In this guest blog, Claire Fleming, Modeshift STARS Development Control Executive and Travel Plan Officer at Swindon Borough Council, explores how local authorities can get their own house in order by strengthening in-house processes, improving collaboration, and embedding travel planning into everyday practice.
Getting your own house in order
‘Many councils have policies in place to ensure that developers of new residential sites or employment land produce and implement travel plans as part of planning permission. However, not all councils have their own staff travel plan in place, and whilst this can sit uncomfortably with officers, it is often inevitable due to a lack of staffing or budget (often both).
With a little bit of staff collaboration, it is possible to get a council travel plan accredited to a good standard, even without a dedicated budget. Here’s my tips on what can be achieved;
Staff Survey
If there’s an annual staff survey at the council, ask whether a mode question can be added as a minimum so that you have an idea of how staff commute. If HR (or whoever is conducting the survey) is amenable, a further question around what people need to help them walk, cycle or travel by sustainable needs will help to inform a travel plan and give you some evidence should you need to pursue a new policy or initiative.
Participate in national weeks / months
All year round, there are plenty of promotional weeks that can be piggy backed. Many have downloadable resources, such as posters, that can be used to pop on noticeboards, or information that can go onto the intranet. As well as Modeshift Month, there’s Road safety week, Bike Week, Catch the Bus Month, and Liftshare week.
Provide bus timetables / maps and literature
If your local bus company still produces paper timetables, see whether you can get a stock to keep at a central place in the workplace, such as reception. You can also arrange to have the digital timetables on the intranet.
The same goes for any leaflets or maps the council produce for residents – these should be readily available for staff either as physical copies or digital downloads on the intranet.
Bike security marking / doctor bike checks
If you can afford to buy in some bike marking kits, hold a bike roadshow for staff where they can get their bikes marked and checked over by a “bike doctor”. A local bike shop may be able to provide their services for free in return for advertising. If you have zero budget, ask your local police force whether they have any kits and could come and do a session at the council.
Cycle to Work Scheme
Every council should be offering this as a staff perk as part of its wider benefits package for staff. If they’re not, keep nagging. There’s no cost to the council, as the NI contributions that the employer saves counterbalances the staff time.
Workplace walking group
Start a workplace walking group at lunchtime. This can be weekly or monthly, but just requires a handful of volunteers willing to work out a route and lead colleagues around local spaces. To make the walks more interesting, they can have themes, such as searching for Blue Plaques, conducting a treasure hunt, blackberry picking, or learning about history or nature along the route.
Travel information at induction
Ask the team responsible for new staff inductions whether you can input to let new starters know about the travel options available to them.
These ideas are cheap, non-controversial and bring benefit to staff. If your council is brave and forward thinking then you may be able to use the hook of carbon reduction to introduce stricter policies around reducing car use – either by reviewing policies on the grey fleet or around car parking arrangements for staff.
A good starting point is conversations with colleagues from other departments. Reach to colleagues in HR, Communications, public health, carbon reduction, public transport, and facilities management to explore what’s possible.
Good luck!’
