Election Cycle 2016 – South Antrim
At the start of April 2016 the President of Cycling UK (and Channel 4 News presenter) Jon Snow contacted all Northern Ireland Assembly Election candidates to ask for their support in three simple policy asks around cycling investment, building a greenway network and delivering an Active Travel Act.
The responses received from candidates standing in South Antrim will be listed below. You can also click on each name to contact your local candidates through Twitter or Facebook to ask them to respond if they haven’t already.
| Name | Party | Investment | Greenways | Legislation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Aiken | UUP | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: “If we can afford it, yes to all three.” | ||||
| Richard Cairns | TUV | YES | YES | YES |
Comments:
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| Pam Cameron | DUP | ? | ? | ? |
| Comments: | ||||
| Trevor Clarke | DUP | ? | ? | ? |
| Comments: | ||||
| Adrian Cochrane-Watson | UUP | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: “I am happy to support further investment in cycling initiatives, particularly following on the focus and initiatives that Danny Kennedy DRD Minister had put in place.” | ||||
| Helen Farley | Greens | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: As you will be aware the Green Party champions cycling and other forms of sustainable travel. For too long Northern Ireland has lagged behind other European countries in terms of cycling infrastructure. The development of the Comber Greenway has been a great boost to those communities who are able to access it. It is time we extended such provisions across Northern Ireland. I commit to campaigning for improved greenway provision, £10.00 per person spend on cycling infrastructure and for legislation to require active travel measures to be considered on all new developments. | ||||
| David Ford | Alliance | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: “Yes to 2 and 3. Qualified Yes to 1 until we see details of next Comprehensive Spending Review. Agree need for definite increase.” | ||||
| Paul Girvan | DUP | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: “Yes to all three questions.” | ||||
| Robert Hill | UKIP | ? | ? | ? |
| Comments: | ||||
| Declan Kearney | Sinn Féin | ? | ? | ? |
| Comments: | ||||
| Roisin Lynch | SDLP | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: “I support the Northern Ireland Bicycle Strategy and I would work to ensure its implementation.” | ||||
| David McMaster | Independent | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: “YES to all 3. We should be investing in sustainable travel and implementing cycle lanes on all new suitable roads.” | ||||
| Paul Michael | UUP | ? | ? | ? |
| Comments: | ||||
| Mark Young | Conservatives | YES | YES | YES |
| Comments: “Let me begin by saying yes, of course I support the ideas that you’re putting forward. I believe that an active lifestyle is incredibly important, and anything that can be done to promote or facilitate such ideas should have full support. 1) Do I support funding for cycling in NI to encourage safer cycling conditions and to see more people begin to cycle? Yes, 100%, of course it would be considered in conjunction with other funding requirements, but yes. As I said before, I support all initiatives that promote a health lifestyle, and it fits into my ideas for a regenerating of the Lough Neigh shore front with increased recreational areas. Of course cycling would be included in that.2) Do I support the development of traffic free greenways to boost rural regeneration and tourism? Again, yes, of course I do, and when it can help in other sectors such as tourism and rural regeneration it becomes a priority in many cases. Also, increasing safety should always be another priority.3) Do I support an Active Travel Act? Absolutely, including these sorts of ideas into new developments is not only the future, but is a must for for tackling such things as chronic inactivity and us loosing all room to take part in these activities. An act such as this brings in many positives and is only a positive for the areas where it is enacted.” |
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DUP – Democratic Unionist Party
SDLP – Social Democratic and Labour Party
TUV – Traditional Unionist Voice
UKIP – United Kingdom Independence Party
UUP – Ulster Unionist Party
If you’re a candidate and would like to share your views on our questions to make Northern Ireland a better place for cycling, then we want to hear from you. Please email us at nigreenways@gmail.com and we’ll update this page as soon as possible.
Election Cycle 2016 is a joint effort by the good people at:
