Now York has a climate strategy we have to make sure we deliver on it

Last Thursday the council approved its Climate Strategy for York, following three years of deliberations. The challenge is immense. The Strategy sets a target of a 77 per cent reduction in York’s carbon emissions between 2005 and 2030 - ie more than halving today’s carbon emissions in the next seven years.

Carbon from transport will have to fall by 71 per cent, and from homes by 56 per cent. Changes of this magnitude cannot be achieved by the council alone. It will require each and every one of us to make changes in the way that we insulate and heat our homes, and in how we travel.

But York’s residents do not see climate change as the city’s only problem. In the council’s 2021 ‘Our Big Conversation’ survey, 90 per cent of respondents were concerned about congestion. Four in five expressed concerns about air pollution and two thirds about traffic noise.

York Civic Trust shares those concerns. The Trust’s vision is of a city in which there is better access for everyone in a transport system which is less congested, less polluted, safer and contributes substantially less to climate change. By achieving this, the city’s economy will be better supported, our residential areas more liveable and our heritage and public spaces better protected.

In its earlier reports, the council estimated that, by 2030, we will need to cut the number of miles we travel by a quarter, while increasing our use of buses by a quarter and walking and cycling by a third. Such changes would go a long way to achieving York Civic Trust’s vision for York, and the Trust strongly supports the broad direction of the council’s Climate Strategy. However, the strategy as yet offers no suggestions as to how these challenging targets might be achieved.

Traffic queues in York city centre (Image: Newsquest)

Unfortunately, trends in travel in York over the last few years have been moving in the wrong direction. Traffic levels are now back to pre-pandemic levels, with congestion and pollution in hot spots like Gillygate worse than at any time since 2016. Cycling flows have fallen by a third since 2014. Bus patronage is still around 15 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, and many bus services in outer York and the villages are now under serious threat of being withdrawn.

As other cities have realised, reversing these trends and achieving significant improvements requires urgent coordinated action.

At the council’s request, in 2021 York Civic Trust conducted five case studies of similar UK cities. All five - Bath, Cambridge, Chester, Norwich and Oxford – already have detailed plans in place. Cambridge and Oxford, in particular, are already implementing new strategies to reduce carbon emissions significantly. Those for Cambridge include substantial improvements to bus services, more space for walking and cycling, and pricing measures designed to reduce through traffic and generate finance. Their strapline is ‘imagine if we lived in a place that prioritised people over cars’.

The City of York Council, by contrast, is still relying on a Local Transport Plan published over a decade ago, in very different circumstances. It stands alone in Yorkshire in not having updated its transport plan since.

With this in mind, York Civic Trust published its suggestions in its Transport Strategy for York in February - you can read it here. Its strategy sets out what might be achieved over the next five and 15 years, and offers a coordinated approach for getting there. Key planks are reducing the need to travel, improving conditions for walking, cycling and travelling by bus, changing the way in which we manage our roads and use our cars, and improving freight transport.

The Trust’s aim in publishing its strategy was to stimulate a debate and to propose a range of solutions to the significant transport challenges which York faces. The council now needs urgently to develop its own proposals, so that York’s citizens have clear guidance on how we, individually, are going to help achieve the targets set out in the council’s climate strategy.

Tony May is Emeritus Professor of Transport Engineering at the University of Leeds, and has advised cities across Europe on urban transport policy. He chairs York Civic Trust’s Environment Committee and Transport Advisory Group.