Leeds City College

Our students have taken their calls for local bus service improvements to the very top.

Learners from Park Lane and Quarry Hill campuses, as part of their Friends of the Earth My World: My Home project, asked fellow students to name the environmental issues 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. They then went about securing a meeting with the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin’s team.

To make an impact the group created an eye-catching visual petition featuring signatures written on tiny bus passenger figures, and took it along to the mayor’s headquarters in Leeds.

Making the case for an upgraded service

The strategy worked and the students got an 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
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, said: “At first I was shy, but everyone was so nice and kind.

“We were all able to share our different stories and the mayor’s team were all able to relate, which 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

Our 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!’.”