Environmental issues are likely to play a greater role in this General Election than ever before.

Across the country there is widespread concern about global warming, with a knock-on drive for greater use of alternative power and a reduction in reliance on the car as a means of transport.

Bradford is home to a wide variety of environmental pressure groups, whose members will be carefully scrutinising each party’s manifesto.

Well-known for his mammoth efforts to improve the environment across the district, Ian Butterfield would like to see any future Government make a concerted effort to improve public transport in order to reduce car journeys.

“We need far better train services in this country,” says the manager of Forest of Bradford. “I drive more than I want to. I would rather catch the train to work, but I still can’t get from my home in Wakefield to Bradford without changing in Leeds.”

He adds: “Services in Europe are fantastic. My mother is Dutch, and over there everything is so much easier with simple things like railways stations being next to bus stations in towns. For some reason, we don’t do this.”

Ian would also like to see better provision for cyclists. In a national survey, Bradford was recently voted Britain’s worst city for cycling.

“We have cycle routes and lanes in Britain, but in many places they are only in small pockets. And there are far too many cars on the roads which puts a lot of people off.”

The UK think-tank Social Market Foundation predicts that congestion will cost businesses and households an additional £22 billion a year by 2025.

While Forest of Bradford – set up to increase tree cover across the district – is going from strength to strength, Ian would like to see put in place a regional structure to link similar projects across West Yorkshire, and funding to implement it. Bradford World Development Group campaigns for change to help vulnerable groups across the world, and puts climate change at the top of its agenda. Member Mollie Somerville stresses the need for any future Government to push for international agreement on climate change following the failed talks at Copenhagen in December.

“Climate change is a focus for us – we want to know how the British Government will tackle its effects on the Third World,” she says. Members are writing to all local candidates asking how they stand on reducing carbon emissions.

Mollie is also a member of Girlington, Heaton and Manningham Council of Churches, who will be meeting the three candidates for Bradford West.

“We are going to ask them about climate change, and about what they are proposing locally in terms of alternative energy such as wind farms. We want to know how they would help the world’s poor who are suffering through environmental degradation, with overseas aid and projects such as building flood and storm defences.”

Mollie would also like to see better promotion of recycling and a wider range of plastic products included for recycling.

Better cohesion in environmental activities locally is a key area for mother-of-two Ros Walker, who has researched and written guide books spanning the north of England. “I would like to see more communication between Bradford’s environmental groups and local schools – some do this very well, but others don’t.”

She would also like to see a “genuine, permanent clampdown on littering” with naming and shaming in the local press. “My family is from Switzerland where no-one drops litter.”

For Mike Healey, a better deal for cyclists is needed. “We need well-designed cycle lanes. I would like to see safe cycle routes to schools created. If children could cycle or walk to schools, this would reduce traffic by 20 per cent.”

Mike, who runs the Saturday Bike Club for children at Richard Dunn Sports Centre and helps to organise events for the British Schools Cycling Association, makes the point that cycling also brings long-term health benefits. “Our budget for cycling is pathetic – many European cities spend 20 times what we do. In Britain, the car is king, and I would like to see that change.”

Susan Stead, of Bradford Urban Wildlife Trust, would like MPs and local councillors to channel more efforts into biodiversity and the encouragement and protection of wildlife both locally and globally.

“I would like more consideration given to where products like alternative fuels are sourced. People refer to palm oil as being from sustainable sources, but producing it can involve chopping down rainforests.”