West Midlands: Why you should vote on 6 May - and who are the candidates anyway?

On 6 May 2021, residents of the West Midlands will get a vote (well, two votes actually but I’ll explain later) to choose who will fill two important positions in our region.

Both positions are important players in our fight against climate change. Having control over the creation and implementation of policies concerning transport, jobs and housing across the West Midlands, the successful candidates could speed up the transition to a greener cleaner region or put us at a stand still. Let’s not waste our votes!

The West Midlands Mayor is the head (Chair) of the Combined Authority which is made up of the leaders of all the local councils in the region. The UK government passes down (or devolves) money to the Combined Authority to spend on certain public services and ‘growing’ the region (jobs, training, housing, etc). This year, the West Midlands budget for transport and roads was £415million. That money can be used to pay for better road crossings, cycling and walking routes, and major projects like new train stations. So, in short, the mayor has a huge role in tackling the climate crisis.

The elected Police and Crime Commissioner will work with communities to reduce crime and make us safer. This includes speed limits and road safety, and how they are enforced.

To help us make informed decisions on May 6th, I asked the candidates for both positions to tell us what they’d do to make our region less dominated by cars and free up our streets for people. I also studied their manifestos and public policy statements to get a rounded picture of their positions on the key factors for this campaign (including public transport, road use, green spaces, walking and cycling).

+ West Midlands Mayor

Liam Byrne (Labour and co-operative) wants to:

Accelerate a ‘modal shift’ to both electric transport and public transport, to aim to be the first net zero (carbon emissions) city region; with an electric vehicle (EV) public charging network, and charging points in all new home and commercial developments funded by the combined authority.
Investigate the potential to develop Transport for London style services.
Increase bus services, re-connecting cut-off communities, aim for half of all buses to be electric or hydrogen by 2025
prioritise the safety of women and girls in how we plan, design and deliver transport.
improve the accessibility of transport services for disabled people, such as Ring and Ride.
Implement a simple, smart ticketing system on public transport and set a daily fare cap for multiple journeys connecting with buses and expand to other modes.
Freeze fares on buses, reduce the cost of passes and introduce weekly fare caps.
Offer young people aged 16 to 18 years old free travel on buses at weekends
Double the levels of cycling by 2020, with 50% of all journeys in towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030
Appoint an Active Travel Commissioner, develop cycle networks, including segregated routes and canals
Demand powers and funding from the government to control and run the region’s train franchises like Wales is doing and Scotland is doing from next year.
Press train companies to move to electric or hydrogen trains and replace all diesels well before the 2040 date set by government
Explore the creation of a green leasing company to buy and lease green vehicles including taxis and delivery vans, e-bikes and e-cargo bikes, to help taxi drivers and delivery drivers to cheaply lease vehicles that are better for the environment.
Set a target for every person to be within a 15-minute walk of a green space and publish a plan for new spaces to deliver this.
Support local councils to create more school streets (where roads outside schools are closed to through to motor traffic at drop-off and pick-up times)
Set up a local road safety fund for councillors to use in their neighbourhoods ro curb dangerous driving and speeding cars, ask for powers for councils to establish 20mph zones more effectively and economically because current rules are cumbersome.
Develop a walking network, ‘West MIdlands Walks’, similar to the Capital Ring in London, connecting up green spaces and heritage with signage and designated routes

Steve Cauldwell (Green Party) wants to:

