Our entry for the Grassroots, Action Center category

The STOPULEZ campaign aims to stop the expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone from Central London to the suburbs, as proposed by London’s Mayor. This would introduce a charge of £12.50 each day on older vehicles driving in the zone.

The website seeks donations, petition signatures and people’s contact details, so they can be updated with news and requests to share these with others. It also seeks to educate people about the issue and the alternatives.

The campaign is targeted at ordinary people who might not know they will be charged to go to work, go shopping, visit family etc. We use examples of carers, cleaners, nurses and elderly couples to illustrate the potential cost to people who work shifts, do low paid jobs and who rely on their vehicles. There are quotes from people who comment on Facebook about this to illustrate the bottom-up nature of the campaign.

We use blog posts on the website to explore the issues in more detail and to show that pollution is already falling and will do so in the future, even without this policy being implemented. We also explain where the candidates for Mayor stand on the issue. We encourage people to donate to the campaign and sign our petition so we can use this to contact them to keep growing support.

We keep those who have signed updated regularly by e-mail and use social media, a Facebook Page and Twitter account, to help expand the reach of the campaign.

As an action centre for a grassroots campaign operating on a shoestring budget, stopulez.com is a prime example of how eye catching design and a mobile optimised user experience can be created using freely available tools. Proving a great case study for grassroots single issue digital activism.

Through a carefully constructed “mobile first” design, it successfully provides both key information and prominent calls to action in a simplified and accessible way. With a key objective to generate petition signatures, stopulez.com is a key component of an overall campaign that has generated over 141,000 signatures, and continues to put pressure on elected officials and candidates to change local government policy.