Elections 2021: Party leaders in Southampton say how they would improve transport

Residents will head to the polls on May 6.

A third of the 48 seats at Southampton City Council is up for grabs.

We have asked party leaders in Southampton how they would tackle a number of issues in the city.

Here is what they said about how they would improve transport and the environment.

Christopher Hammond - Labour

In 2019, the city voted for a Labour Council to fulfil our manifesto pledge to implement sustainable transport, make our streets safer, and speed up your journey times.

Now, in 2021, we’re asking the city to judge our recent progress and renew our mandate to implement big plans and go on getting the basics right.

With limited road space, the challenge is how to share out space fairly for people to get around as sustainably as possible.

We mustn’t return to congestion and pollution by embracing the outdated approaches of the past and that means continuing with our ambitious transport plans.Big transport plans are important, but so are getting the basics right.

Labour are investing record amounts in repairing and resurfacing roads and pavements while balancing the books. Over the last five years, the Labour Council has increased our roads repair budget by 62%.Tackling the climate emergency is a top priority.

Labour has set the target of becoming a carbon-neutral council by 2030 and working to bring all city emissions down.Over the past five years, our action has reduced air pollution and your Council’s carbon footprint.

We have launched a Green City Charter and secured the signature of 76 of the city’s biggest organisations, successfully lobbied to bring Shore power to the port for cleaner cruise ship visits and rolled out over 50 Council charge points to power electric cars.

Although our carbon footprint has fallen by 64% since 2012, we’ve got much more to do. Labour is investing £20 million in the largest-ever rollout of green technologies like solar panels and heat pumps.

We will stop using single-use plastics as a council and introduce a new doorstep food waste pilot for thousands of households in the city.Green is important, but so is clean.

In the last two years, we’ve hired 9 new street cleaners and handed out over 3,000 fines to people littering on our streets. We have created a new fly-tipping enforcement team to catch criminals dumping their rubbish in your neighbourhoods.Some parties are willing to trade your health and our city’s prosperity to maintain the status quo. Labour is not.

Daniel Fitzhenry - Conservatives 

A conservative council will bring forward a long term transport plan for our city to help solve the congestion challenges we face.

Labour’s plans of simply putting in cycle and bus lanes on Bassett Avenue, Millbrook Road and Bitterne Road West will not reduce congestion and pollution.

In our first year we will be exploring a form of mass transit for our city: trams, light rail or a proper park and ride option as a real solution to our challenges to help our residents and businesses move around our city, without facing new taxes or road closures.

Improved bus routes, e-scooters, water taxis, walking and cycling will also help us achieve our goal of a cleaner and healthier city, but we need a mixed approach that responds to residents needs, not a series of changes forced upon people by the council.

Having a cleaner and less congested city takes time and patience, and means we need to work with residents and businesses more to ensure change works for the benefit of all our city, helping us all grow and prosper for the future.

A Conservative Council will listen and take action to improve transport in our city and bring forward plans to improve our city’s parks, clean up our open spaces and sort out the litter and fly tipping problems, which are currently making our city look “unloved” in places.

We have The Common, Weston Shore, Mayflower Park, The municipal Golf Course and The Sports Centre, we will invest in these facilities, get them tidied up and let us show off how great our public spaces are to the world- we have much to be proud of!

Combine these with our heritage sites of The American Wall, The City’s Old Walls, Tudor House, The WoolHouse, Gods House Tower, Sea City & Air Museum and our eating areas of Oxford Street, Guildhall Square and Westquay South, we offer an excellent city for people to live, work and enjoy.

It's time to restore pride in our home again. Our current Labour council have wasted millions of pounds on road changes and likely caused more congestion as a result. Our approach will be to sort out the potholes, invest more in our roads and pavements and also review our traffic light phasing to ensure our city's roads are flowing better, getting simple things done properly.

Richard Blackman -  Liberal Democrats

Sustainable development is at the heart of our policies.

As a city, Southampton needs to do its share in combatting the climate emergency. These policies would also be good for public health and make the city more liveable.

We've signed the Clean Air Manifesto and are committed to delivering it: we would redouble efforts to promote active travel, with segregated cycle lanes, full-time park and ride, further pedestrianisation, investment in electrical vehicle charging and electric buses.

We also need an engaging strategy to actively reduce car use across the city, by promoting car sharing, more integrated public transport, fully connected and improved active travel facilities.

We would work with Go!Southampton and neighbourhood business associations to reimagine our high streets, including promoting co-working spaces for people who aren't commuting to workSouthampton has one of the lowest rates for domestic recycling in the country.

