Good practice with travel rarely shared

WITH the average cost of running a car in the UK being over £3,000 a year, it seems a scandal that most employers rely on people buying and running their own cars as the only way they can get to work.

I know many planning permissions demand travel plans from employers like Amazon, to ensure they set up robust coach, car share and free bus options for their staff, and actively engage with bus companies to ensure shift times link with bus times.

Unhappily, though, these rarely materialise in a robust way, and where they do work, good practice is rarely shared. Employers often quietly let these travel plans wither away, with little council or union or indeed public outcry. Why is this not a priority for us all?

Union support in holding employers to account, sharing best practice and ensuring travel schemes are set up in such a way as to be truly workable, would or could be transformative.

It’s an outrage, for example, that school academies and big employers are not meeting with bus companies and councillors regularly to dovetail and improve the extensive bus network we have, with park and ride, the hoppers and other services in Leicester and beyond.

An economic model where hardpressed families are forced to run two or even three cars, just to get to work, is just not sustainable from an economic or environmental point of

view. That is the real issue here, especially as most low income families can never afford a car, full stop.

The workplace parking levy, part of both the Labour and Green Party mayoral manifestos, is the first really practical solution proposed for many years, as constant and consistent pleas to renationalise public transport have been ignored by conservative, Lib Dem and Labour administrations alike.

It’s an opportunity to revolutionise our public transport, congestion and air quality for all. Air pollution kills the poor, disabled and children, especially in the most needy areas of the city. Please grasp this opportunity Mayor Soulsby – what a legacy that would be!

Mags Lewis, Leicester