Brent lags on delivery of 'Climate Safe Streets' - disappointment over lack of meaningful action

 

From Brent Cycling Campaign

London Cycling Campaign (LCC) has released a new report on borough and Mayoral progress on delivering on ‘Climate Safe Streets’ – schemes designed to decarbonise roads transport, boost walking & cycling rates and cut motor vehicle use.

 

The ‘Climate Safe Streets: One Year On, One Year To Go’ report names the boroughs doing best and worst on decarbonising their roads, with borough leaders one year into their current term and with the Mayor having one year to go in his. It tracks London’s progress by assessing action the boroughs and Mayor have taken in line with LCC’s Climate Safe Streets campaigning and makes use of key data on transport mode shift away from private motor vehicles over the last decade too.

 

Prior to the 2022 local council elections, LCC members and activists in Brent asked the council leader to commit to delivering on a set of specific schemes to enable more people to walk and cycle in the borough and to shift the borough away from private motor vehicle use (wherever possible) and the climate-changing emissions, road danger, inactivity and pollution they cause.  Brent 'Asks'.

 Party responses to request for pledges in the May 2022 Brent Council Elections:

The  report released yesterday by the LCC in conjunction with its local group Brent Cycling Group, says the following about Brent council’s progress over the last year:

 

Given that the current council leader Muhammed Butt, not only has committed to climate targets for the entire borough of 2030 – marking it out as one of London’s bolder boroughs –it’s quite startling to see the gulf here between the talk and actions. Brent is failing to deliver on just about every sensible approach to roads transport decarbonisation going. It will need to do far, far more and far faster than rely on TfL to deliver one short cycle route to enable active travel, or commercial providers to roll out freight mode shift. 

 

PROGRESS IN BRENT

Sylvia Gauthereau, of Brent Cycling Campaign said.

 

It’s disappointing to see the lack of meaningful action and lack of emergency over climate action in Brent. The tendency for the Council to over rely on everyone else, may it be TfL or community groups to lead, is more evidence that the political will is just not there despite ambitious, electoral promises. The fragmented and slow-paced approach is no longer suitable given how time sensitive tackling road decarbonisation is. The time to do something bold is now.

 

Four boroughs are failing to deliver any real ‘Climate Safe Streets’ for residents in their boroughs. In descending order of mode shift away from private motor vehicles pre-pandemic, they are:

 

1. Tower Hamlets
2. Bromley
3. Hillingdon
4. Bexley

 

Tower Hamlets is the only London borough where a higher proportion of journeys were being made using private motor vehicles before the pandemic than a decade ago (mode share rose by over 4%). The inner London borough has very low levels of car ownership, but did nothing to constrain car use pre-pandemic. And since the local elections, Tower Hamlets has elected a Mayor on a manifesto of ‘reopening roads’ by removing active travel and car restriction schemes.

 

The remaining boroughs

 

12 further boroughs are significantly behind on delivering schemes asked for by LCC’s ‘Climate Safe Streets’ campaign (beyond the already-named bottom four). Of these, the leaders of both Greenwich and Kingston Upon Thames councils both made full commitments to LCC’s campaign ‘asks’ prior to the local council elections but are thus far failing to deliver on those commitments. (Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Brent, Croydon, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Kensington & Chelsea, Redbridge and Sutton are all significantly failing to deliver on Climate Safe Streets schemes). 

 

LCC’s report provides specific recommendations to the leadership for each London borough to help them get on track delivering on roads transport emissions, against their climate emergency declarations (in London, only Bexley and Bromley appear to have not declared an ‘emergency’).

 

Mayoral delivery

 

As well as assessing the boroughs’ progress to delivering ‘Climate Safe Streets’, LCC’s report also assesses the  London Mayor’s progress.

