Open letter to #Manchester City Council about pop-up cycle lanes – add your name if you like

UPDATE: Letter sent at 4pm on Weds 17th June. Please write to Manchester City Councillors, especially those who sit on the Neighbourhoods and Environment Scrutiny committee, about getting real details of what is and is not being done by Manchester City Council.
The following letter will be sent to Manchester Evening News later today. If you want your name added to it, please email contact@climateemergencymanchester.net (we will not add your email to any database, or release it for publication).

UPDATE The letter has been published in the MEN, on 29th June 2020

We call on Manchester City Council to act boldly and collaboratively to create pop-up cycle lanes for people to commute to work, and also travel within the city. Cycling is a social justice issue – a third of the city’s households do not have cars and people will be forced back onto public transport if the Council refuses to see sense.
In replies to citizens calling for better thinking, the Council has merely given the following vague assurance – “where neighbouring local authorities are planning to create temporary pop-up cycle lanes which approach Manchester, we will work with partners in each case, to ensure that safety for all road users is prioritised.”
We call upon the Executive Member for Environment, Planning and Transport, Angeliki Stogia, to announce an urgent programme to first complete all the protected routes into the city centre that originate in other council areas and then to add emergency protected provision on all other main roads.
The Council has said it has bid for £600k worth of measures but the details have not yet been shared with residents – we suggest creation of a web page, updated weekly, on the City Council’s website that sets out this programme and the progress made.
This action will help restore the Council’s tattered credibility. Without greatly increased trust in Council decision-making and transparency, real action on the climate emergency, air pollution and safe mobility will be virtually impossible.
This is a moment to lead, not to hide.

Signed
Jennifer Addlestone
Rose Arnold
Andy Barclay
Joe Blakey
Mark H Burton
Conrad Bower
Roger Bysouth
Adam Condron
Ian Cookson
Elsa Devienne
Mike Dolan
Mike Duddy
Neil Edwards
Judith Emanuel
Alison Hawdale
Nick Hubble
Justin McDonnell
Marc Hudson
Sarah Irving
Carolyn Kagan
Pooja Kishinani
Harriet Larrington-Spencer
Chloe Jeffries
Hannah Malcolm
Sarah Mann
Calum McFarlane
Bri McIntosh
Margaret Morris
Martin Nash
Northern Quarter Forum
Chris Paul
Adam Peirce
Ruth Rosselson
Greg Sammons
Owen Sedgwick-Jell
DL Sheridan
Richard Shirres
Marion Smith
Pete Somerville
Samuel Thomas
WalkRide PiccNQ
James Ward
Jane Ward
Dave Warnock
Adam Williams

Groups signing
Climate Emergency Manchester
Manchester Labour for a Green New Deal
Manchester Green Party

4 thoughts on “Open letter to #Manchester City Council about pop-up cycle lanes – add your name if you like”

  1. As a resident who doesn’t have a car I need to be able to travel to and from the city safely. Metrolink and buses need to be left for key workers so my only option is to use a bike. After a close call from a driver that nearly left me seriously injured I don’t feel safe cycling in Manchester. I want to know specifically what the council is doing. I want all A and B roads to have suitable and safe provision for human-based travel (walking and using a bike).

  2. I think the way Manchester city council has behaved has been pig headed, childish and unbecoming of an administration in charge of our second biggest city. They seem to have no problem signing off blocked pavements when it comes to new developments. Shame they can’t apply the same tenacity to creating a safer city

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