'Respond to COP26' Greens call on Highland Council to 'play its part' in creating Home Zones

Highlands and Islands Greens today called on Highland Council to "play its part" in response to the commitments being made by world leaders at the COP 26 Conference in Glasgow.

Calling for Home Zones to be set up, so that all main settlements have access to the facilities they need within walking or cycling distances.

Green Campaigner Anne Thomas, speaking on behalf of Green party members in the Highlands, said: "Now is the time for Highland Council to adopt more measures to improve people's lives and the environment.

"We are calling for Highland Council in the forthcoming capital spending budget, to de-centralise services, to make active travel, by bicycle or walking, more attractive, and to make new homes developments greener and more sustainable.

“Firstly, the council should plan services to ensure that all main settlements, as far as possible, have access to essential services, such as schools, healthcare, sports facilities, offices, repair cafés, parks and open spaces, within a twenty minute walk of most people's homes, in so-called 20-minute zones.

"This measure would help create more resilient and vibrant communities and, at the same time lower vehicle emissions by reducing the need to travel."

Ms Thomas, who has been leading a cycle route project on the Black Isle, continued: "Those wishing to travel locally need dedicated cycle routes across towns and villages, and rural villages need safe active travel routes between them.

“Finally, Highland Council's sustainable design planning guidance should be made binding on large-scale developers, so that all new housing developments - as well as being carbon neutral, including the provision of district heating, are based on the ‘Home Zones’ principle where slow-moving vehicles share space safely with pedestrians.

"All existing residential areas should be offered the opportunity of being designated as Home Zones."

“COP 26 provides us with an ideal opportunity to highlight how tackling climate change can improve and enhance everyone’s day-to-day quality of life,” Councillor Pippa Hadley, Badenoch and Strathspey ward, added.

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