If you’d like to see better cycling infrastructure in the Highlands one of your most powerful tools is contacting your elected representatives. The more positive letters they receive about active travel the better. Here’s how to get started.

Who to Contact?

Most roads, paths and cycleways in the Highlands are the responsibility of The Highland Council. You can write to your local councillors about these. Changes are likely to come to committees – you can also write to the members of the committee and the chair.

The exception to this is trunk roads (eg the A9); these are the authority of the Scottish Government. You can contact your MSPs about these.

Finding your councillors

You have 3 or 4 councillors depending on which ward you live in. Try and contact all your representatives but especially those likely to hold or sway the balance of power.

Use the Highland Councils ‘Find your Councillor‘ tool to find your councillors using your postcode. Alternatively if you know your ward you can look up your councillors by ward. You can email them, or post them a letter.

Many councillors are also on social media – you can contact them there too.

Finding your MSPs

You have 8 MSPs representing you; one constituency MSP who represents your local area and 7 regional MSPs who represent your larger area.  You can contact either type of MSP about any issue dealt with by the Scottish Parliament.

Find your MSPs on the Scottish Parliament Website

What to Say…

As an individual writing to your local representative you don’t need to provide detailed analysis of all the angles – it’s fine to be yourself and add your own voice. The important thing is to contact them, not to be perfect.

• Try to stick to one or just a few issues
• Say what the problem (or good thing) is
• How is this effecting you
• what would you like them to do about it
• If you like you can provide background about the issue or link it to their party policy.

This guide to Communicating with your councillors from CyclingUK has some more great tips.