Speakers at Cycle City Active City Bradford

Joe Seymour 

Director, Head of Traffic & Local Roads, Europe
AECOM

Joe is a transportation engineer who has worked in the design and implementation of high quality pedestrian and cycle facilities for almost 25 years. His work includes projects in Europe, Middle East and Africa ranging from small public realm improvement schemes to city wide non-motorised transport plans. Implemented projects make best use of AECOM multi-disciplinary capabilities, with engineers working closely with urban designers and planners to deliver great places to live.

Sebastian Schlebusch

Director of International Business Development
nextbike GmbH

Sebastian holds a diploma in Geography and Urban Studies from WWU Münster (Germany’s capital of bicycles), with additional enrolments at Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi, India.

In 2010 Sebastian was working as a researcher and consultant for the Sustainable Urban Transport Policy (SUTP) Program in Delhi, India. His topic was how to create bicycle friendly cities in the particular Indian context.

Since 2010 Sebastian is responsible for the internationalization of nextbike and has implemented projects in a dozen countries. As director of nextbike´s subsidiary in the UK (nextbike UK Ltd.) he has developed a network of 6 cities so far across the UK.

Chris Allan 

Consultant
AECOM

Chris is passionate about how better transport decisions and choices can result in healthier cities which are both socially, economically and environmentally more sustainable. In particular his interest relates as to how spaces long since forsaken for private motor transport can now be repurposed to function both as transport options and places in their own right. He has worked across private, public and volunteer sectors to build a wide base of understanding and is currently looking at implementing safe and sustainable delivery and servicing options for urban regions.

Robin Lovelace

University Academic Fellow in Transport and Big Data
Leeds Institute for Transport Studies 

Robin is a researcher at the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics and, from September, the Leeds Institute for Transport Studies. His academic work involves the development of methods for analysing and modelling spatial data, which are well suited to help plan more sustainable transport systems. His recent research, as lead developer of the Propensity to Cycle Tool, has focussed on modelling and visualising transport scenarios of the future. This involves quantifying the health, energy and local infrastructural implications of a future where cycling is the main mode of transport for urban travel.

Tom Bailey

Director
Almere Consulting

Tom led the North East England infrastructure delivery programme for sustainable transport charity Sustrans from 2012 to 2015.  During this time he was responsible for delivering £12 million per annum sustainable transport projects across the region achieving a step change in the quality of design.  Tom secured the funding and oversaw urban design work for nationally renown projects such as the reconstruction of John Dobson Street, Newcastle.

Professor Mark Nieuwenhuijsen

Director Urban Planning
Environment and Health Initiative, ISGlobal Barcelona Institute for Global Health

Professor Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen is an expert in environmental exposure assessment, epidemiology, health risk and impact assessment.

He is based at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal) in Barcelona, Spain.

Mark is leading the BlueHealth focus on Community Interventions which is evaluating the benefits and risks of transport, environmental blue stressors, physical activity, and recreational use of blue infrastructure in different social groups.

He has experience in respiratory disease, cancer and reproductive health, and exposure measurement and modelling of indoor and outdoor air pollution.

Mark also has expertise in pesticides, green space, UV exposure, occupational allergens, chlorination by-products in drinking water and heavy metals, and using new technology such as GIS, smartphones and remote sensing.

He also currently leads the international TAPAS study, examining the health impacts of active transport in six European cities and the EC funded PHENOTYPE study, examining the relations between green space and health.

Bernhard Ensink

Secretary General
The Netherlands, European Cycling Federation

Dr Bernhard Ensink has been Secretary General of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) since May 2006. He was previously Director of the Fietsersbond (the Dutch Cyclists’ association; 1998 – 2006), interim director of the Milieufederatie Groningen (the Dutch Environmental NGO in the province of Groningen). He has been Vice Mayor of the Dutch city of Coevorden (1994-1998), where his responsibilities included public affairs, spatial planning, environment, housing and finance.

Ahmed Amjad Ali

Consul General, Consulate of Pakistan
Bradford

Mr. Ahmed Amjad Ali, is the new Consul General of Pakistan, Bradford. A Career Foreign Service Official, Mr. Ahmed brings 21 years of diplomatic experience working in various countries in different capacities which include Kuwait, Frankfurt and Bangkok. He obtained his Master's in Arts in "International Boundaries and Maritime Disputes" from the University of Durham, United Kingdom.

