Press Release
26th February 2002
Two years on, cycling report still being ignored
On Friday 25th February 2000, the Croydon Advertiser carried the headline "Cyclists claim report shows council's lack of commitment". This concerned the audit by independent traffic engineers, Colin Buchanan & Partners, which slammed the weak efforts by Croydon's highways department in producing quality contributions to the London Cycle Network - three of the four routes were found to be sub-standard and thus unsuitable for inclusion in the official system. *1
At the time, Karl Williams, former co-ordinator of the Croydon Cycling Campaign, complained that the Council had a "can't do, won't do" attitude. He therefore resigned from the Council's Cycling Forum in protest at the lack of effort to provide safe and attractive cycling facilities. His concerns were echoed by the Croydon Central MP, Geraint Davies, who condemned the efforts in painting white lines on the roads as "environmental tokenism" and said that "the question is whether or not they make people feel safe - people will not cycle if these dangers continue".
Two years later, history repeated itself as the same problems and excuses were trotted out at a meeting of the Council's Scrutiny Sub-Committee. At their meeting last Thursday, 21st February 2002, Councillors had demanded a report *2 from the Council's highways chief, Chris Martin, on his progress in achieving targets in the Council's Cycling Strategy. He was forced to reveal that despite his spending over �1m, cycling levels had continued to decline in the borough *3, with levels down by 11% in the last three years *4, and that in the first 6 months of 2001, cycling accident rates were up by 46% - the fastest rising rate in London *5. His comments in the report that little could or should be done to improve this record and that cycling was "largely impractical for anyone suffering from any form of mobility handicap" *6 provoked outrage amongst members of the cycling community. Under fire from councillors about his poor record, Mr Martin said "I have to confess I am running out of ideas."
Austen Cooper, current co-ordinator of Croydon Cycling Campaign and Deputy Chair of the Council's Cycling Forum was invited by the chair, Councillor Martin Tiedemann, to respond on behalf of local cyclists *7. He pointed out that many of the dangers referred to in the Buchanan report had not been rectified over 2� years later and showed that in at least one specific instance, cycling conditions had in fact been made worse. *8
Mr Cooper contrasted spending patterns on cycling in Croydon, geographically the second largest borough in London and the one with the largest population, with those of the other 32 boroughs *9. These figures showed that Croydon had consistently spent less than others on London Cycle Network schemes.
He cited the Royal Borough of Kingston as an excellent example of what could happen when a Council and cyclists worked together to produce good results - in 2001 Kingston won an award for the best new cycling facility in London, and has seen its accident rate reduce by 44% *5.
Mr Cooper also praised plans announced by Councillor Gerry Ryan at last month's Traffic Management Committee to improve consultation with cycling groups via the Council's Cycling Forum, but regretted that Chris Martin had failed to attend any of these meetings in over a year.
Councillors did not accept the report and instead referred it back for further work before it is to be presented to the last full Council meeting before the election on 2nd May 2002. This is a further body blow to an increasingly isolated and embattled Mr Martin; last month saw Councillors dismiss his proposed rejection of a plan to open up St. James Park in West Croydon to two-way cycling *10, traders and residents in Upper Norwood have recently voiced severe criticism of his planned one-way traffic scheme at the Triangle and motorists continually complain in the local press about the way his department enforces parking restrictions.
Mr Cooper said "If done properly, investment in cycling will be the quickest, cheapest and most cost-effective way to cut Croydon's chronic air pollution and traffic congestion problems. However, after all this time and money, the Council has not only failed to achieve targets to increase cycling and reduce accidents, things are actually getting worse. They already have all the right policies - their Sustainable Transport Strategy is excellent - but the people who are meant to put these into practice seem to be sabotaging them instead with their continuing "can't do, won't do" approach. Until this is sorted out, the few people who do cycle will continue to have their safety put at risk and most people will be denied the freedom of choice to get on their bikes *11".
Given that the Council's transport chief has publicly declared that he is running out of ideas, Croydon Cycling Campaign want to hear from anybody who has their own suggestions on improving transport in the borough. The public are asked to either e-mail suggestions to info@croydon-lcc.org.uk or write to the Croydon Cycling Campaign at "Huels", St. Leonards Road, Croydon CR0 4BN.
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