Stockport Living Streets Campaign Group

We are a group of residents who want to make the streets in our neighbourhood welcoming to pedestrians.  We don't want cars flying past our front door, squeeze past vehicles parked on our pavements or listen fearfully for squealing brakes when our children venture outdoors. 

We would also like Stockport planners to give us more and better cycle lanes, better bus services and safe walking routes that take us to shops, schools, surgeries, bus stops, train station and leisure facilities. We would like trees, flowers and benches in our neighbourhood, inviting us to be out and about chatting with neighbours, cycling, walking, getting some exercise, getting fit and staying healthy.  Living streets are public spaces everyone can share. And that's what we want.

You can find out more about our aims are by visiting the Manifesto section.

Back in the middle of the 20th century, when vehicles became more common, planners decided that pedestrians should be kept separate from traffic.  This ensured their safety.  This is the reason we have pedestrian underpasses, pedestrianized streets in town centres, metal barriers to prevent pedestrians crossing roads, zebra-crossings, kerbs and pavements. 

Most streets have been (and still are) designed with the needs of drivers and vehicles in mind.  A 'well designed' street, according to this way of thinking, is one that helps make driving easier and vehicle journey times shorter.  That's fine with main or arterial roads, but in built-up, residential areas people who want to use streets for walking, shopping, cycling, pushing prams, using wheelchairs, playing or sitting and watching the world go by - they have been given short shrift. 

This state of affairs is changing because many people are beginning to recognize that traffic-centred streets have given us dysfunctional places; streets are just conduits for traffic and people venture outdoors at their peril. Roads are like noxious sewers and who would want to step into those?

Why campaign when the problem has been recognized?  Stockport planners have already designed some engaging spaces that encourage pleasant shopping (see our gallery).  But only in selected residential areas, Adswood for example, have planners engaged with the guidelines published in 2007 in the Manual for Streets.  We are not anti-car, but we do want to defend what little space walkers have and we want to make sure that shared public spaces become the norm, rather than the exception.  

Campaign with us or draw attention to a dysfunctional street near you - contact us.

By way of an example, the Chester & Wirral group acts as a hub for all local residents who want to see better streets and an increase in walking in the area. Some of their key campaigning aims are:
• Joined up thinking from the local authority leading to safer routes to schools and local shops
• better maintenance of pavement surfaces
• more transparency in the planning process

Frances Laing, founding member of the group, said:
"In our area, as in many others, our roads and bridges are still being classified and designed with one overwhelming factor in mind: how much traffic they can carry. We think it's time to change; to put people first."

You can find out more about our friends around the world by visiting the LINKS section.

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