Greater Manchester Elections 2026
Key Demands
Our ‘Demand a Better Plan’ campaign calls on local election candidates to tackle the cost of living crisis by improving transport in Greater Manchester. As fuel costs soar, we are urging candidates to make it easier to get around in ways that help people save on the costs of driving, taxis or public transport fares.
Here’s what we are calling for and why:
| Issue | Key Demands We call on local parties and candidates to make the following commitments: |
|---|---|
| 1. Better local transport. Public transport is highly space-efficient, allowing people and goods to get around more easily and improving the environment for everyone. Yet it often fails to meet the needs of young people, those on lower incomes or who cannot drive. | To improve bus provision in their borough, and to seek public transport improvements generally in Greater Manchester, with more services, lower fares, better coordinated timetables and ticketing |
| 2. Prioritise good road and path maintenance. AA polling shows that tackling potholes is more important for drivers than building new roads. Good maintenance also reduces driving costs, as well as being crucial for pedestrians, cyclists and disabled people. | To prioritise the maintenance of existing roads and paths over building new road schemes |
| 3. Creating safe and attractive conditions for people walking, cycling or using mobility aids. This saves people money and can open up education or employment opportunities, especially for young people and others who cannot drive. It also boosts local economies, improves our health and wellbeing, and is good for the environment. | To improve local provision for walking, cycling and using mobility aids, with more safe crossing points, pavements free of parked cars, 20mph limits for most urban streets, ‘school streets’ and similar local access restrictions, protected cycle lanes and other facilities to create high-quality active travel networks |
| 4. Low traffic homes. Too many UK housing developments fail to create communities. Yet other countries show that, if schools, shops, community facilities and green open space are easily reachable by walking, cycling or public transport, that reduces the need to drive, and the whole community benefits (not least because public transport works far better when it is well-used!) | To ensure that new homes and other developments are concentrated close to key destinations (e.g. schools, shops, transport hubs), with high-quality walking, wheeling and cycling networks and public transport prioritised over motor vehicle access |
| 5. Clear ambitious goals and monitoring. Local politicians who show leadership in tackling the dominance of motor-traffic in their areas often face initial resistance, but are then typically rewarded by their voters, as shown by examples in Paris and Ghent, or in Walthamstow and Oxfordshire in England. | To support ambitious targets to increase the proportion of trips made by clean and healthy travel options, both for the city region overall and specifically for new developments in the borough, in line with Greater Manchester’s wider ambitions for clean air and to be climate neutral by 2038 |