Christopher Slade

Development Officer
Bikeplus Carplus

Chris played a key role in the launch of Bikeplus and the delivery of the Shared Electric Bike Programme, funded by the Department for Transport, bringing skills in research and analysis to the team. He is currently researching how shared mobility (bike-sharing, lift-sharing and car clubs) contributes to strategic policy objectives; encouraging healthy low carbon lifestyles and improved air quality.

Chris is a graduate of the Institute for Transport Studies in Leeds and the Institute de Géographie Alpine in Grenoble. He enjoys the possibilities shared mobility has opened up – from discovering quiet corners of the Alps by 2+ car sharing to riding a Santander Cycles along  the recently opened Cycle Superhighway on London’s Victoria Embankment.

He is a graduate of the Institute for Transport Studies in Leeds and the Institute de Géographie Alpine in Grenoble.

Antonia Roberts

Manager 
Bikeplus

Antonia manages Bikeplus a new project supporting the development of bike share and the Shared Electric Bike (EAPC) Programme. She has 15 years experience working in the field of sustrainable transport. Antonia was part of the team which set up Carplus in 1999 and spenr 10 years helping to nurture the newly emerging car club industry, developing the information programme and accreditation scheme amongst other projects. For the previous 5 years Antonia managed the Active Travel Project promoting walking and cycling at the Universities and Hospitals in Leeds for Sustrans.

Ben Webster 

Design, Conservative and Landscape Manager
Norwich City Council 

Design, conservation and landscape manager at Norwich City Council working to conserve and enhance the quality of the built and natural environment. Recognising the contribution that cycling could make to the quality of the city, Ben developed the Norwich cycle network and initiated the cycling ambition programme. He previously worked in Nottingham on streetscape projects around the inner ring road and lobbied for good urban design and conservation as the policy officer at the Civic Trust.

Dan Sherwood

Head of Sponsorship & Events
Santander 

Dan Sherwood leads the Sponsorship and Events function in Santander UK.
Since joining in 2006, Dan has secured and led partnerships with McLaren and the Formula 1 British Grand Prix as well as with British sporting stars Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Rory McIlroy and Jessica Ennis-Hill.
More recently Dan led the successful bid for the London Cycle Hire Scheme, now the largest public-sector sponsorship in the world and known as Santander Cycles. Dan also developed the vision for Santander Cycles in Milton Keynes which became the UK’s second largest scheme outside London when it launched in June 2016.

Steve Hartley

Strategic Director
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council 

Steve Hartley is Bradford Council’s Strategic Director for Place, overseeing all activities that contribute to making the District a great place to live, work and enjoy: from economic development, housing, planning and transport to sport, culture, waste management and neighbourhood, customer and community services. 

A Cambridge graduate, Steve has 10 years private sector experience in manufacturing as both a production engineer and an IT systems specialist.

He spent 15 years working in community regeneration, initially in London for City Challenge and Single Regeneration Budget programmes, before returning to his native Bradford in 2000 as Chief Executive of Bradford Trident, the development trust formed to run the New Deal for Communities programme, awarded 'Regeneration Partnership of the Year' in 2006.  He joined Bradford Council as Assistant Director for Neighbourhoods in 2008 and is also a non-executive director of the National Association for Neighbourhood Management. 

Kersten England 

Chief Executive
City of Bradford/CityConnect

Kersten is the lead Chief Executive for innovation and growth in the Leeds City Region, a member of the Council of the University of Bradford and of the National Media Museum’s Advisory Board. Kersten's career has included work in the voluntary sector, higher education, central government as well as 21 years in local government. She is passionate about community capacity building, diversity and equality, supporting civic leadership and sustainable urban growth. 

Christopher Johnson 

Senior Development Officer
Cycling Scotland

Christopher Johnson joined Cycling Scotland in 2009 and has responsibility for the organisation’s training and education programmes, including Bikeability Scotland.  He is currently leading the rollout of a practical awareness programme for learner drivers, and is a founder member of the Play on Pedals partnership supporting pre-school children across Scotland to learn to ride a bike.

