On April 21st, Life Cycle UK organised a hustings for General Election candidates to answer questions on walking and cycling from an audience of about 60 people who themselves had mainly walked or cycled to the event.  The hustings were hosted by TLT at their 12th floor offices in 1 Redcliffe St – which has great views of Bristol.   The hustings were consummately chaired by well known journalist, broadcaster, author and cyclist Rob Penn. The following candidates agreed to attend: Thangam Debbonnaire (Labour – Bristol West), Darren Hall (Green – Bristol West), Claire Hiscott (Conservative – Bristol West), Mark Wright (Lib Dem – Bristol South), Dawn Parry (Independents for Bristol – Bristol West) and Paul Turner (UKIP – Bristol West). Unfortunately Thangam Debbonnaire and Paul Turner were unable to make it. Thangam was able to send in her place Kye Dudd (Labour candidate for Cabot in the up-coming local council elections) and Paul was absent due to a family illness. However Claire Hiscott failed to turn up with no apology and was conspicuous by her absence. Being left with a selection of candidates who broadly agreed with each other was not great for debate or democracy. The evening was heavy on anecdote and good intentions but light on evidence and hard policy. However there were some exceptions. – Kye Dudd (KD) was strong on tackling social inequality and knows Bristol well. He cited Trade Union support for improvements to active travel. – As a businesswoman Dawn Parry (DP) began her political career as a Conservative, only leaving them when she realised they didn’t share her values. Transport appears not to be her strong point but she was broadly sympathetic with the other candidates and the audience, though at one point she did propose a “cycling proficiency test for all” which went unchallenged. – Mark Wright (MW) was by far the most informed on the subject having been a councillor for the central Cabot ward for three terms, helping to introduce 20mph and the first RPZ in Kingsdown. He is now campaigning for Bristol to have a Low Emissions Zone (LEZ), but was unsuccessful in recent years to implement workplace parking charges. – Darren Hall (DH) was especially keen to invest in walking and cycling as an effective way to tackle climate change and health inequality.

With election fever building now is the time to review what we know about each party’s position on cycling. The Guardian says “With a couple of honourable exceptions, the main parties show depressingly little vision or ambition in their election programmes” which is disappointing as if you followed the Big Cycling Debate, an event in March involving transport spokespeople from the three main parties, you’d be forgiven for thinking policies on cycling would at least be relatively prominent in the election. Sustrans have set out their response to the party manifestos. Meanwhile CTC…

Tuesday 21 April 2015 7-9pm, 1 Redcliff Street Life Cycle UK are organising a hustings to give you chance to put your questions to some of Bristol’s prospective candidates about cycling and other types of active travel. The event is free, though you’ll need to register to attend. The event is to be hosted by cycling journalist and author, Rob Penn. More details and updates on Life…