GoBike’s new national consultation digest and a guide to the Road Safety Framework
Hi, my name is Jim Densham – I’m a Go Bike member but in my day job I am Campaigns and Policy Manager in Scotland for Cycling UK (CUK). I lead CUK’s campaigns work in Scotland but also our policy influencing, which is mainly focussed on influencing national policies and responding to consultations.
To spread the consultation workload in GoBike I have agreed to compile a monthly national consultation digest – it’s pretty much my day job so why not! It will feature consultations from Transport Scotland but also I will use it to highlight relevant national consultations from other parts of the Scottish Government, or from the UK Government, such as the recent Highway Code consultation.
I’m planning to publish the national consultation digests on the 2nd Friday of each month – so the first one will be November’s digest on Fri 13th. The usual GoBike consultation digests will continue on a two-weekly basis but will focus only on Glasgow, the surrounding Local Authorities and local issues.
As with digests in the past I will do my best to cover everything relevant and provide helpful priority points. You might not always agree with my point of view in the digests, so please do get in touch with any thoughts on what you read, and add your own ideas. My email address for GoBike purposes is jim_densham@hotmail.com.
Hopefully, a national digest will give us more of an opportunity to dig into a key consultation issue each month, highlight important points and provide suggested answers for your own responses. A good example is Transport Scotland’s current consultation on the Road Safety Framework, which has featured in the past few consultation digests.
I recently wrote a CUK blog which features a guide to the consultation. The guide can be accessed by anyone and provides selected key priorities and short suggested wording which you can use or adapt for your own response. Our Cycling UK consultation response will be longer and more detailed.
As with many strategies, plans or frameworks published by the Scottish Government it’s hard to find fault with the overall aims and objectives. The problem comes with a lack of detail outlining what Government will do to solve the road safety issues we face on a daily basis. Thankfully, the consultation asks for specific practical ideas so there’s opportunity to provide detailed input.
The deadline for responses is 1st December.
Email: jim_densham@hotmail.com
Twitter: @JimDensham