 

The good news is the Mayor of London’s commitment to a ‘Vision Zero’ of eliminating serious and fatal collisions from London’s roads by 2041 is broadly on track – likely due to the roll-out of 20mph zones, active travel schemes and the Met Police’s increasing speed enforcement (the Met is due to enforce 1 million speeding offences annually by 2024). However, improvements to dangerous junctions remain slow to roll out, and the Mayor’s self-set target of making London ‘Net Zero’ on climate emissions by 2030, requiring a 27% cut in road km driven according to his team, is not on target. Vehicle km driven were rising pre-pandemic, private motor vehicle mode share was not coming down fast enough and patchy delivery by boroughs remains a serious issue.

 

LCC’s recommendations from the report are that the Mayor must accelerate his programme, particularly ensuring ULEZ expansion set for August is not delayed or weakened, get bolder on the schemes and roads he has direct powers over, and solve the current siloed working inside TfL in favour of schemes that deliver for buses and active travel. 

Simon Munk, Head of Campaigns, London Cycling Campaign

 

We need a lot more boroughs delivering ‘Climate Safe Streets’ like Hackney and Waltham Forest and fewer, like Tower Hamlets and Bromley, failing to deliver as our new report shows. Every London council and the Mayor must deliver more streets fit for cycling, walking and children playing, and faster, if we’re to help London escape the grip of car dependency and the cost of living crisis. Our new ‘One Year On, One Year To Go’ report highlights what needs to be done, for future generations, and to make London now a better city today.

 

 The full report can be read and downloaded HERE,

Campaigners' frustration as Brent misses out on recent tranch of Active Travel cash

Social media has been buzzing with environmental campaigners' frustration as Brent seems to be missing out on funding that would enable provision of some walking and cycling friendly change on our streets as we emerge from Covid19 restrictions and seek to maintain some of the clear air and traffic reduction benefits of lockdown.

Way back on May 31st Cllr Shama Taylor, had written to fellow councillors with an update on Active Travel Measures.  She told councillors that although London was awarded £25m over the rest of the financial year the Council had only got confirmation  the previous Thursday and the deadline for applications for the first tranch of funding was June 5th.  She asked councillors to think of areas or roads in their wards or Brent Connect areas that would benefit from Active Travel infrastructure or routes - cycling, walking and low traffic areas. This gave councillors just 5 days to speak to their residents and come up with ideas.

She told her colleagues that Council officers were working 'flat out' to put in an application.

 Some council had already put measures in place ahead of any funding - Brent Council's action appeared to be limited to some pavement widening.

When the funding allocations were announced and Brent was missing from the list this was the reaction:

In response Cllr Tatler urged patience saying that officers had been working 'flat out' and said that we should hear this week whether the bid based on Brent Council's travel plan had been accepted:

The document below gives details of the  schemes other boroughs have had funded:





Meanwhile the petition calling on Brent Council to 'build back better' post Covid has been gaining support.  Sign the petition  HERE.

Brent Cycling Campaign calls for Council action to make cycling in the borough safe for all after survey results

Local cycling campaign group, Brent Cycling Campaign is calling on Brent Council to make local streets safe and inviting for all, including for those who choose to cycle. Progress is far too slow to meet the Council’s own target of 5% cycling modal share by 2025 as detailed in its own Long Term Transport Strategy. 

A survey carried out between February and April 2019 confirmed that people do want direct and convenient cycle routes with protected space on main roads with 80% of respondents seeing this as a high priority. The main barrier to cycling uptake is the lack of safety on our roads. This was quickly followed by a lack of a continuous network. This is an important aspect as the majority (37%) cycle for practical reasons such as going to work, to the shops or meeting up with friends.

Brent Cyclists, renamed themselves Brent Cycling Campaign (BCC) in January 2019. The new name better reflects its affiliation with London Cycling Campaign. It also explicitly indicates they are predominantly a campaigning group. In particular, they want to attract people who do not currently cycle, including those with mobility or accessibility needs.

Councils control over 95% of London’s roads. They have the power to create safe space for walking and cycling. New Brent Cycling Campaign coordinator and cycling school run mum, Sylvia Gauthereau. says: “ Change is well overdue in Brent especially as it is home for some of the worst levels of pollution in the UK.

Half of the households in the borough do not own a car. There are thousands of us making work, school and shopping trips every day and we demand better conditions for making cycling, alongside with walking, the obvious transport choice.”

