Haringey Labour water down Lib Dem proposals for safer cycling in the borough

At a meeting of Haringey's Full Council on Monday evening, Lib Dem Cllrs Bob Hare and Viv Ross proposed a motion to get the Council to get more proactive about supporting cyclists, and in particular to deliver proper cycle routes that are safely segregated from motor traffic.

The motion (included at the foot of this page) would have seen firm commitments made by Haringey to significantly improve existing provision and to rapidly increase the amount of new cycling infrastructure in the borough over the next few years. Sadly many of the commitments the motion would have secured were watered down by the Haringey Labour group through an amendment to the motion which was passed through a vote of all councillors.

These amendments included:

• Removal of a note that the council's use of DfT funding during the COVID pandemic had seen infrastructure changes that are counter to DfT guidance
• Removal of a note that the council had failed to deliver safe, segregated cycleways in the borough to date
• Alteration of a resolution for the immediate roll out of temporary cycle lanes to ensure the safer movement of people during the current COVID-19 pandemic, so that the resolution gave no urgency or time commitment, and was "subject to funding"
• Alteration of a resolution to increase the provision of segregated cycle lanes in the borough by 30% year on year for the next three years, so that the 30% figure was removed and a reference made to a future draft Cycling & Walking Action Plan where further details would be forthcoming. There was no information on the release date for this plan.
• Alteration of a resolution that all future cycle routes are segregated, to "as many cycle routes as possible"
• Removal of a resolution for cycle lanes to use flexible wands as a minimum standard for segregation rather than the mini-orcas the council has been using, despite this being contrary to DfT guidelines
• Removal of a resolution to create a new all-party working group of councillors and officers for cycling
• Removal of a resolution to create a Haringey Quality Review Panel for Cycling
• Removal of a resolution to bring trial e-bike hire provision to Haringey by November 2021

Whilst Labour amended it to replace specific targets and commitments with self-congratulatory filler, the amended motion did commit the councils to important principles like saying that future routes must join-up and the people designing them must have cycled along them before designs are agreed.

We will continue to campaign for safe cycle routes in Haringey, as well as other measures that will increase the safety and health of our residents and improve the air quality across the borough.

You can view the motion in full below with the Labour amendment additions shown in red and the removed elements from our motion shown crossed out in purple.

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