Crawley transport strategy wants to encourage people to leave their cars at home

In July, the council declared a climate emergency, pledging to cut emissions by at least 45 per cent by 2030 and to zero by 2050.

But with 43,000 vehicles driving into and out of Manor Royal every day, that would be no easy feat unless old habits were changed.

That’s where the New Directions For Crawley draft transport strategy comes into play.

Presenting it to a meeting of the overview & scrutiny commission, Peter Smith, cabinet member for planning & economic development, said: “We need to take a step back and look at our town in the context of space designed for 50,000 people that now has 117,000 people.

“There’s never going to be enough room to continue to use motor vehicles in the same way that most of us have become accustomed to in the past.”

The strategy looks at what could be delivered in the town over the next five years, from improved cycle networks, public transport, and electric vehicle charging points to boosting air quality, cutting congestion and essentially encouraging people to leave their cars at home.

It paints a vision of the future of the town, where people walk more, cycle more and there is enough public transport to make all parts of the town reachable.

Members from both political parties supported the strategy, though it was recognised that, realistically, getting people to embrace the changes would not be straightforward.

Bob Burgess (Con, Three Bridges) said people would need to be educated to convince them to change their travel habits and embrace new ideas with more enthusiasm.

He asked: “Is there anything in place to provide some sort of incentive to make them change the way they wish to travel and make it worthwhile for them?

“I appreciate there are some factors that lay outside Crawley Borough Council’s control – such as the potholes – but surely we as a council can have some influence on other agencies and, more importantly, the people of Crawley, to say your lifestyle will benefit massively if you are able to do X, Y and Z rather than sticking with A, B and C.”

Mr Smith said: “To get people to change, you’ve got to have incentives and discouragements.

“It’s something the community has to do. We’re the community leaders, we need to start to pick this up ourselves and take it back into our communities.

“We need to start talking about these things. That’s the whole point of having a strategy.”

Richard Burrett (Con, Pound Hill North & Forge Wood) said the council needed to recognise that people’s daily journeys were often more complex than simply going to work and back.

Stressing the importance of ‘evolving’ the strategy over time, he added: “We’ve got to make sure we actually listen to people rather than lecturing them on what is good for them. People don’t react well to that.

“We’ve got to work with residents and listen to their views rather than telling them what we think their views should be.”