The local London Cycling Campaign branch speaks up for a greener, healthier, happier and better-connected borough, urging Brent Council to align itself with the core principles of the Healthy Streets approach as detailed in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy.

BCC’s coordinator says: “Brent suffers from particularly poor cycling links and what are called “severance lines” – which are the horrible, nasty big road systems like Staples Corner and the Neasden underpass, which deter all but the bravest from cycling short local journeys. We need low traffic neighbourhoods, safe routes to school, inclusive infrastructure, liveable high streets where people walking and cycling are prioritised over motorised traffic”

A recent ride in Wembley and Neasden with London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner left Will Norman admitting that these were “some of the worst places he had ever cycled”.

There are engineering solutions for these problems and Brent needs to step up and prioritise them” adds Brent Cycling Campaign who produced a comprehensive document highlighting these solutions.

“It’s clear that many more people in Brent, especially children, would like to cycle but are put off by the lack of safe routes and cycling conditions. This is serious – it is stopping people getting out, being independent, getting healthier and even being happier” BCC ride coordinator Charlie Fernandes continues.

“The case for active travel has been made many times over. There is a sea of evidence demonstrating that pollution and lack of activity will bankrupt local authorities for years to come, if not addressed urgently. Brent Council leaders must make active travel including cycling a top transport, health and environment priority now” says Sylvia Gauthereau.

Brent Cycling Campaign meet regularly alternating between Cricklewood and Wembley. “Join us and meet us at one of our monthly meetings and together let’s make Brent a borough where cycling is a choice anyone can make regardless of their age, ability or gender”, she concluded.

Results of the survey can be found here.

Pedalling Politics in Brent - Support for Space for Cycling

Green Party Assembly Member Jenny Jones toured the boorough with Brent Cyclists to see issues for herself

Earlier this week I spoke to Brent Cyclists at a special hustings on the Londond Cycling Campaigns election initiative 'Space to Cycle'.

I told the meeting about my experience of cycle camping in the US. Breakfasting in a diner a truck driver came and sat with me asked if I was the guy on the bike. I confirmed I was the cyclist and he growled, 'We don't call them cyclists here. We call them donors ...organ donors.'

I said that I often remembered that when cycling in Brent, especially when I tried to negotiate the canyon beneath the North Circular Road at Neasden Shopping Centre/Neasden Lane North.

I was pleased to tell the meeting that all Green party candidates in Brent has signed up to the Space for Cycling campaign and backed the six themes (above).. We supported the proposals for the various wards in principle but would want to examine them in more detail of elected.

Greens had been fighting for safe cycling and comprehensive cycle routes in the London Assembly and were frustrated by Boris Johnson's underspend of the cycling fund and the delay in cycling superhighways.

The meeting was attended by Labour, Lib Dem and Green candidates. It was rumoured that the absent Conservatives had been unable to find a place to park their cars.

In fact there was a great deal of cross-party consensus on the main issues. We talked about how to encourage more people to cycle and the importance of work in schools, specific issues around women cyclists including sexual harassment from motorists, and about the differences between the south and north of the borough.

Cycle usage is much more common in the south of Brent with easy access to Central London. In the North the distance into Central london is much greater with the North Circular a physical barrier. Car ownership is much higher in the north with concreted over front gardens serving as parking for often large numbers of cars - 'a car park with house attached'.

I told the meeting that when I was a headteacher and cycled to work and to meetings I was often given the impresson that this was inappropriate to my status - cycling was something poor people did. Turning up at a Conference at the Holiday Inn at Brent Cross I asked reception where I could leave my bike. 'Sir,  it is only our staff who use bicycles.' This stereotype did not seem to exist in south Brent and this was confirmed by the Queen's Park Lib Dem candidate Virginia Bonham-Carter who wanted a cycle path for mothers in the streets around Queen's Park.

Muhammed Butt said that the attitude was linked to cultural issues and reflected that for some people cycling was seen in the context of 'back home' where it was the poor who cycled and the car was a status symbol. He said that members of his own family questioned why he cycled when he could 'use the car'. There was an issue abut changing attitudes as well as improving infrastructure.