Bring buses back into public ownership.
Make sure that older people, parents and disabled people are consulted when making bus procurement decisions, to maximise access for people of all ages and needs.
Introduce more bus priority measures such as bus gates, intelligent traffic signals and bus lanes, by reallocation of road space not by road widening.
Publish a comprehensive bus safety plan.
reopen rail lines for commuter services and build new stations
Implement a multi-modal smart ticketing system across all operators, which includes trains as well as buses and metros, and ensure that payments for a day’s travel using smart tickets and contactless cards are capped at the day ticket rate, as in London.
Nationalise the railways so that profits are invested back into the network and fares remain as low as possible.
Ensure that the public transport system links areas of high unemployment to areas where there are suitable job vacancies.
Develop a long-term plan to increase walking and cycling, including how to integrate them with public transport and how to incentivise and reward them over car use.
Make our streets much more friendly to walking and cycling and create a high-quality, joined-up regional cycle route network
Support the recommendations of the Cycle Charter, produce a costed plan and lobby government for increased cycle funding for at least £10 per person per year in the West Midlands (aspiring to a medium-term target for £20 a year), and ensure that at least 5% of all trips in the region are made by bicycle by 2023.
Promote a ‘vision-zero’ approach (the belief that no one should be killed on the roads) to planning, to minimise danger to cyclists and walkers.
Ensure that new homes and developments include safe cycle storage facilities and ready access to the cycle network.
Encourage and fund programmes that get people walking to work and school, leave the car at home, especially for the shortest journeys.
Appoint walking and cycling champions who will promote the interests of pedestrians and cyclists across the West Midlands.
Extend 20mph speed limits to all residential roads where people are in favour.
Initiate plans for cycle superhighways and key cycle arterial routes
Make sure that road network improvements take account of the needs of all road users and protect pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users.
Provide safety training for bus drivers and lorry drivers regards to cyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.
Implement Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, in collaboration with residents.
Prioritise public transport improvements that will give the greatest number of people a viable option of leaving their car at home, like Bus Rapid Transport.
Introduce smart road charging in areas where public transport is a viable alternative to driving and use this income to fund improvements in public transport.
Implement more low-emission zones across our region and work towards phasing out the most polluting vehicles by 2025.
Introduce Incentives to encourage a transition to electric and low-emission taxis
Ban idling (Keeping the engine running when the vehicle is stationary) in highly polluted areas.
Ensure that all buses are electric, hybrid or hydrogen powered by 2025.
Help more freight and waste traffic to switch to using railways.
Investigate instituting a workplace parking levy in areas well served by public transport.
Work towards a comprehensive electric car-charging network.
- Reduce the need to travel through supporting improved remote working.

Pete Durnell (Reform UK) did not respond to my email and I couldn’t find any policy statements relevant to car free cities on his website.

Andy Street (Conservative) wants to:

Build new metro (tram) stations.
Reopen rail stations in South Birmingham in the next three years, and make progress on eighteen other new stations across the region.
Agree a major programme of new segregated cycle routes and complete the roll-out of the West Midlands bike hire scheme.
Introduce more hydrogen and electric buses.
Improve bus waiting areas in urban centres, and look for more opportunities for prioritised rapid bus routes.
Appoint a new Executive Commissioner for cycling and walking at Transport for West Midlands.
Make the West Midlands the home of driverless vehicle testing in the UK.
Complete the rollout of eScooters.

Jenny Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat):

Believes that the transport strategy for the West Midlands should be designed to ensure the preferred mode for many journeys is not the car. This requires a combination of investment in public transport, reducing the need to travel and promoting cycling and walking.
Wants to encourage both walking and cycling by providing dedicated safe cycling lanes, re-modelled cycle and pedestrian priority junctions, increased space for pedestrians and a 20mph speed limit in urban areas.
Aims to manage the location and design of new developments to improve convenience and reduce the need for travel – she is a big fan of the 15-minute community concept.
Believes there is far too much reliance on cars across the West Midlands. She wants a “carrot and stick” approach to tackle this. Clean Air Zones, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and taxing vehicles have a part to play but these need to be implemented alongside providing people with viable alternatives.
Believes we need a sustainable, safe, affordable, reliable, accessible, integrated public transport system, as well as developing infrastructure which facilitates cycling and walking as viable alternatives, and reducing the need to travel.
Is keen to actively engage with residents in agreeing and implementing the changes – this should include educating them about the impact that our excessive car use is having on our health and environment, bringing in experts to advise on the solutions and allowing public input into the solutions for each area.
Believes that we need to completely revisit the design of our neighbourhoods in order to move towards a model where people’s day-to-day needs can be accessed within a walk or cycle-ride of their home. However, in the shorter term, her priority is to ensure people have other viable travel options, which need to work for the journeys they need to make.
States that public transport must be as convenient as possible – consider how Londoners favour traveling around their city by public transport, rather than car – but, as well as looking at our public transport routes and infrastructure, she wants to develop a comprehensive infrastructure to support active travel.
Wants to make other modes of travel more viable, alongside taking steps to discourage car use. If we do the latter without the former, this just causes anger and frustration. She wants to bring the public on the journey to more sustainable transport systems in the West Midlands.
Has stated that as we invest in and redevelop our built environment across the region, we need to build in more space for people and nature and build out space for cars. The focus should be on pedestrianisation, safe cycle routes, cycle storage, green spaces – but still being mindful that there are some people, such as disabled people, who do need to use cars and must not be forgotten.
On removing parking spaces, Jenny says it is about getting the balance between making car travel less convenient and making other forms of travel more convenient.
Keen to support a transition to a position where it is no longer quicker, cheaper and more convenient to travel by car, rather than by other means. Gradually cutting car parking spaces is one of the approaches that can be used.
Believes there is also already a problem with cars being parked in places which are not intended to be parking spaces. It is not unusual to find cars blocking pedestrian footpaths, making them inaccessible for pedestrians and, especially, parents with buggies and wheelchair-users. She commits to being mindful of the risks of this and ensuring steps are taken to mitigate those risks when removing dedicated parking spaces.
Keen to increase access to green spaces and nature across the West Midlands. As we reduce the number of car parking spaces, that will free up areas for other uses. Pocket parks, trees and planters can all be used, especially in our most built-up areas, where there is currently limited access to nature, to fill the spaces previously dedicated to car parking.
Wants to create numerous, accessible cycle storage areas, so that people are able to leave their cycles securely. Spaces for e-scooters are also needed to stop them being dumped inappropriately. These storage units need to be plentiful across the city so that people can store their cycles and scooters close to their end destination.
Believes that steps to move people out of polluting cars need to be directed to those who cause the most problems and she wants us to be careful that measures do not adversely impact the poorest in our society – she is concerned that the Clean Air Zone in Birmingham is in danger of doing this as currently implemented.
Wants to establish more low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), and believes it’s essential that local residents are properly consulted on their design and implementation with steps taken to address any concerns they have. This is a question of explaining the need for LTNs, exploring together the measures that are proposed, agreeing the implementation and then monitoring how it works in practice and making changes as necessary.
Wants public transport to be accessible to all – including ensuring that all our train stations are accessible for wheelchair users, there are sufficient spaces for wheelchairs, and that users with other particular needs are considered, including neurodiverse users;
Wants to implement a simpler and more flexible ticketing systems for public transport that keep costs down for the most frequent users;
Wants to better integrate our transport systems to ensure a smooth and timely transition from one mode to another; and
Is looking into the possibility of ‘on demand’ bus services.
Will explore re-regulation of our bus services, bringing them back into public control and giving greater control over the service to ensure that it meets the needs of people across the region.
Wants to see School Streets (where the road is closed to through traffic during drop-off and pick-up times) outside as many schools as possible. She says the levels of pollution we see around our schools is absolutely shocking, as well as very poor behaviours from many drivers who seem to consider no-one but themselves. She would work with schools, local authorities and parent groups to rapidly expand this programme.