Peter Leslie

Principal Engineer
AECOM

Peter, joined AECOM in January 2017 as a Principal Engineer in our Glasgow office. Peter has worked in active travel for 16 years and leads our traffic and local roads team. Peter has designed and manged the build of over 120kms of active travel routes throughout Scotland with him reviewing over 600kms of routes for feasibility. Working for clients all across Scotland he has assisted them in achieving millions of pounds in investment to improve active travel for people who choose to cycle.

Simon Telford 

Senior Consultant
AECOM

Simon is a Principal Consultant and regional representative of AECOM’s cycling action group. He has experience of developing and implementing cycling solutions throughout the full project lifecycle from strategy development and business case production through to implementation and monitoring and evaluation. Simon recently spent three years on secondment to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) supporting the delivery of their Cycle City Ambition Grant Programme and also the funding bid for CCAG2. He is currently supporting TfGM with the update of their cycle design guidance.

Jonathan Wilson 

Development Director
CITU

Jonathan is the driving force in creating a step change through progressive, sustainable and inspiring places and communities through the delivery of exemplar and exciting developments.

Underpinned by a successful qualification in architecture, Jonathan has established a realistic vision for regeneration, design and innovative methods of developments, providing real projects, in the real world for real people.

Jonathan drives innovation from within Citu and shares a deep and boundless passion for provocative progression in projects and product development with a prerequisite and hunger to integrate sophisticated, climate resilient, refined architecture throughout.

Kornelius Vantuyl

Design Manager
Transport for London

Korak has worked in Transport for London for over 17 years. He has spent 13 years designing and implementing Traffic Signal projects on such large schemes, predominantly in Central London, which included large transformational projects at Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus and also ensuring implementation of the Active Traffic Management / SCOOT control for the Congestion charging Zone and the London Games in 2012.

He has rewritten TfL’s Traffic Signal guidance documentation (SQA 640 series).

Korak became TfL’s technical lead on the TRL Cycle facilities trials and has been instrumental in ensuring that the equipment and innovative designs which were extensively tested were then authorised by the Department for Transport and incorporated into the new TSRGD 2016.

He lead the design team which implemented these lessons learnt on the “Better Junctions” project and also the consistent roll-out of these techniques on the wide ranging cycle schemes in TfL, such as the Cycle Super Highways, Cycle Grid and Quietways. He is also TfL’s representative at the Cycle Cities Ambition Group.

Hugh McCarthy 

Senior Consultant
AECOM

Hugh is a transport engineer with ten years’ experience working in both the UK and Ireland. His work on major projects has involved Thames Tideway Tunnel, Southwark Cycle Spine, Stratford Gyratory removal, A406 Brentfield Bus Priority and Dun Laoghaire Quality Bus Corridor. At AECOM, Hugh is primarily involved in town centre schemes which focus on the correct balance of road safety, cycle infrastructure while providing value for money and maintaining local services and capacity. This has included liaising with the public to ensure a scheme is provided that is satisfactory to all.

Tim Curtis

Inclusive Cycling 

Tim Curtis, artist, cyclist. BC Level 2 coach, Cycling UK ride manager, Yorkshire + Humber Special Olympics lead cycling coach, Bradford Disability cycling club lead coach. Directly coached hundreds of folk to cycle in last 18 months. A painter, illustrator and printmaker, specialising in fully inclusive community engagement. Commissioned to make cycling art on a massive scale: from giant land art for helicopter cameras, to VR film of routes for simulators that reach audiences of thousands. Paintings, Illustrations, installations all available to view at Bradford Capital of Cycling Hall Ings (a pop up art and cycle hub made over 2 months in 2017).  

Professor John Wright

Director
Born In Bradford

John Wright is a clinical epidemiologist with a background in hospital medicine and public health in the UK and in Africa. He has been working in Bradford since 1996 and is Visiting Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Universities of York, Leeds and Bradford. He is an applied health services researcher with particular interests in translation of research into practice and is the author of over 100 peer review papers, seven Cochrane reviews and three textbooks. He is the chief investigator of the Born in Bradford cohort study.

Andy Salkeld

Planning, Development & Transportation
Leicester City Council 

Andy has represented Leicester City Council on all aspects of cycling development since 2004. He recently developed the Cycle City Action Plan to lead on aspects of Infrastructure, Promotions, Training and Engagement. He volunteers for Motion Disabled, Leicester Wheels for All and as a Panel Judge at Leicester Comedy Festival. He also has a season ticket at Middlesbrough FC.

