By Joshua Thory-Rao and Ella Harget-Dash.
Campaigners, politicians and members of the public met in Sheffield last Saturday to discuss how to promote walking, cycling and public transport over car use in the active travel summit.
Hosted at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield City Centre, attendees considered various issues including the local economy, jobs, health, and the climate crisis, as reasons to promote active travel.
Julie Grocutt, deputy leader of Sheffield City Council and member of the transport and travel policy committee, said that public transport was a priority, given that not everyone can walk or cycle.
She added: “It’s really important to us that we make sure that while we are developing the schemes we are engaging with local communities.”
She said that this allows new travel infrastructure to be developed where local communities want and need it, not just where the council feels it would work best.
Although public transport is under the remit of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Authority, the council can make sure that bus stops are well placed, and roads are in a good condition for buses to travel on.
Dexter Johnstone, who is involved with campaign group Cycle Sheffield, stressed the need for community engagement in future council plans involving local people as soon as possible.
Mr Johnstone said that Sheffield has a number of successful schemes, including the Greater Green scheme on Castlegate, also adding that this type of scheme should be implemented across the city.
He took aim at Sheffield’s public transport: “There’s a lot of issues with public transport in Sheffield. It’s unreliable, its expensive, and services are getting cut back.”
The event happens as Sheffield prepares itself for the introduction of a Clean Air Zone next week, which will charge higher polluting vehicles that travel in the inner ring road and city centre areas.
This summit also coincides with the four-year anniversary of Sheffield City Council declaring a climate emergency in early 2019. Climate protesters were outside the town hall today to protest what they see as a lack of action on this.
Councillor Grocutt said: “It’s been great to be at the active travel summit today. This is a really important event for people of Sheffield.”
