As the Climate Action Leeds project enters its fifth year, the project’s Transport Transition Partners reflect on their recent programme of community events and workshops. For Naomi Brown and Jane Turner, the last year has been an opportunity to engage with the local community, bring together and connect like-minded people and showcase work and initiatives from around the city of Leeds.

The four part series of community-facing events began with Car Free Day 2023: Towards a Car Free Leeds. Hosted at Imagine Leeds, the community learning event for third sector, community and campaign groups focussed on active travel, air pollution and car reduction initiatives within the city. The positive turnout and engagement was testament to the variety of speakers including Leeds Civic Trust, Friends of Gledhow Valley Woods, Horsforth Climate Action and Otley 2030. The day included roundtable discussions, Q&A sessions, lunch and networking. One participant noted “…a really open forum for discussions. I learnt about local initiatives I hadn’t heard about and made some positive connections to work collaboratively in the future.”

As part of the Arts and Climate Assembly in October 2023, a completely different approach to community engagement was taken. Organised as a family-friendly event, the Poetry in Motion workshop hosted at Imagine Leeds was a fusion of transport and the arts. Participants were asked to think about a ‘change in motion’ as a way to envision green travel and articulate their thoughts through words and poems.

Co-hosted by Facilitator & Spoken Word Artist Natalie Anastasia Davies, the event was held during half term and attracted a diverse audience of children, college students and tutors, activists and grandparents alike. Of the event, Transition Partner Jane Turner said “…it has been great to see everyone engaged in this activity. There have been some amazing poems produced today – especially by the children! It gives hope that there is a different path ahead and a way to envision transport and active travel within Leeds”

In May 2024 the Transport Transition Partners supported the Alwoodley Walk to School Week – a week-long initiative that encouraged families to walk, wheel and scoot to school. Alongside providing ‘pledge’ badges for children who took part in the event and facilitating connection with the Influencing Travel Behaviour Team at Leeds City Council to provide a Hedgehog mascot, Jane & Naomi supported the data analysis of a parent experience follow-up survey. Building on the learnings from the event, the Transport Transition Partners are hoping to assist in the development of a toolkit that would support the roll out of the Walk to School week across other schools in Leeds.

Most recently the Community Action for Sustainable Transport event hosted in July 2024, provided an opportunity to showcase successes of groups across Leeds working for a better and greener transport system. For more details, the event was featured in an earlier blog post ‘Community Action for Sustainable Transport : Celebrate – Collaborate – Replicate!’

Aside from public facing events, Naomi and Jane have campaigned actively behind the scenes to raise the profile of transport needs within Leeds and support those most impacted by climate injustice. The Transition Partners have worked hard to spotlight transport inequalities during meetings with city stakeholders including Leeds City Council, businesses and campaign groups. The result being that voices of minority groups have been recognised and recommendations to achieve shared goals realised.

The hope is that Year 5 of the Climate Action Leeds programme will build further on the successes of the last year. The launch of our website ‘Travel Well Leeds’ will be a major step in bringing together the learnings and connections made throughout the project. Acting as a ‘one stop shop’ for stakeholders within Leeds who have an interest in transport and travel, the hope is that the website will leave a legacy of our work and be a useful resource that is used for many years to come.

On the 30th July the Climate Action Leeds Transport Transition Partners, Naomi Brown and Jane Turner hosted a Community Action for Sustainable Transport event at Leeds Central Quaker Meeting House. The afternoon provided a platform to learn from recent successes of groups across Leeds working for a better and greener transport system.

The one-off event attracted individuals and representatives from community groups within Leeds with an interest in sustainable transport, car reduction and air quality. The majority of participants said their main motivations for attending the event were their desire to take action to tackle climate change and take action to support nature.

Throughout the afternoon attendees heard from four speakers including:

• Mary Anderson from CAG Consultants who spoke about the Alwoodley Walk to School Week that took place in May 2024 and offered insight from the successful event;
• David Miles from Friends of Gledhow Woods’ who shared his learnings from the recent road closure of Gledhow Valley Road for a green fair – a day long event that attracted over 3,000 visitors;
• Matthew Topham from Better Buses presented examples of recent campaign success stories and offered ideas and inspiration for others; and
• Professor Greg Marsden from Leeds University who showcased the recently launched INFUZE (Inspiring Futures for Zero Carbon Mobility) collaborative project, that seeks to explore what kind of transport systems can work better for people, business and places.

Transition Partner Jane Turner said “The event was a fabulous opportunity to showcase the community work that is taking place within Leeds and to hear from those working for a fairer and more climate friendly transport system. The four speakers provided inspirational examples of what can be achieved through community action.”

With time built into the event for afternoon tea provided by local caterers Bilberry Bee, there was lots of opportunity for networking and conversation.

The event culminated in roundtable discussions based loosely on the wider themes of the day’s presentations focussed on campaigning, road closures and events and school/workplace initiatives to encourage greater active travel. With conversations highlighting the need for action, follow-up work and ideas sharing – attendees left with new contacts and feeling inspired.