About 30 people came to Sidings Community Centre to hear what prospective parliamentary candidates in Hampstead & Kilburn, Brent Central and Brent North had to say. There was a surprising degree of agreement among the candidates, or maybe it would be more surprising if any of them had come to a meeting organised by local cycling groups and then ridiculed the activity! While there were not many explicit differences in terms of policy, none of them seemed able to envisage the ‘mass cycling’ revolution that we all hope for. The hustings was chaired by Rosie Downes of LCC shown speaking in the photo below.
Here are a few highlights:
 Tulip Siddiq (Labour, H&K): cyclists’ safety is important, and segregated routes are a good way to improve this. Ensuring that all HGVs have the latest safety equipment and better driver training will also help. Need to reduce air pollution by expanding the Low Emission Zones so it’s important to encourage cycling. |
 Steven Priestly (UKIP, Brent Central) would make sure that all the money that ought to come to Brent actually gets there. |
 Majid Nawaz (LibDem, H&K): cycling routes need to be unified across boroughs; local authority control needs to be reduced so that cycling routes can be planned and delivered by a single authority. Bradley Wiggins was a Kilburn boy and we need a Bradley Wiggins cycle route along Carlton Vale in his honour. |
 Ibrahim Taguri (LibDem, Brent Central) bravely admitted that he hates cycling! But reminded us of the old proverb that ‘it is easier to build strong children than to mend broken adults’ and felt that cycling was a democratic, community activity which requires mutual respect for all road users and gives us an opportunity to rethink urban design; we need better cycling infrastructure to provide safe spaces for pedestrians and cyclists and to encourage children to cycle to school. |
 Simon Marcus (Cons, H&K) is a cyclist; has lived in Brussels and knows the importance of good cycling conditions. Cycle Superhighways are good but don’t go far enough to make more people take up cycling. We need centralized decision-making, to bring more London roads under TfL control to ensure coherent and consistent cycle-route planning. |
 Rebecca Johnson (Green, H&K): Green policy is written by cyclists. The proposed Quietway from West Hampstead to Hyde Park will be an improvement. 20 mph speed limit will make roads safer for everyone. Need to encourage more families to walk their children to school. Need better training for all drivers, not just drivers of HGVs. |
 Shahrar Ali (Green, Brent Central): We need more cycle hire facilities outside Central London. The £30bm road- building budget should be diverted so that 10% of the transport budget is allocated to cycling and walking infrastructure. Encouraging 150 minutes of activity a week would save money on health. |
 Luke Parker (Cons, Brent North): Liveability is a vital aspect of any city and, if we are to attract more businesses to the city, we need to invest in cycling to improve London’s liveability. |
In response to questions from the floor, various candidates mentioned that more cycle parking and cycle storage was needed on street and at work, that school bus companies should be used to reduce the school run by individual car-driving families, that it was important to continue to monitor air quality and that the police should be made to enforce road safety.
Some preferred ‘nudge’ tactics rather that punishment for car users but failed to offer convincing ways to entice people to leave their cars.
There was a passing reference to electric cars, but no-one regarded this as a panacea; and there was no mention of inclusive cycling or the issue of presumed liability for civil cases where accidents between different kinds of road users are involved. And we clearly need to educate local politicians about the value of the ‘pedestrian pound’ and the fact that closing shopping streets to cars is good for business.
Photos: Geoff Stilwell