Kevin Chesworth

Project Director
Mouchel 

Hi, I’m Kevin Chesworth, and from 2013 to 2016 I led and managed the design and construction phases of the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway.  I work for consulting engineers Mouchel (now part of WSP) who, in partnership with Leeds City Council, City of Bradford MDC and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, delivered this step-change in cycle infrastructure.

I have worked in the civil engineering industry for nearly 25 years, predominantly in highways for central and local government clients.  Building relationships and sharing knowledge with stakeholders and other cycle cities have been particularly fulfilling parts to my role.

Julian Scriven 

Director
nextbike UK

In addition to over 15 years Executive level experience, Julian has over 25 years’ experience in member and subscription based businesses across awide range of sectors including several years in community focused organisations. Spending ten years in Amsterdam led Julian to view cycling as a more of transport, not a sport.  Julian brings a strong marketing focus to his team.

Keith Morgan

Principal Transport Planner 
Nottingham City Council 

Keith Morgan is a Principal Transport Planner within Nottingham City Council’s Cycling and Roadspace Transformation Team. The team is responsible for the delivery of improved infrastructure for cyclists both on and off road, and new and enhanced public realm in-particular within the City Centre. This work has also sees the team overseeing Nottingham’s Cycling Strategy and the City’s own Cycle Design Guide. 

Tim Jones 

Reader in Urban Mobility, School of the Built Environment
Oxford Brookes University 

Tim Jones is Principal Investigator of the Brazil-UK Healthy Urban Mobility (HUM) project.

Tim is a Senior Research Fellow in Sustainable Urban Mobility at the School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University. His work focuses on urban mobility, particularly walking and cycling, and its connection with environmental sustainability, wellbeing and social inclusion.

Adrian Lord 

Associate Director
Phil Jones Associates

Adrian is a member of the DfT cycle proofing working group and is retained as infrastructure advisor to British Cycling.  He acts as technical lead for all the work PJA carries out in the design of cycle infrastructure, and the development of cycle strategies.

Phil Jones 

Managing Director
Phil Jones Associates 

BSc (Hons) CEng MICE MCIHT FIHIE

Phil heads up the firm and has over 25 years experience in the planning and design of development infrastructure, with particular expertise in traffic analysis, transport planning and highway design.

Phil specialises in achieving synergy between highway and urban design, with the aim of creating places and spaces that meet aesthetic, social and functional aims. He advises a large number of private and public sector clients on transportation and infrastructure matters.

Phil is an acknowledged expert on Home Zones, and was part of the team that produced Manual for Streets and Manual for Streets 2. He has carried out research into residential parking for DCLG and is leading further research in this area for several local authorities. Phil is also a member of the CABE Space Enabling Panel and the CIHT Urban Design Group.

Carsten Gniot

Transport and Planning
City of Hamm, Germany

In 1990, Hamm in Westfalia, one of the average cities hidden at the fringe of the Ruhr Industrial Corridor, reorganized its planning and transportation administration fundamentally. That gave Carsten, a young engineer and urbanist, the unique opportunity to build up a “small but smart” team to lead and coordinate the city’s  measures and moves towards future transportation.

In the Years to follow, Hamm doubled its annual expenses for bikeways, built a huge cycle service center at the railway station, increased the Quality of the bus network by 30 % and went up from the bottom line to one of the road-safest cities in the federal state of North Rhine Westfalia (NRW). Actually, the City builds a new suburban Railway Station on its own and takes a major role in promoting the RS-One, Germany’s first Cycle Superhighway.

Looking forward to the ‘CycleCity – ActiveCity’ congress in Bradford, Carsten states:

“Our twin City of Bradford shows much of the same fighting spirit and pragmatism you will only find in  working-class towns. What a great chance to share and complete our skills, and to prove that cycling can succeed, not only in fancy Metropolis, but everywhere!”

Xavier Brice 

CEO
Sustrans

Xavier has a wealth of experience in public transport, working for the past ten years in a number of roles for Transport for London. This most recently involves leading the Fit for the Future Stations programme, the biggest change to London Underground for a generation.

He also designed a new cycling strategy for London, which led to the introduction of the Cycle Superhighways and Cycle Hire Scheme.

