‘Fifteen-minute cities’ are one measure needed to wean people off car dependency, an environmental campaigner has stated following news that more than 200 electric charge points will be installed across the West Midlands. Technology and Decarbonisation Transport Minister Jesse Norman announced this week that the West Midlands will receive £3 million from the government for 227 new charge points.
The news was welcomed by the region’s branch of environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth, but its spokesperson Chris Crean also stressed that a wide range of additional actions were needed to enable decarbonisation. He added that more needed to be done to provide rural neighbourhoods – which « probably need it the most » – with charge points and criticised the government for not acting quickly enough.
Mr Crean said: « We’ve got to wean ourselves off car dependency, and this is the ideal opportunity to do so. « We have to have a policy principle, that overarches our transport policy that is actually fundamentally about reducing the need to travel.
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« And part and parcel of that is the so called 15 minute neighbourhood stuff and low traffic neighbourhoods [LTNs]. And that also gives us a fantastic opportunity to not only increase the opportunities for people to partake in active travel, but also for the way in which we get about to improve our overall health which reduces the burden on the health service.
« The government has not been as quick off the mark as it could have been with respect to delivering electric charge points all over the country. And therefore, they’re now running to catch up and are they running quickly enough to meet their commitments to phase out internal combustion engines by 2030? »
Jesse Norman said on Tuesday: « The Government is giving local authorities across England additional help to energise their chargepoint roll-out plans. Today’s commitment will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, and plans for tens of thousands extra in due course, so that more people than ever can make the transition to using EVs”.
The term ’15 minute city’ was coined by Paris-based urban planner Carlos Moreno and it describes a city wherein residents have access to all their required services within a 15 minute walk or cycle. The concept has been in the news lately after Oxford City Council, which endorsed the idea in its recent Local Plan 2040, announced it will be trialing a traffic filter scheme on six roads in the city next year.
Some social media users conflated the two, separate initiatives, and incorrectly claimed surveillance would be used to force residents to stay within 15 minutes of their homes. The related concept of the low traffic neighbourhood continues to be controversial in Birmingham, especially in Kings Heath and Moseley where the scheme has begun to be implemented.
Some residents have claimed that traffic has worsened due to roadworks and some business owners report it has had a detrimental impact on their trade. Despite this, last month, Birmingham City Council’s cabinet approved stages two and three of the LTN plans.
Conservative councillor Ewan Mackey expressed some concern, saying: « I think when these schemes run into difficulties is when the neighbours aren’t on board », he said. But Cllr Lisa Tricket (Labour, Kings Heath and Brandwood) was happy with the decision.
She said: « I’m really pleased with the proposals. We have been working very hard to get this across the line, especially with some of the bullying we as councillors have faced. »
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