The Green Party candidate for Bedford’s mayor said 15-minute communities are all about accessing “the basics” without getting into a car.
Adrian Spurrell said: “That’s all it means, there’s a shop, there’s a GP, there’s a dentist, maybe a library, and those are all accessible, so you don’t have to jump in a car and go anywhere.”
It has been widely reported that 15-minute communities are all about stopping people going from one area to another, isn’t that what this is really about?
“Ah no, that is a glorious fallacy that people are completely outraged by,” Adrian said.
“There are some genuine concerns that you might get an element of cliquism coming in because your local store might cater to certain groups or certain price ranges or whatever.
“So there are some genuine issues to make sure that you don’t end up with dotted edges to them, so I think that is an issue.
“But in terms of transport I think you have to be really clear about separating 15 or 20-minute neighbourhoods which is all about ‘can I get the basics for life without getting to a car?’,” he said.
“It’s not saying people can’t travel places because you can if you walk or cycle or whatever.
“It’s all about active management trying to reduce volumes of traffic which reduces cost all over the place and increases health and wellbeing for people,” he said.
Adrian used parents walking their children to school as an example of a positive outcome of not driving everywhere.
“You get much better dialogue between parents and their child, they talk on the way to school and they talk on the way home,” he said.
“So you get this massive change, and when people experience that change and they start to suddenly realise they’re fitter, they’ve got a better relationship, they’re less stressed.
“All of these things start to come out, and you can only do that if you disincentivise cars. and you incentivise other means of transport.
“But actually, employers have a massive role in this – it’s about being much, much more flexible.
“More and more organisations are recognizing that working from home can work, it can be feasible, you can do it on a flexi working basis.
“Why can’t [more] employers just say ‘okay, if you’ve got kids and then we’ll flex around so you can walk and pick them up’?
“Employers have a huge role to play in that, and I know that’s quite a big ask.
“[But] we can start those conversations, but for the sake of an extra half hour to have so much more health and wellbeing seems a small price really.
“We are at a point of human civilization where we actually understand the damage we are creating to the planet and to ourselves by continuing to live the way we do.
“I think there is a moral implication on all of us to say we need to do something about that and to change the way we live.
“It’s not going to be easy but we have to do it,” he said.
A list of all the mayoral candidates can be found here.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
