Brighton and Hove’s Left Wing Climate Assembly tackles traffic but ignores any input from respected driver groups

Brighton & Hove City Council’s climate assembly has endored reducing city centre traffic but voiced scepticism about road user charging, and expressed mixed views about reducing city centre parking.

The council employed Ipsos MORI to design and deliver the assembly, which focused specifically on transport and travel. Invitations were sent to 10,000 households and 700 applied, from which 50 members were selected. Each participant was paid £250. The Sortition Foundation assisted in the selection process.  The assembly was delivered through five online sessions – face-to-face sessions were cancelled because of Covid. 

An advisory board included: six academics; councillors from the Green, Labour and Conservative parties; Chris Todd of the Transport Action Network and Brighton and Hove Friends of the Earth; Rosie Sauvage of Extinction Rebellion; a representative of Youth Strike 4 Climate; Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation; Simon Burall of public participation charity Involve; and representatives from Brighton and Hove’s Chamber of Commerce and the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership. 

Fourteen people addressed the assembly, including Jillian Anable of the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds; Councillor Waseem Zaffar, Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for transport and environment; Clyde Loakes, the deputy leader of the London Borough of Waltham Forest; and Rachel Aldred, director of the University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy. 

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