On infrastructure several members of the audience expressed disappointment that a chance had been missed in the Wembley Regenration to build cycling into the plans, despite submissions in the early stages by Brent Cyclists and the Green Party.

The full details of proposals for Brent wards can be found HERE

Declaratio of Interest: I am a member of the London Cycling Campaign

'Give us space to cycle' demand Brent Cyclists ahead of the election

Brent Cyclists, the local group of the London Cycling Campaign  launches its Space for Cycling campaign this Sunday (23 March) with a short ride round the borough, meeting at 10:30am at Gladstone Park railway bridge (at the foot of Parkside), and at 11:00am at the café in Roundwood Park, then riding through Willesden and Harlesden to the Grand Union Canal in Park Royal, and back again. Anyone with a working bike is welcome to join in.

The Space for Cycling campaign is timed to coincide with the run-up to the local elections in May, to bring home to local politicians the changes that need to be made to Brent’s roads to make them cycle-friendly. It is part of a London-wide Space for Cycling Campaign being run by the London Cycling Campaign.

Brent Cyclists coordinator David Arditti said: 

Brent has great potential as a cycling borough but is held back by the poor routes and infrastructure for cycling compared with other parts of London. We need a network of safe routes on minor roads and protected cycle tracks on bigger roads, which would allow everybody to make daily journeys by bike and especially allow children to cycle to school, but these can only come about if there are more restrictions placed on where motor traffic can go. 

We’ll be cycling along Park Avenue North, which is a road which, if it ceased to be a through-route for cars, would make an excellent way to access Gladstone Park by bike. In other places, to get a safe network, we need bikes to be excepted from one-way systems. This is what we would like built into the new design for Harlesden Town Centre, but Brent doesn’t seem to have considered this need. 

Our ride will draw attention to these measures that would make cycling in Brent so much better, in advance of the local elections, and we will be asking the candidates to pledge support for our specific demands, ward by ward.

Declaration of Interest: I am a member of the London Cycling Campaign.

Green Party supports 'Space for Bicycles' campaign after latest road deaths

From Natalie Bennett's blog: LINK

There was a mood of sadness, but also determination, at two events in London tonight marking recent road deaths in which vulnerable road users were killed by lorries.

First, outside City Hall, Roadpeace with the Lorry Danger group (also including LCC, CTC, British Cycling and Living Streets) held a vigil acknowledging the death of an elderly pedestrian, who hasn't been named, in Fulham. (Short report here) and the death of cyclist Philippine de Gerin-Ricard on Cycle Superhighway 2 outside Aldgate East station.

It was a brief but moving ceremony at which the names of many recent pedestrian and cycle road victims were read out.

The organisers are vowing that they will return to City Hall on Friday at 5pm in any week in which a cyclist or pedestrian is killed on London's roads - sadly I fear it may not be long before they have to return.
National statistics show a steady trend in increasing cycle deaths and injuries, as do those in London.

The second event was organised by the London Cycling Campaign - around 400 cyclists gathered at Tower Bridge and cycled past the site where Philippine de Gerin-Ricard was killed, chanting "Blue Paint is Not Enough", in reference to the limitations of Boris Johnson's cycle "superhighway" scheme.

Some passing cyclists joined the ride as it took the short route - there was a lot of support also from passers-by.

Earlier in the day, in the West End, I'd had seen an awful brush with potential tragedy. A private small rubbish lorry, driven by a man who seemed to be either in a temper or a huge rush, came at undue speed around the corner of Old Compton Street into Dean Street, over-ran a parking space, then reversed into it at speed, stopping inches before an elderly man who was crossing the street, as I and several other people in the vicinity yelled out. If it hadn't been summer and his window open, I doubt he would have stopped.

It's the kind of incident that's almost commonplace - it as one speaker at the vigil said, we need to be aiming towards zero deaths on the road. We won't get that without serious changes in infrastructure, a lot more driver education,and enforcement.