+ West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner

Simon Foster (Labour) says:

It is neither acceptable or inevitable that anyone should be killed or seriously injured whilst they are a pedestrian or road user. He wants to adopt a Vision Zero Action Strategy - similar to that adopted in London - to eradicate deaths and serious injuries from our roads.

Simon says the volume and speed of motorised traffic can negatively impact on local communities, reducing social interaction within neighbourhoods, causing adverse environmental impact and encouraging an increasing sense of isolation for residents in higher speed areas. Faster speeds not only make a community more dangerous, it also affects people’s perceptions of danger, and can be a determining factor in people deciding not to walk or cycle. He says we must ensure there is adequate protection on all our roads for vulnerable road users such as young people, pedestrians, cyclists, and motor cyclists. He adds that there are various options available to prevent excess speed, including 20mph speed limits on residential roads, traffic calming measures, speed cameras, vehicle activated signs, officer detected speed enforcement, community speed watch schemes, third party reporting schemes, speed limiting technology, civil injunctions, education and public awareness, restorative justice and criminal law enforcement. He commits to working with communities, the police and others to identify effective community led solutions to prevent excess speed, particularly on residential roads.

Jools Hambleton (Independent)

Jools is campaigning for a full review of West Midlands Police and I couldn’t find any policies on road safety, nor any email contact details.

Mark Hoath (Reform UK)

Mark is campaigning for Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party. Their UK website states ‘our police need to focus on preventing crime, catching criminals, not woke nonsense’.

Jon Hunt (Lib Dem) wants more new technology, such as digital speed cameras and other automatic number recognition devices. He would encourage the use of Speed Watch initiatives and restitutional justice for speeding drivers. He wants to move the police fleet to electric vehicles as fast as possible and seek to reduce dependency on four-wheel vehicles, with bicycles better for patrolling local communities.

Desmond Jaddoo (We Matter) says he would seek to work with organisations on the road safety campaign, not just to develop awareness surrounding road safety but also to encourage safe driving. He adds that all new drivers would have to attend a speed awareness course and he would ask insurance companies to reduce premiums for those who had completed this course.

Jay Singh-Sohal (Conservative)

At the time of writing, I had received no response from Jay. I could find no specific policies on road danger, speed limits or pavement parking on his website. I will update this piece if we receive a response.

Why you have two votes:

It’s the supplementary vote system, so you can vote for your first and second choices. According to the Electoral Reform Society, the most logical thing to do is to cast your first choice for your genuine favourite candidate, and your second choice for your preferred candidate out of the two that you think will reach the second round.

Please make sure you vote on 6 May!

Sandra Green, Car Free Birmingham campaigner

Skye GoldingApril 28, 2021