Passionately committed to sustainable transport Xavier is a lifelong cyclist and public-transport aficionado. He is a long-term Sustrans supporter with a garage full of bikes of various shapes and sizes.

Tim Burns 

Senior Policy and Partnerships Advisor
Sustrans

Tim has 15 years of experience working in the charity sector focusing on the environment including travel, food, resource management and conservation. Tim worked for the charities Waste Watch and Keep Britain Tidy in a variety of delivery, research, policy and campaigning roles where he set up the Centre for Social Innovation. Following a recent move in 2015 to Bristol Tim now works for Sustrans as a Senior Policy Advisor.

Dominic Smith 

Cycling Infrastructure Manager
Transport for Greater Manchester 

Dominic Smith leads TfGM's Cycling Infrastructure team, which is delivering some of the most significant and innovative cycling infrastructure schemes in the UK.  He has a background of 15 years’ experience in transport planning, traffic engineering and road safety, and has previously held senior roles in district authorities within Greater Manchester, and in consultancy.  He believes cycling is the answer to some of the world's more significant problems.

Dr Patrick Allen 

Senior Lecturer in New Media
University of Bradford 

Patrick has published research on the application of framing and multimodality to a variety of contemporary media spaces, for example, in news discourse, film and recently to urban screens (Allen 2008, 2009 and 2014). Lately his work has concentrated on "augmented spaces" and in particular the use of large-scale LED screen displays in prominent city centre locations.

Patrick has developed research strategies that assist in understanding media consumption in urban public space; visuality and embodiment in the built environment; the impact of rich-media on the experience of the urban; the investigation of curatorial practices and the management of artistic and creative content using augmented spaces and its impact on the experience of the city.

As Senior Fellow of the HEA, Patrick is committed to delivering excellence and the highest quality teaching. An important part of this commitment is achieved through the integration of key aspects of his research interests in visuality, visual literacy, multimodality and augmented space into specific learning activities and case studies. Instances of specific modules where teaching is informed and influenced by his research are 'Visual Literacy', 'Storytelling for Multiple Platforms', 'Engaging the Audience' and 'Imaging and Design', where he shares case studies and examples of his own output in relation to the creative process, design for new media and augmented public space.

Dr Louise Reardon

Research Fellow in Governance & Transport Policy
University of Leeds 

Louise Reardon is Research Fellow in Governance and Transport Policy at the Institute for Transport Studies University of Leeds, and co-Chair of the Governance and Decision-Making Processes Special Interest Group of the World Conference on Transport Research Society. Louise’s research utilises theories of governance and the policy process to analyse the role and response of politics and policy to two wide-ranging issues; wellbeing and climate change.   

Ben Still 

Managing Director
West Yorkshire Combined Authority

Ben Still joined West Yorkshire Combined Authority (CA) in February 2016, leading the organisation that as well as the Combined Authority. As part of his role he also supports the Local Enterprise Partnership and City Region Leaders, as well as leading the rail planning work for Transport for the North as part of its senior officer team.

Ben’s background is in transport and economic development, policy making and delivery. Previously he led the Sheffield City Region Executive, supporting the Sheffield LEP, and was interim Director General of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. In this role he led the creation of the Sheffield City Region infrastructure programmes, the Combined Authority, the Strategic Economic Plan and series of Devolution deals culminating in the Mayoral deal last year.

Ben has experience in both the private and public sectors, including a decade in Whitehall as well as several years in economic consultancy based in both London and Yorkshire.

John Dennis 

Advisor 
West Yorkshire Combined Authority

John is Chair of the Advisory Group for the CityConnect Programme, a role which involves seeking, collating and focusing informed feedback from a range of key independent stakeholders and advising the Programme Board accordingly. John has a background of collaborative and partnership working, both professionally and in a voluntary capacity and is also a member of the Active Bradford partnership that is dedicated to creating opportunities for active lifestyles throughout Bradford district.

Elizabeth Hunter 

Head of Transport Policy
West Yorkshire Combined Authority 

Liz Hunter is currently Head of Transport Policy at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, having previously worked at Leeds City Council as the Transport Strategy Manager. Liz moved to Leeds three years ago after ten years in the civil service in London working at the Department for Transport, HM Treasury and HS2 Ltd.

