In Council today – encouraging active travel to school

Cllr Angeliki Stogia speaking in Council today (click to view)

The increase in car journeys to and from school over recent years is harmful to the environment, raises the risk of accidents, and damages the health of schoolchildren, parents and public alike. But the reasons why more parents are choosing to drive their children on the school run are complex – shortage of time, longer distances to travel and ironically concerns about road safety can all be factors.

At today’s meeting of full Council, Whalley Range Labour councillor Angeliki Stogia seconded a motion on this important issue, and noted the action to encourage more active travel to schools led by some of our local volunteer groups including Whalley Range Climate Action and WalkRide Whalley Range.

The latest action will be a ‘school street’ (where cars are prevented from going up to school gates at drop off and pick up times) on College Road in the vicinity of Manley Park Junior School. It will be taking place this Friday 15 July at the start and end times of the school day.

Whalley Range councillor wins national climate award

Angeliki at the award ceremony on Wednesday night

On December 1, at the national Councillor Awards in London hosted by the LGIU and CCLA Good Investment, Whalley Range Labour councillor Angeliki Stogia won the Environment and Sustainability Pioneer award.

Working as Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Environment, Planning and Transport between 2017-21, Angeliki oversaw the implementation of ambitious programmes across the city aimed at cutting emissions and encouraging more people to use low-carbon modes of transport. In July 2019 the Council declared a climate emergency, setting a goal for the city to be zero carbon by 2038 – 12 years ahead of the Government’s own target of 2050. A key pillar of this aim was the launch of the City Centre Transport Strategy, which outlined the Council’s ambition that, by 2040, 90% of journeys to the city centre during the morning peak will be done by walking, cycling or public transport.

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Global Climate Lobby with Afzal Khan MP on 21 Aug

The Whalley Range Climate Action group has arranged an online lobby event with Manchester Gorton MP Afzal Kahn on Friday 21 August at 3pm. The discussion will focus on the global justice aspect of the climate emergency. Everyone in Manchester Gorton constituency is invited to take part. It is an opportunity to discuss the importance of global justice in our fight for a stable climate and to hear what he has been working on already.

To register to take part in this lobby event, please use this link.

‘Building Whalley Range Back Better’ – 23 July

Local group Whalley Range Climate Action have organised an online discussion on Thursday 23 July at 7.30pm. The focus will be the city of Preston, the successes of the local government there in undertaking transformation towards a greener economy, and what lessons we can learn for Whalley Range (and Manchester).

Everyone is welcome to take part. For more details and to book a place, see their Facebook post here.