Author: David Robison

Retiring as champions

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Bradford-Shipley Travel Alliance (BSTA) has folded its wings. We retire while celebrating that WYCA have brought bus routes back under their wing, and that Bradford-Shipley road expansion schemes have been shelved.

This doesn’t mean that all is well with health and climate. A transition to public transport and reliable public services is needed to put a stop to chaos on choked roads, pollution in the air, and a lethal reliance on fossil fuels.

As we promised, our general meeting in February decided which similar local organisations would benefit from BSTA’s resources. Three were proposed and have welcomed our donations. Please follow them by using these links:

Bradford City of Climate Culture, for maintenance costs and to promote public screenings of the National Emergency Briefing film in the spring. They have promised to take up the campaign if the Bradford-Shipley road scheme is brought forward again.

Bradford Capital of Cycling, to support communities with cycling and active travel in ways that don’t get formal funding. They have also arranged for Clean Air Bradford to host the archived  Bradford-Shipley Travel Alliance website at https://bsta.cleanairbradford.uk/.

Shipley and Saltaire Living Streets, for consultation to prepare on-street ‘bike hangars’ through conversations, a feasibility study and site selection.

BSTA ways of working – proposal for comment by 21 March 2021

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Bradford-Shipley Travel Alliance (BSTA) is made up of (a) organisations joining it, which each have a member who passes news between the organisation’s members and BSTA, and (b) individuals who have signed up for the BSTA newsletter, for example on the website.

BSTA will work by consensus, based on its founding statement:

Any new road scheme between Bradford and Shipley must result in:

  • Significantly improved air quality and safety in all residential areas affected by the proposed scheme, including for all schools.
  • A response to the climate emergency including reduced carbon emissions, increased investment in public transport, walking and cycling, and less motor traffic overall.

We request that no further consultation goes ahead without information that shows how the intended benefits of the scheme will be guaranteed.

Actions within the founding statement can be made in the name of the Alliance by its organising team. That team currently is in practice Ludi Simpson, Dave Robison and Kath Jackson. The team will be added to by anyone who wishes to volunteer from member organisations or individuals who have signed up to the Alliance.

Actions that go beyond the founding statement will be necessary to respond to the progress of the road scheme. Proposals for such actions will be made by the organising team, and circulated to member organisations with a deadline for comment, usually at least a week but this may depend on the nature of the proposal. Lack of comment will be taken as approval. Any proposed changes to a proposal will be negotiated by the organising team.

Please comment below, or by email to admin@bsta.cleanairbradford.uk. Thank you!

Notes:

BSTA is not an organisation with a constitution and elected officers. It would need to be constituted in this way if it were to handle money, apply for funding and so on, though it could also do these things at the moment by relying on the facilities of any one of its members.

At 4th March 2021 there were 13 organisations in the Alliance as listed below, and 22 other individuals signed up to the newsletter.

Shipley Veg on the Edge, Friends of the Earth Baildon & Shipley, Clean Air Bradford, St Paul’s Church, Shipley and Saltaire Living Streets, Saltaire Women’s Institute, Norwood Neighbourhood Association, XR Shipley & Bradford, Shipley Town Council, Shipley Ward and Shipley Constituency Labour Party, Green Party Shipley, Keighley and Shipley Liberal Democrats. All three Shipley councillors to Bradford District Council (Vick Jenkins, Martin Love and Kevin Warnes) support the Alliance.

Bradford Shipley Travel Alliance has twenty organisations and is growing

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Shipley Town Council, Norwood Neighbourhood Association, Bradford and Shipley XR and Saltaire Women’s Institute are the latest to add their voices to the concerns on how the Bradford-Shipley traffic scheme is unfolding.

Please sign up as an individual and think whether your community organisation might also. You will get occasional newsletters and can add your views and weight to the consultation with Bradford Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

The currently ambiguous aims of the road scheme mean a likely increase in urban traffic, encouraging extra travel by car at a time when all levels of government have declared a climate emergency that calls for less traffic. Safety issues including high air pollution levels in residential areas and especially around schools trouble us too. The BSTA will shortly be repeating its request for much more information about these aspects of the scheme, calling for guarantees of considerably less pollution than at present.

The organisations joining the Alliance so far are Shipley Veg on the Edge, Friends of the Earth Baildon & Shipley, Clean Air Bradford, St Paul’s Church, Shipley and Saltaire Living Streets, Saltaire Women’s Institute, Norwood Neighbourhood Association, XR Shipley & Bradford, Shipley Town Council, Shipley Ward and Shipley Constituency Labour Party, Green Party Shipley, Keighley and Shipley Liberal Democrats. All three Shipley councillors to Bradford District Council (Jenkins, Love and Warnes) support the Alliance. The Alliance is not affilated to any political party but welcomes wide support and involvement.

UPDATE JUNE 2022

Additional organisations joined the Alliance to bring the total to 20: Friends of Northcliffe; Wycliffe Neighbourhood Association; Access for the Disabled Bradford; Bradford and Shipley Trades Union Council; Shipley CE Primary School board of governors; Heaton and Baildon Branches of the Labour Party.

The new Bradford Local Plan – how is it connected to this traffic scheme?

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Bradford Council published its draft Local Plan for the whole district in early February. It divides the District up into area mini-plans, including for the ‘Canal Road Corridor’, ‘Shipley’, and ‘Bradford North-West’ which includes Manningham Lane and Keighley Road. Much of the public discussion will be about where new housing should be built, but the plan also covers transport and the environment.

The draft Local Plan says that Canal Road / Valley Road ‘would become a streamlined high capacity route’ (Section 5.6.15). Responses to the consultation are required by 24th March. BSTA will consider how to further our concerns about air quality and climate through this consultation.

You can read each section of the draft Local Plan at https://www.bradford.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/bradford-district-local-plan. On that same page are invitations to Zoom consultations on the broad policies in the plan, including Transport, the Environment and Housing. They are all from 1st to 12th March, and you have to register.