Isabelle Clement

Director
Wheels for Wellbeing

Isabelle is Director of Wheels for Wellbeing, an award-winning charity based in London that supports disabled people to discover or rediscover cycling. Established in 2007, the charity works with around 1,300 disabled and older people each year, supporting them to discover that they can cycle and helping them grow their cycling ambitions.

As an urban commuter handcyclist, Isabelle has extensive experience of what it takes to create the right environment so everyone can cycle. She hopes to bring an understanding of cycling to disability groups and of disability to cycling groups. She initiated #BeyondTheBicycle, an alliance with parent cyclists and cargo cyclists who encounter many of the same issues as disabled and older cyclists, and has become a leading influencer in the field of inclusive cycling. She is a regular attendee of the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, an elected member of the London Cycling Campaign’s Policy Forum and appointed member of Sustran’s London Advisory Board. She speaks regularly on issues relating to disability and cycling.

Her charity continues to work with cycling campaigners and professionals to ensure they realise disabled people do cycle. In 2016, Wheels for Wellbeing outlined its key campaigns and policy priorities in its mini manifesto, Beyond the Bicycle, and continues to fight to see inclusive cycling becoming the norm in the UK. 

Jenny Wiles 

Regional Director (North)
Living Streets 

Jenny is the Regional Director (North) for Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. Living Streets wants to create walking cities, which are safe and inviting to people of all ages, where every child can walk safely to school, and communities have quality spaces to thrive. Walking cities mean better cities for everyone. Jenny will introduce Living Streets’ Blueprint for Change and explain how you can help us to create walking towns and cities across the UK.

Richard Owen

Operations Director
Road Safety Analysis Limited 

A nationally renowned road safety specialist with experience in the public and private sector delivering pioneering and award winning projects. Before entering the field Richard worked in data management with a focus on spatial analysis and complex databases. These skills help him lead the analysis of enforcement activities and establish national best practice in evaluating the efficacy of these interventions. He has a proven ability to lead large multi-agency partnerships, achieve consensus and progress the joint aims of diverse agencies.

As a Director of Road Safety Analysis he has overseen exciting new developments and innovations, with many successes in visualising complex datasets and opening up big data to the public. He has worked with a number of clients and policy groups on a range of media campaigns which provided excellent exposure for clients and road safety topics. Richard is a member of the PACTS Road Environment Working Party.

Dr Robert Davis

Chair
Road Danger Reduction Forum

The RDRF was formed in December 1993, prompted by the publication earlier in the year of ‘Death on the Streets: Cars and the mythology of road safety’ by Dr. Robert Davis. The book was reviewed thus: ‘Another book which is so interesting that it makes my head hurt is by Robert Davis … I’ve been reading it for ages. A couple of pages is enough for me to put it down and reflect. It’s chock full of facts and references, as well as thought-provoking observations about the role of the car in our societies…’ Mikael Colville-Andersen, Copenhagenize, 2010.

In 2016, the The Road Danger Reduction Forum gave its first ever award to West Midlands Police for the ‘Give Space: Be Safe operation targeting close passing of cyclists by drivers which heralds, hopes RDRF, an exciting new approach by police services towards danger to cyclists. RDRF was involved in this initiative.

Those behind the formation of the RDRF were professionals working in local government as Road Safety Officers, highway and traffic engineers, officers working to promote sustainable transport, with support from Councillors in a number of local authorities. The thrust behind setting out the Road Danger Reduction (RDR) agenda was – and continues to be – dissatisfaction with various elements of the official ‘road safety’ establishment, arguing that this is often very much part of the problem of danger on the road.

John Dales 

Director
Urban Movement

John is a traffic engineer, transport planner and urban designer with 30 years’ professional experience that spans from strategic transport planning to concept design. Well known as a champion of better town and city streets, he was Director for Urban Initiatives’ before founding Urban Movement. John is an urban realm design advisor to several UK local authorities. He is a Trustee of Living Streets, was a contributing author to Manual for Streets 2, and is a former Board member of the Transport Planning Society. He’s been author of a monthly article in Local Transport Today on ‘Transport in Urban Design’ since 2005.

