Introduce free bus services across Leeds, says leading Leeds University academic

A climate academic in Leeds has called for a free bus service across the city in a last ditch effort to help the city to meet its climate targets.
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Leeds City Council decision-makers say they are confident the council will reach its target of a carbon net-zero economy by 2030, adding that the authority was investing in several ways to make cycling and public transport easier to use.

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But a University of Leeds professor has warned the city is running out of time to meet its ambitious aims, and has called on city chiefs to rapidly introduce free electric bus services on all routes in order to encourage motorists out of their cars.

Prof Chatterton wants the city to have a fleet of free electric buses.Prof Chatterton wants the city to have a fleet of free electric buses.
Prof Chatterton wants the city to have a fleet of free electric buses.
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He added that an ambitious retro-fit programme for home insulation should be offered to all households in the city to cut down on emissions from heating, and that this could all be paid for through taxing hundreds of millions of pounds from the city's larger employers.

Leeds City Council had announced it planned to turn the city into a net carbon-zero economy from 2030, following its announcement of a "climate emergency" in 2019, following this, it introduced a transport strategy to help make cycling safer and bus services more reliable.

Paul Chatterton, professor of urban futures at the University of Leeds, said: "The transport strategy is amazing and what they are doing is really ambitious, but the action plan to make that happen is massive.

"We are all stuck in our cars because there is no alternative. We need the quickest alternative we can.

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"I would call for a free bus service everywhere, fully electric, with comprehensive routes. I would say to the car drivers 'look, sorry, you have got to drive less, but here's a free bus'.

"The climate scientists say we need an immediate and rapid long term action. We have to come up with something immediate - every year counts. Not five years, not two years, it's what we are doing this year."

He offered another solution to the city's other carbon-intensive area, home heating.

"Thirty to 40 per cent of emissions come from heating homes, so the other quick fix is home insulation. You would insulate as many houses as you can as possible. I would tell the council to set up a massive city retrofit project of street-by-street home insulation."

So how would Leeds pay for all this?

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"Unfortunately, the council does not have any revenue-raising powers, so we need to have some kind of city bond, which the businesses of the city can pay into to raise the millions of pounds we need to insulate people's homes.

"This is an emergency - it's not just something that would be 'nice to have'. If we don't do this, we don't just go 'oh, we lost, never mind' - it's not a football match where you get another go. The planet becomes unsafe.

"We need to turn to the business community and say we need to raise the hundreds of millions of pouds - we have Sky Bet, we have Yorkshire Water, we have multinationals in Leeds, I would levy a tax on local corporate wealth, and say 'you hold the keys to the future'. There is enough money in this city, it is just not going to the right places."

Leeds City Council's portfolio-holder for transport and environment Coun Helen Hayden said she is still confident the city will meet its net-zero target in eight years time, adding Leeds had the largest electric vehicle fleet in the country, as well as electricity-producing park-and-rides.

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"I am confident," she said. "We are working towards 2025, when we are going to see how far we have got. We have reduced carbon emissions by 40 per cent since the year 2000, and we are doing good things like invcesting in retrofit in social housing and in the private sector."

The council has spent millions on road improvements to better accommodate cyclists and buses in the past few months, so what does she make of the public response?

"I see it a lot on social media, people saying 'I never see cyclists', and stuff like that. It gets very frustrating, but I am a firm believer in 'build it and they will come'.

"Nobody is going to take up cycling in the numbers that we need if they are not safe to do so, and if we don't put in the infrastructure, we won't get anyone cycling.

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"These cultural shifts take time, and it wouldn't happen if those facilities were not put in place. We saw the rise in the pandemic, when the roads were clearer and safe - loads more people were travelling by cycling. so if we can make it safe for people, the numbers of cyclists will rise."