Hustings: candidate Brian Whittle, Conservative

Brian Whittle

Here’s Brian Whittle’s statement on active travel:

Brian Whittle Scottish Conservative MSP Candidate for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley
•The Scottish Conservatives want to see cycling promoted and developed throughout Scotland as a healthy, relatively cheap and environmentally friendly mode of transport.
•In our 2015 GE manifesto we said we want to double the number of journeys made by bicycle.
•Central funding is just one factor in cycling development and it is up to local authorities to ensure that the money is spent as efficiently and productively as possible.
•We should be integrating cycling into local transport strategies.
•Clearly, investment is a more important issue for urban areas and investment has to reflect local circumstances (that’s why we would not support a blanket ringfence for all councils of some percentage for example).
•If we hope to encourage cycling we must ensure that the safety of cyclists is improved. One way to do that would be through improved training.
•We must also look at what our schools are doing to ensure that our children are introduced to the benefits of cycling at a young age, that they are encouraged to cycle to school, and that they are given training to do so safely.”

Find out more about the Hustings here