Campaigners have known as for the federal government to intervene after a council rebuffed plans to reinstate a flagship cycle lane in central London, reigniting an issue that has come to exemplify group battles across the nation over secure journey amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The lane was put in final yr in busy Kensington High Street as a part of efforts to spice up energetic journey through the pandemic, and was instantly controversial. Just seven weeks later, regardless of protests by a neighborhood college as properly as cyclists who supported the lane, Kensington and Chelsea council took it out once more.
After widespread criticism, as properly as issues from Downing Street, which is dedicated to boosting biking and strolling ranges, and a menace of authorized motion, the Conservative-run council agreed to look once more on the determination.
But at a gathering on Wednesday night, its management staff determined in opposition to rebuilding the lane. The council will as an alternative contemplate “a feasibility examine for journey choices in the long term”, it stated, a course of unlikely to convey any adjustments for a least a yr.
The determination cements the grievance from critics of the council that it is institutionally against biking. In 2019 it unilaterally vetoed a flagship London scheme for safer strolling and biking, a part of which handed by the borough.
Clare Rogers, from the London Cycling Campaign, stated the Kensington High Street route, which noticed bicycle owner numbers double to about 3,000 a day when it was in place, “proved a vital safety measure for hundreds of individuals day by day, each on a strategic east-west route for London and for native journeys such as households driving to highschool”.
Rogers known as for Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, or Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, to intervene: “Kensington and Chelsea is clearly incapable of behaving as a accountable native authority for this freeway, or following its personal insurance policies on highway safety and the local weather emergency.”
Will Norman, Khan’s commissioner for strolling and biking, stated he could be “taking a look at all choices to ship a much-needed secure cycle route on this a part of London”.
Norman stated: “The highway is likely one of the worst bicycle owner casualty black spots within the borough, and as lockdown lifts within the coming months it is extra vital than ever that we do all we will to make our streets safer.”
When the lane was eliminated, the native authority cited native opposition as the explanation, although this turned out to be emails from 322 residents, or 0.2% of the borough’s inhabitants.
A subsequent ballot, commissioned by Khan’s workplace, discovered 56% of borough residents backed the lane, in opposition to 30% who opposed it. Business and organisations based mostly within the borough, together with Imperial College London, the Royal Albert Hall and the retailer Peter Jones, have known as for the lane to return.
After Wednesday night’s assembly, the chief of the council, Elizabeth Campbell, stated any adjustments to the borough’s roads “want full and correct session”.
A council doc ready forward of the assembly laid out a sequence of other choices that might be thought of, together with a cycle lane that operates solely among the time, or sending cyclists on an extended route round facet streets.
The doc prompted criticism from some campaigners by itemizing objections raised to the Kensington High Street lane by opponents complaining “that there isn’t a requirement for cyclists to pay ‘highway tax’, to carry insurance coverage, or show a registration plate”.
Sina Lari, chief whip of the Labour opposition on the council, stated the assembly on Wednesday was “stage-managed and cringeworthy”.
He stated: “The council is actively rejecting authorities steerage and the Conservative social gathering’s biking and strolling manifesto. It has missed an enormous alternative to point out its dedication to environmental and resident safety.”
