89 per person. It adopted an Active Travel Strategy for 2015-20 in 2015 and was consulting on a new one in 2021

Local groups: Go Bike

2022 local election

Find your candidates at Who Can I Vote For or consult the Notice of Poll

Parties standing (in alphabetical order)

Endorsements of our three asks:

  • Colette McDiarmid, Scottish Labour candidate for Bishopsbriggs North and Campsie responded “Happy to support the @walkwheelcycle pledges. Extending Bears Way should definitely be looked at again to open up cycling routes in the area”
  • Carolynn Scrimgeour, Scottish Green Party candidate for Lenzie and Kirkintilloch South responded “Delighted to endorse this”
  • Emma Sheppard, Scottish Green Party candidate for Milngavie endorsed the campaign asks and responded “Holyrood Greens have negotiated a staged process to more than double the active travel budget for walking, wheeling and cycling over the next few years. Active travel is a multiple win; health benefits, community building, reducing pollution, cheaper and covid19 safer travel and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. The last two are critical as we plunge into a cost of living crisis and only have a few years to make the carbon emission reductions needed to keep to 1.5 degrees of warming and leave a liveable planet for our children. Some councils have used active travel routes as green corridors to help simultaneously address the nature emergency through nature restoration; an example  Avenue End Rd in Glasgow City, where we already have a strong group of Green Councillors.  The unprecedented Green Party Holyrood budget win on nature restoration could  help fund more of that, especially if we can get more Green councillors in to push for rapid roll out and joined up processes.  That is a major reason why I am hoping to be elected in East Dunbartonshire which has no Green Party representation and a poor track record. They are the only mainland council that failed to apply for the pandemic “Spaces for People” active travel funding. I am grateful to your excellent campaign for helping to push active travel way up agenda where it needs to be. “
  • Calum Smith, SNP candidate for Bearsden North responded: “I have had a look at the three asks and they seem very reasonable. One caveat I would add – and it is recognised by walk, wheel, cycle, vote – is that we absolutely have to take communities with us as we move forward. here is no point in setting pedestrians against cyclists against drivers and ending up with schemes that don’t please anybody. When you are not designing from scratch there are no easy answers. You have my commitment that I am coming to the issue with the perspective that promoting active travel is important to me – I had a whole section on it in my introductory leaflet.”
  • Neill Simpson, Scottish Green Party candidate for Bearsden North responded: “I fully endorse these demands. I believe that: every resident should have a safe walking route that connects their home to public transport; public transport access should be available within fifteen minutes’ walk of every dwelling; public transport routes and timetables should be reviewed to achieve these aims; and planning consent should be withheld for proposals that cannot achieve these aims. These are not currently achieved throughout East Dunbartonshire!”