Campaigning Leeds students are praised by mayor

Some Leeds City College students have taken their calls for bus service improvements to the very top.

As part of their Friends of the Earth My World: My Home project, learners asked their fellow students to name the environmental issues that were most important to them.

From the responses the 12-strong group chose to focus on public transport, and specifically the quality of local bus services – and then went about securing a meeting with the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin’s, team.

They created a visual petition featuring signatures written on tiny bus passenger figures, and took it along to the mayor’s office in Leeds.

Making the case for change

The strategy worked and the students took the opportunity to sit down with Head of Transport Policy, Helen Ellerton, and other staff to discuss their concerns.

During the meeting, they made the case for:

• Improving reliability and cleanliness on local buses
• Using more eco-friendly vehicles
• Upgrading disabled travel passes to provide free bus travel at all times

Eighteen year old Deborah Adumaza, who is studying A levels at Leeds City College, said: “At first I was shy, but everyone was so nice and kind.

“A lot of things I hadn’t planned to talk about ended up coming up, and we were all able to share our different stories and the mayor’s team were all able to relate to them. That was amazing and made things much easier for us to discuss and to suggest different ideas to improve bus services in Leeds.”

Praise for young campaigners

The college’s Social Action Leadership Coordinator, Florence Smith-Drayson, was impressed by both the students’ efforts and the response from the mayor’s office.

She said: “In the meeting they discussed franchising the bus network – as it has been Ms Brabin’s ambition to take the buses under control of West Yorkshire Combined Authority – and the benefits this would bring for bus passengers.

“The staff at the mayor’s office took the students’ concerns very seriously and said that they will be taking the feedback to the mayor. Their plan is to improve all of the areas that were discussed through franchising.

“When the mayor received the petition and heard about the work the students were doing her office sent the students an email on her behalf, thanking them and saying: ‘It’s campaigners like yourself that make real, positive change in communities!’.”

Leeds City College is a member of Luminate Education Group.