Richard Armitage

Director
European Cycle Logistics Federation 

Richard is an independent sustainable transport practitioner with over 35 years' experience. He has particular aspects of workplace travel plans, often in the NHS, and of residential travel plans. His interests in shared mobility range from minibuses (first CEO of Community Transport Association UK), to low-floor bus technology (making buses accessible for disabled people) and car clubs (he was a founding director of Smart Moves, now City Car Club).

Since 1990 he has managed his own company, Richard Armitage Transport Consultancy Ltd. For the last 3 years, he has led the Cycling Forum, Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport UK. In 2012, he was appointed non-executive chair of public transport specialists, The TAS Partnership. In 2014, he set up the European Cycle Logistics Federation and serves on the Advisory Board of the EU CycleLogistics Ahead project. Richard is an investor in Cycle Waggle Ltd, a small bike hire and cycle logistics company in his home city of Manchester.

At the June 2013 Transport Practioners' Meeting in Birmingham, Richard Armitage was honoured to receive the 2013 PTRC Lifetime Achievement Award

Naz Ali

Advanced Practitioner
Bradford Youth Service, Bradford Council

My name Naz Ali I am the Advanced Practitioner for Bradford Youth Service, Bradford Council.

I am also a ride leader for British Cycling and for the past two years I have been the Cycling Ambassador for Bradford. I have been involved in cycling for the last 20 years working with marginalised groups and in the process raising over £20,000 for local and national charities. I currently work with 1000 young people each year through cycling programmes.

One thing I am proud of is being part of setting up the Bradford Inclusive Cycling Hub for the District.

Chris Bem

Well Bradford

I am a working surgeon and a person involved and interested in our common human health, peace activism, biopolitics (the politics of life) and biophilosophy (the philosophy of life). 

Consultant Ear, Nose, Throad & Neck Surgeon (Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust)

Health Ecologist (Permaculture Association, “developing healthy sustainable communities through an understanding of healthy living systems”)

Chair Bradford Sustainable Health Economy Group (working for a healthy Bradford, “Healthy Environment, Healthy Economy, Healthy Society, Healthy People, Healthy Future”)

Board Member Well Bradford Project (“Connecting health care, communities, enterprises and local government together for a Better and Sustainable Future”)

Sensei Mumtaz

Girlington Community Centre

In January 2015 Cycling UK in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority offered training for cyclists to become cycle instructors, Mumtaz saw this as a perfect opportunity to encourage more people in her community to take up cycling and before long was a qualified cycling instructor.

By April of the same year Mumtaz was picking up paid work as a cycle instructor and had successfully applied for grants to source a small fleet of 6 bikes.

As a Ju-Jitsu coach Mumtaz took to the coaching side of cycle instructing very well and throughout the next year made partnerships with Bradford schools and local women’s groups, supporting many people to access cycling for the first time. The coaching followed the Bikeability framework and through setting up a Cycling UK Community Cycling Club funded by CityConnect, Mumtaz was able to train new cyclists.

Her club, “Onna Bike” (a spin off from her Onna Ju-Jitsu club), allowed members to develop their skills, in turn giving them independence to cycle outside of the club.

Rosslyn Colderley

Director Northern Region
Sustrans

Rosslyn leads a talented team of active travel professionals and enthusiastic volunteers in the North of England (North West, North East, Yorkshire and the Humberside). Rosslyn and her team are responsible for delivering cycling and walking projects, looking after cycleways and footpaths and advocating for the choice to travel by foot or bike for everyday journeys. She is currently using her leadership experience to help Sustrans prepare for a future where the economic, health and environmental benefits of our projects are more vital than ever before.

Joel Hawthorn 

Senior Engineer
AECOM

Joel is a Senior Engineer at AECOM based in Leeds with experience developing active travel focused transport schemes across the country.  Joel is currently working with Leeds City Council to deliver their CityConnect 2 project as part of the Cycle City Ambition Grant programme, to design and implement high quality cycle infrastructure in Leeds City Centre. Joel leads the traffic signals and modelling aspects of the project, designing and implementing ambitious step-change cycle provision at some of the busiest junctions in the City. 

Pete Zanzottera 

Sustainable Transport Consultant

Pete Z has worked on cycling projects for over 20 years in both public and private sector. He is now self-employed and continues to work and campaign for liveable cities and neighbourhoods. His groundbreaking work on physical literacy for early years children has involved putting balance bikes and trained staff in nurseries and schools and is proving to bring forward physical development and the age children learn to cycle. 

