Do you love Leith?

How you travel to and from your neighbourhood can affect you and your neighbourhood more than you would think,

The average cost of travel for UK households is £72 a week, yet 40 per cent of the journeys we make are to places less than two miles away. If we walked or cycled, we could save more than £700 a year.

Cities such as Copenhagen have shown that, with better street design and the right support, more people can be encouraged to travel on foot, by bike and by public transport. The benefits are great – pollution is reduced, physical and mental health improves and our neighbourhood becomes a better place.

In Leith, emission levels are going up as people drive more. So how can we learn from other European cities that have seen a huge growth in environmentally friendly travel?

One thing you can do is make a We Love Leith Pledge. Help improve our neighbourhood by making fewer long journeys, and by walking, cycling or using public transport more.

Thanks to funding from the climate challenge fund, Greener Leith has made it easy and fun to make that change. We’re going to train at least 20 volunteer travel coaches to provide you with one-to-one support and encouragement. We have free recycled bikes to give away to people who can make good use of them and we can even come to your house to fix your bike for free.

We will also be working with local businesses on a loyalty scheme. By rewarding people who shop locally with discounts and special offers, we hope to encourage people not to travel to out-of-town retail parks.

And if that’s not enough, we’ll be working with the Neighbourhood Partnership to plan and find funding for physical ways to help make Leith’s streets safer and more appealing.

Need to know

Go to www.weloveleith.com or text LOVE to 60777 for more information. To become a volunteer travel coach e-mail Ally at justask@greenerleith.org