20-minute neighbourhood

[WorkinMumsince4ever]

Hi mum’s!
i wanted to share something with you. Yesterday someone dropped a leaflet on my door mentioning the plans to get my council under the 20-minute neighbourhood.

This means cars (including electric) will be allowed to go outside a 20 minute perimeter, for a number of times (per Year?)

Families I know (mine included) cannot fit in that pattern, and there is no public transportation that we can rely on. Basically transportation is being capped in the name of the “climate”, however there are other ways to really push for a better climate, including stopping using plastics. Ban them. Support innovation for renewable resources, etc.

It feels a new form of control some councils pledged to follow. This will increase the amount of power they already have. I don’t believe that’s ok, no one should have that much power over people.

https://www.uk100.org/blog/2022/11/uk100s-response-net-zero-review

This is already in plans / happening in a couple of towns:

https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/newhams-15-minute-neighbourhood-project-supported-by-almost-20-million-funding

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-20/what-is-a-15-minute-city-and-why-is-the-idea-so-controversial

Is this happening in your town? Hopefully not. I don’t believe omni powers are democratic.

I think you, and many people including councils, are misunderstanding the concept of 20 minute neighbourhoods.

It's not that you are not allowed out more than a number of times. It's that everything you need day to day - shops, schools, medical needs, recreation etc should be provided within 30 minutes walking distance so you only rarely need to take transport out. And ensuring that when you do public transport is available.

Families I know (mine included) cannot fit in that pattern, and there is no public transportation that we can rely on.
Can you expand on this? Not being goady, genuinely interested. As I understand it the idea is that everything is a 20 minute walk
away? So a family (with no mobility issues or extenuating circumstances) would be able to do that? I’m fact wouldn’t that be lots of benefits of having everything only a walk away?

(or have I misunderstood?)

This.

The idea is you won't need or want to drive out of your neighbourhood all the time - identify what needs to change to make that possible

But to be honest if taking away everyone's car keys today would halt climate change I would find myself morally obliged to support the idea

Don't worry I'd let you have them back when you show you have grown up enough.

You need to show you can think beyond ME NOW like a small child

Because having a car you drive whenever and wherever you want won't save you

Climate change is going to change your life and could make it much worse - you can either choose smaller easier changes now or have much nastier changes foisted on you

What about work? I live a brisk 20 minutes walk away from my well-appointed village. But there isnt the infrastructure there to support work for the village. And certainly not work than would allow you to live in the village. And no dentist available within miles.

The point of this is they are meant to build new towns like this, not retrospectively force it on people.
They build massive estates with no schools for instance, it should be part of the plan. I live relatively near to a humungous estate that was started in the 80s, it took nearly 30 years before they built a primary. I visited someone there in the 90s and there were no shops, but thousands of houses. They then add them in on the edges so people still have to drive to them.

In principle it's a good idea. I kind of live in a 20 minute town in Sweden. You could easily walk from one side to the other in 20 minutes, 10 if you're fit. We have everything we need here, apart from a large.hospital, although the health centre provides an acute service. We have a cinema, pool, bowling, konsert house, schools, a college etc. Lots of people who live here don't have cars as they don't need them.

What happens if you regularly travel outwith the area because you want to go somewhere different? They did this with covid in Scotland- not allowed more than 5 miles from the boundary of our shire. Done it once - never again. I am so becoming a conspiracy theorist - never was before (or during) covid but now ......

It's amazing how many people are losing their shit over a concept that is pretty much how their parents and grandparents lived when they were growing up.

It's hardly revolutionary having your basic needs close to hand. The fact that we don't have them close to hand anymore is the bigger issue

Good point. Nevertheless they’re restricting the number of times you’re allowed to go outside 20 minutes with your car.

Who is “they?”

Its council estates re-visited for the 21st century & dressed up as a new concept.

Human beings don’t like being together, when someone gets really rich they buy houses with land & gates.

I think you've misunderstood it. I live in a 20 minute city where cars are banned from the centre. It's amazing. The idea is that for anything within about a 5km radius of the city centre, it's faster to walk, bike or take public transport than use the car. The amenities are all planned so that you can get everything within 10 mins walk. For the few specialist things there is delivery and public transport to the shop or service. We only use the car if we're leaving the city. The city is cleaner, quieter, safer, greener and much more pleasant as a result of having fewer cars.

This, what do people press the panic button when there are suggestions, no it is not about control not mictochippping people no it is not about tagging people or tracking them

Who are “they” and how are they planning on enforcing this restriction?

it’s not what 20 minute neighbourhoods are about.

It sounds great, would you mind saying which country it’s in? Assuming (maybe erroneously) that nowhere in the UK is that progressive.

Again, can you elaborate?

They’re not stopping you from commuting to work or visiting family or going on days out?

How are 'they' restricting how many times people can leaving? Are there road blocks and checkpoints?

You are misunderstanding, the idea is that day to day living excluding work is within a reasonable walk so you don't need to use your car as much. There's a few experiments going on and new developments are meant to be based on this model (ours certainly is not!) public transport is meant to be enhanced too

I think the idea is that if you can slash the number of journeys that people take by car for shopping, school, dr, etc that will mean there are less car journeys overall so less of an issue when people do need to strike out

Please don’t post misleading information like that, @WorkinMumsince4ever , that is not what 20 minute cities are about as PP have already pointed out.

Working mum with difficult train connections that would make difficult to pick up child from school. Have no relatives living nearby, so need to travel. Have met other women in the same situation. Everything works if you live in an urban area, not in the country side.

The bodies who drew up the proposals?

Human beings love being together, we are social animals who need human interaction in order to even function.

I agree with the idea in principle but it's only viable if the infrastructure is provided. I am genuinely astounded how many parents at the dcs school live within 10 minutes walking distance but won't walk to the school or to the shops 2 minutes from there houses. They will drive to the gym that's a 10 minute walk away then use the treadmill for 30 minutes.