The positive health and wellbeing impacts of increased cycling are many. This city must invest smartly for the future. By investing in cycling the council can make a real and measurable impact on people’s lives.

Potentially, money could be saved in other areas through this increased participation in safe cycling. Improvements in health could decrease pressure on the NHS whilst less reliance on motor transport could add to these savings in health as well as in areas such as road repairs and maintenance.

I would look to work with fellow councilors, residents and campaigners, such as SCC, to find the best ways to place cycling as a popular and safe mode of transport in all areas of the city.

1. To continue to use the Council’s public health responsibilities and Government grant funding for promoting healthy behaviour change and support initiatives to encourage modal shift e.g. through the excellent My Journey campaign; I would want to ensure that a proportion of the £1.6 million p.a. we currently spend on promoting healthy lifestyles (e.g. through help via the local NHS for people wanting to give up smoking, lose weight and reduce alcohol intake) is devoted to encouraging more walking and cycling as part of everyday life.

2. To establish a consensus between local campaigners, politicians of all parties and technicians/ engineers about an evidence-based approach to doing what works with whatever resources are available (not just those of the Council but also of the NHS, schools, colleges, police, fire & rescue service, major employers, civic society etc.)

3. To ensure that we put public health and tackling health inequalities at the heart of all Council policies (including the Local Transport Plan and Local Plan Review) in order to (a) tackle the ‘obesogenic’ environment (b) better connect local communities and (c) address poor air quality

4. To place more emphasis on addressing environmental hazards to people’s health – including safety at work, in our homes and on our roads; the City’s experiences of people killed and seriously injured on our roads needs a higher priority as the problem appears to have gotten worse in recent years (see the link below to the Council’s public health pages) and because of the very steep social class gradient where children and young people from the poorest backgrounds are over 5 times more likely to be affected than those from the richest. http://www.publichealth.southampton.gov.uk/Images/Road%20Traffic%20Accidents%20Briefing%20-%20April%202013.pdf