Election results show clean air policies are a ‘vote winner’

The Mayor of London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner has argued that the local election results show that clean air policies are a ‘vote winner’.

The results have now been declared in all 200 councils up for election. Labour now holds five more councils and the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru have gained three more councils each overall. The Conservative Party have 11 fewer councils after the election.

At the launch of the Europe-wide School Streets Campaign, Will Norman, the Mayor’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, commented: ‘I think the election results show that once again that clean air policies, active travel policies, policies that make the city more liveable, a nicer place to be – designing our streets for people rather than necessarily for cars are a vote winner, we’ve seen this time and time again.

‘School streets are a brilliant approach to cleaning up the air around schools making it safe on the road so kids can walk, cycle or scoot rather than take the car.’

The School Streets Campaign launched the day after the local elections in the UK, with environmental groups across Europe led by Clean Cities Campaign urging local government leaders to commit to install school streets or similar measures across every school.

A school street means that the road space outside a school is temporarily closed to traffic, helping to improve the safety and air quality for students and teachers.

Mr Norman added: ‘Currently the school run accounts for a quarter of morning traffic in London, and this is why School Streets – which encourage walking, cycling and scooting – play such a vital role in driving down congestion, air pollution and road danger.

‘In the capital we have seen the massive difference School Streets have made to our communities alongside strong support from Londoners, with more than half of London’s 5-11 year olds now walking to school. Research shows that this reduces nitrogen dioxide by up to 23 per cent during the morning school drop-off. There are now more than 500 School Streets across the capital and we know that children, parents and councils are keen to introduce even more.’

In related news, data shows that up to 43% of car trips in some parts of London are linked to the school drop off, as a Europe-wide campaign to urge city leaders to create new school streets launches in the city.

Photo supplied by Clean Cities Campaign