Climate crisis, public transport and active travel – Sheffield Green Party leader answers your questions

Sam Wakeling asked: “Will you let Sheffield take responsibility for raising our own funding for emergency changes to make our streets safe for anyone to walk and cycle? Cities already have powers to design our own road pricing and parking levies – aren’t using these powers better than claiming we don’t have the money?”

Coun Johnson: “Yes, definitely. There is a lot of work that can be done to improve walking and cycling and public transport, if we want to do that.

“One of the big things this year has been to look at other ways of raising money. The big one here is the workplace parking levy which we know from experience can raise very significant amounts of money for all the things we desperately need to fund.

“That is something we have promoted for several years, it’s in our budget amendment, and if it was passed it would open the door to getting people in the council to be working on that as a political priority.

“It generates £9 million a year in Nottingham, obviously Nottingham is smaller than Sheffield, but it is a very significant sum to put into additional walking and cycling measures so that is definitely a way forward.

“We looked at the idea of community bonds, there are lots of ideas around that. Not just for public transport but lots of other de-carbonisation projects and Sheffield Renewables has done a really good job of raising money with the community share offer that they are ready to invest into things such as polar panels and so on. They have been battling with the council for years to get use of some big council buildings that they would be ideally sited on.

“We have been trying to make progress with those, getting officers and elected members warmed up to the idea of that and there might be some progress on projects coming along such as an older persons’ independent living space which is being built now that we may be able to get them involved in that.”

Sam Wakeling asked: “Will you commit SCC to stop any current or future projects which expand motor traffic capacity (eg adding lanes around Shalesmoor) and use this commitment to put pressure on the city region authority to do the same? When we need to dramatically reduce traffic for climate and health, why are SCC planners still heading in the opposite direction?”

Coun Johnson said: “That is what we have been campaigning on for a number of years.

“People were quite opposed to the widening of the ring road around Shalesmoor and Kelham Island three or four years ago. Road widening to increase capacity for motor traffic isn’t the way forward.

“We need segregated cycle lanes, safe walking routes, easier crossing points and public transport measures.

“I think we all know you can’t just keep trying to increase the amount of traffic on roads because it just fills up with more traffic. I have a classic cartoon of it as my desktop wallpaper.”

Andy Nolan asked: “What new initiatives do the Greens intend to make happen to address the climate emergency in Sheffield? What new resources will be made available to deliver them?”

Coun Johnson said: “In terms of resources, that is something we don’t have direct control over but there are some really interesting initiatives around de-carbonisation.

“The one we have been looking at most recently is the energiesprong approach which is about retrofitting houses on a large scale.

“There are three key things about that. First of all, it aims to be on a large scale, so you are looking at potentially whole estates of housing because we need to work at that scale to address the climate emergency, it’s no good just tinkering around with little bits of insulation.

“The second thing is it is designed to be a modern form of construction. The idea is to measure up the house and build entire walls and roof panels as single units in a modern factory then install them on site so the work on site is very quick with minimal intervention to the householder.

“The other really important thing is it doesn’t rely on having to wait for government grants. It’s ultimately self financing. This is where it is a bit experimental but people have done work to identify that this funding model can be done. Essentially you are paying for a cost over the lifetime of a home and the occupier has an guarantee that they won’t pay any more than they would pay in fuel bills anyway so they are not out of pocket. The big savings come from a reduction in maintenance and gas servicing.

“The aim here is to basically have net zero homes, not just a slight improvement in the efficiency rating.

“So that is de-carbonisation of homes, the other big emitter of emissions is transport. We have a whole range of initiatives there, going from priority public transport to multi-million pound investment in cycling and walking schemes which will be really good and transform the environment.

“We are seeing more people walking and cycling now but we need to accelerate that.

“There are of course many others but those are some of the bigger ones.”

MORE POLITICS: Planning, cycling routes and Five Weirs Walk – Sheffield Green Party leader answers your questions

Jeltz on Twitter asked: “In which decade will the Blackburn Valley Trail be completed? Inactive travel.”

Coun Johnson said: “Good question. I don’t know. I understand the latest on that is the Duke of Norfolk is going to be repairing and upgrading the patch which is on his land and has been fairly unpassable.

“Otherwise, the problem with this is it has been one of those cycle routes that was planned a while ago with piecemeal bits of funding that were due to come in on specific planning developments. Because there is a way to fund that which has been earmarked it’s not really in line for any other strategic funding.

“But equally, because these developments haven’t actually happened, it hasn’t triggered the payments or the duty on the developers to do them so nothing has happened. So it’s been stuck in limbo really.

“It’s one of those legacies from previous, well-intentioned, planning arrangements but where it doesn’t match a strategic need to provide quality routes in the city.

“I’m not sure exactly where we are with that, I can’t promise which decade, sadly.”