Pete also continues to facilitate meetings and speak at conferences; he also works on a number of national and international programmes. He is currently an advisor for the Bike+ Shared Electric Bike programme and sits on the CityConnect Advisory Group in his home region of West Yorkshire.

Malcolm Morgan

Leeds Intitute for Data Analytics (LIDA), Leeds University 

Malcolm is a Civil Engineer by background, but his research interests focuses on Sustainable Urban Development particularly in the area of housing retrofit and transport.

He works on two projects; Governance of Low-carbon Innovation in Domestic Energy Retrofits (GLIDER) in the Sustainability Research Institute, and National Propensity to Cycle Tool in the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics 

When he is not working he is a keen Glider pilot, and also does a range of voluntary work mostly to do with promoting STEM subjects to children, for which he has CRB clearance

Helen Ramsden 

Head of Cycling and Walking 
Department for Transport

Helen leads the cycling and walking team at the Department for Transport and is responsible for overseeing the government’s national cycling and walking agenda.  

Helen has extensive experience of working within the public sector, having held senior management positions at various local authorities across the country. She is currently on long-term secondment from Transport for Greater Manchester where she was responsible for leading the region’s ambitious Cycle City and Travel Choices agenda. Previously Helen played a significant role in delivering the London2012 Travel Demand Management programme at Transport for London.

Dr Kevin Golding-Williams

Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy Adviser 
Department for Transport

Kevin is a member of the Cycling and Walking team at the Department for Transport. He was involved in developing the first statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. Kevin is currently on long-term secondment from Living Streets where he was the Head of Public Affairs.

Alison Franks

Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy Manager
Department for Transport

Alison led the DfT team that developed the first statutory Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. Alison has worked at DfT since 2003 and has had a number of different roles in the Department’s Active and Accessible Travel Division.

Neil Webster 

Director
Remit Consulting

Neil is a Director of the management consultancy Remit Consulting. He focuses on real estate strategies for large organisations - public and private. 

How the property industry responds to the rise in cycling has been an interest of Neil's for over a decade. He and British Council for Offices produced a report in 2012 on cycling and the workplace and Remit are currently commissioned by BCO to produce a more detailed update. He was a judge for the Club Peloton property awards in 2015.

A self confessed MAMIL, Neil continues to push the n+1 boundaries and in 2012 completed the property industry's 1,000 mile Cycle to Cannes. He is currently recuperating from a torn achilles but is back on the bike.

Joe Irvin

Chief Executive
Living Streets

Joe Irvin has a wealth of experience in the public and third sectors. He joined Living Streets in 2014 from being CEO at NAVCA - a voluntary sector strategic partner of the Department of Health and the Office of Civil Society. Joe has also held senior roles in the Prime Minister’s office, and as special adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister.

Joe also worked for the RSPB following a number of years at the TGWU union and the TUC. In government he worked on the1998 integrated Transport White Paper, ‘right to roam’ legislation and Encouraging Walking guidelines for local authorities. He is an elected trustee of ACEVO and Voluntary Action Islington, a judge for the Guardian Charity Awards and Charity Times awards, and an advisory board member of Charityworks.

Jack Windle

Senior Project Manager
Love to Ride

Jack is Senior Projects Manager at Love to Ride, where he has designed and delivered behaviour change programmes to get more people cycling for the last three years.

David Robinson

Director
Capital of Cycling

David Robison is a key member of the cycling fraternity in Bradford, chairing the Bradford Cycle Campaign and being a key player in The Capital of Cycling Initiative which is a coalition of cycling groups and charities in Bradford which have recently taken over a large premises and are setting up a cycling ‘hub’ in the heart of the city.

He was until recently a Senior Lecturer at The University of Bradford specialising in Media and Mobile Media technologies. He also did a stint as an ‘Ecoversity Pioneer’ during which he was responsible for embedding the principles of Education for Sustainable Development into the HE curriculum. He has 15 years’ background in academic research and teaching to draw on which he hopes to bring to life ‘in the field’ of cycle campaigning and growing cycling – in which new technologies such as Augmented Reality have a key role to play. 

Sponsors and supporters of Cycle City Active City Include: