Campaigner presents petition to Westminster council over proposed cycle lane

Evening Standard

Campaigner Stephen Margolis presented a petition to Westminster council over a proposed cycle lane in Hamilton Terrace, St John's Wood.The Labour cabinet member Max Sullivan replied to his concerns.

Transcript

00:00I, the undersigned, call upon Westminster City Council to preserve parking in St.

00:04John's Wood and the safety of residents on Hamilton Terrace. I'm opposed to the

00:09design options considered for Hamilton Terrace that will remove well over 100

00:13parking spaces and endanger residents due to unintuitive and dangerous

00:17curbside cycle lanes. This is not about anti-cycling. There are almost over 1,000

00:23people, many here, including committed cyclists, who have signed the petition

00:27from Hamilton Terrace and neighboring roads. It's about civic immunity, safety, and

00:32proper consultation. There will be a loss of over 100 parking spaces, so

00:38where should residents and visitors park? What about service and

00:42delivery vehicles? There are safety issues. Option three means raised curbs in the

00:47middle of the road, affecting prams, wheelchairs, walking frames, disabled

00:51people, and just crossing the road. What about the need for additional lighting

00:55with the speed, speeding e-bikes, and scooters coming down? Option two, what about

01:00cars coming out of drives, people having to cross a cycle lane to get to their car,

01:04opening of car doors, using the charging points in the lampposts? There is then the

01:09legal obligation upon the council to have proper consultation with the community

01:13using relevant data. TFL advertised their work in the South London Gazette, which is

01:19not proper consultation. Using average speeds taken before the 20 mile an hour speed

01:24limit was introduced, is not using up-to-date data. Causing cars to back up or drive around

01:29looking for car parking spaces is not consistent with green agenda. Spending up to

01:35£500,000 by the council, which has the second highest level of poverty, and 36% of children

01:41in poverty, is not spending our money wisely. This is about residents requiring an up-to-date

01:47review of the necessity of this proposal, and take into consideration the concerns that I

01:52have expressed. And if a cycle lane is deemed necessary, then the safest option is option one.

01:59Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you Mr. Margolis. I will now ask the Cabinet Member for Streets,

02:11Councillor Max Sullivan, to respond.

02:15Thank you, Lord Mayor, and thank you Mr. Margolis for coming to present your petition and to

02:32your fellow residents from Hamilton Terrace from doing the same. This is a format that this

02:38administration introduced, allowing the public to come and have their say and give questions

02:42and challenges in public, and I welcome that challenge. I think that challenge has been

02:45really productive, and I hope it will be productive here tonight. In a minute and 35 seconds I won't

02:50be able to answer everything, and while you don't have a right of reply here, we have an infinite

02:54right of reply to pick this up after the meeting, which I will be happy to do. In terms of the

02:59need for safe cycling provision in Westminster, Westminster has the unhappy position of being at the top

03:06of the league table when it comes to people killed and seriously injured on our roads, and that

03:11is in order of people being killed and seriously injured, that is pedestrians, cyclists in this

03:19order, and then motorcyclists, and they are being killed when they come into contact with the drivers

03:23of cars, the drivers of good vehicles, and with motorcyclists. So we do have a road danger problem.

03:28Westminster is at the top of the league table when it comes to people killed and seriously injured,

03:33so there is a need for safe walking and cycling infrastructure across Westminster. You talked about

03:40option three. What I would say, because I know that there has been some confusion about this,

03:47we haven't taken a decision on which option we will proceed with. You are right that there

03:52is significant parking loss associated with option three. There is little or no parking loss associated

03:57with option one and two. Option three isn't necessarily the best proposal or the one that we will proceed

04:03with, and we will take every piece of feedback on merit, whether it comes from one person or a thousand

04:09people. The proposal that you are most concerned about, the one that has a median cycle in the

04:13middle of the road, does have some serious drawbacks and would be a bit of an outlier if we went for

04:18it. What I would say is I haven't gotten the final officer advice in terms of the consultation feedback

04:24and what the recommendations are, and I have to take that into account before I make a proper

04:28reasonable decision, but what I will say is that we haven't decided those issues, and option one and

04:32option two have benefits to them as well, and as you pointed out, have much less parking loss. But

04:38we do have a clear need to address the very high number of pedestrian and cyclist casualties that

04:43we have in Westminster. I am sorry that I haven't been able to go through every one of your points,

04:47but I will be happy to write to you afterwards and address all of those points at another time.

04:52Thank you, Councillor Sullivan.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended