Better Transport

Your campaign targets are the people who have the power to affect the change you are seeking.

Local authorities have the power to designate a 20mph street or zone and are therefore important targets for your campaign. You need to understand where they are coming from if you are going to convince them to calm the traffic. Understand that they:

• Won’t make community improvements without knowing there is community demand and support for it. You need to demonstrate support for your ideas
• Follow Government guidance. In 2007 the Government published A Manual for Streets, which you will find useful when campaigning. The manual provides guidelines that local authorities should follow when building or designing streets. Paragraph 7.4.2 of the manual strongly supports 20mph streets: “For residential streets, a maximum design speed of 20mph should normally be an objective.”
• Follow plans and strategies currently in place. You should become familiar with these so that you know what your authority is planning to do and also so you can tailor your campaign request to fit into these plans
• Worry about cost. Be prepared to speak about the economic benefits of traffic-calming

Within your local authority there will be:

• Councillors. They decide on policies and make their decisions via committees
• Council officers, who are employed by the council to formulate and implement policies. They write reports for relevant council committees, which will form the basis for the council’s decision

Both councillors and officers are responsible for specific areas of policy –often these responsibilities are listed online. Don’t know how to reach your local authority? Find the contact details online.

While your local authority will be your main target for a traffic-calming campaign, you’ll need to gather some supporters as well.