Other councils run by Lib Dems - including neighbouring Eastleigh - have much higher rates. We would introduce regular kerbside food waste, battery and full plastic recycling collections.We would also trial an annual ‘free waste day’, rotating across different neighbourhoods, where residents can leave bulky waste on the kerbside for others to take for themselves, then council workers would dispose of everything that’s left.

This would help counter the problem of fly-tipping.Roll out wildflower and sustainable planting across our parks, open spaces and grass verges to support local wildlife.We have campaigned for park and ride for years, and are pleased to see the Council has made small progress in this area. But we urgently need full-time facilities.

Public transport in the city is fragmented and inconsistent. We would use the new powers proposed by the Government to redesign Southampton’s bus network, franchising them centrally to serve all residents, not just the most profitable routes.

We would work to secure the Toys r Us site to build a modern and attractive integrated transport hub, bringing all city centre bus routes together with rail, cycle hire and secure cycle parking.Longer term, we want to see trams back on Southampton’s streets!

John Spottiswoode -  Green Party

The Green Party in Southampton has always been about a lot more than the environment.

We want an innovative local Council that is modern and at the forefront of new ideas. Fundamentally we need transport in the city to run smoothly without traffic jams, to be affordable and to be very low in pollution.

We want a clean and green city where rubbish does not lie in the streets and litter does not accumulate. We want to reduce waste levels, reuse things where we can and recycle much more of our waste, in that order.

Low pollution from traffic is essential for our health in the city. The more people we can encourage to use bicycles and to walk then the healthier it is for them and the healthier it is for everyone else due to less pollution. We need clean air to prevent serious ill health and over 110 avoidable deaths every year in Southampton.

We will support people taking legal action to ensure that the ‘polluter pays principle’ underpins all regulations and charters.

To achieve our aims Southampton needs a clean air zone where the most polluting vehicles are excluded. It means much better, much safer, cycle lanes. It means good affordable public transport. It means having good nearby local shops and amenities that people do not need to drive to. Electric cars should reduce pollution in the city, but will not eradicate it.

As well as being crucial for biodiversity and ecosystem services, green spaces are vital for local people’s health and well-being. The extent and diversity of habitats in Southampton is declining and the city's rivers, estuaries and coastal areas are polluted and under increasing pressure from human activities.

We face a looming ecological emergency and nature has to be protected in our city and our local green spaces. Wildlife, access to nature and open spaces are important for everyone’s mental health, but especially for those living in flats.

We need all of the above, but to get it needs the political will to do it. That is why the Green Party stands for elections and why it is essential for the future of our city to have Green councillors.

Fundamentally we need Southampton to be a clean and welcoming environment so people want to live here and they want to set up their businesses here.

Southampton needs to be a place where local communities are inclusive and welcoming. We want Southampton to be a city of the future that is vibrant with activity, the arts, leisure and beautiful green spaces. The future prosperity and health of everyone in our city depends on this.

Sue Atkins - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

An urgent task facing the council is the chronic pollution and congestion in the city. 

Southampton is one the five most air-polluted cities in the country.  It is true that air quality has improved dramatically during the course of the pandemic, which shows how much the cruise ships and motor vehicles contribute to pollution.  As we emerge from lockdown the level of pollution will rise again unless urgent action is taken.

Southampton is the biggest cruise port in Britain.  Ship to shore access to electric power must be built now before the cruise industry picks up again.  This must be available for all cruise ships visiting the port so that toxic diesel fumes no longer contaminate the air we breathe.

It is estimated that the port contributes up to 23 per cent of air pollution in the city.  The vessels leave their engines running 24/7 while docked to power their electrics, but elsewhere in the world ships use a shore-based electricity supply, virtually eliminating their emissions.

If we are to promote public transport and reduce car use the bus service needs to be taken back into council hands, with the reinstatement of a central bus station, as it was in the 1970’s.

It should be run democratically with the trade unions and bus users and planned to maximise use as a service for the whole community.  The unplanned and fragmented service currently provided, with four of five different private operators, is not serving us well, and will worsen as the Council has announced their intention to reduce the subsidy to the bus companies based on the much lower usage during the pandemic.

The Council estimates that bus company revenues will fall by 25% which will make them unviable as profit driven enterprises.

We need a transport plan, democratically involving our local trade unions, transport users and community interests, which will encourage walking and cycling and the development of green alternatives, the use of public transport, and integrated with a nationalised rail and air industry to meet the needs of society.