Hi all,
I had a useful chat with Stuart Johnson of Colchester Cycling Campaign about the Colchester Cycling Charter, which they have promoted very successfully.
The idea appears to have originated in Exeter and has been copied in Colchester, Chelmsford and other places.
Essentially, the charter (
https://colchestercyclingcharter.org.uk/) makes a series of positive statements about cycling that most people would agree with - deliberately avoiding controversial statements about cycling infrastructure (for example). The aim is to get widespread sign-up and they have achieved this, with all the local authorities and MPs in the area, as well as around 50 businesses and other organisations. Individuals can also sign it.
It is not the same as the Cycle Ipswich Manifesto (
https://cycleipswich.org.uk/greater-ipswich-cycling-manifesto/), which I think is appropriate for a campaigning cycling organisation and seems perfectly reasonable to a hardened member of the Evil Cycling Lobby like me, but which I think would be a harder sell to the wider world.
Stuart tells me that they have found the charter to be a useful lever in demonstrating wide local community support for pro-cycling initiatives, which may, themselves, be more controversial.
So, what do you think? Would you like to be involved in getting it off the ground?
Leo