Earlier this year, the Labour-run council announced that it would be consulting on design options for the C51 cycleway which will run through St John’s Wood, down both sides of Hamilton Terrace and onto St John's Wood Road.
Initial proposals indicated the lanes would be painted bright orange - an aesthetic choice which we believe would spoil the look of the local area. Following objections from your councillors in a meeting that was held with the council, the plans have been revised to remove the orange cycle lane proposal. However, the other elements of the proposals remain.
The public consultation will run until Monday 14 April 2025, and can be found here.
While we support cycling and C51 in principle, your Conservative councillors are concerned that the Labour-run Council will opt for a segregated cycleway (Option 3), resulting in the loss of approximately 90 parking spaces in the centre of the carriageway. Our concern with Option 2 is around cyclist safety. With floating parking spaces, there is a risk of ‘dooring’ – a situation where a cyclist is injured by a car door opening into their path.
While our preference would have been for some additional signage and no painted cycle lane, after lengthy
consideration we believe that of the options proposed by the Labour council, Option 1 poses the least disturbance to residents and still gives cyclists an advisory cycle lane. This option maintains resident parking bays to the left of the cycle lane and in the centre of the road.
The consultation runs from Tuesday 25 March until Monday 14 April. We strongly encourage all residents to comment on the proposals, giving consideration to the needs of local people and cyclist safety on what is a relatively quiet street. A drop-in event will be taking place on Monday 31 March. The venue will be ‘Our Lady’s Parish at 54 Lodge Road, NW8 8LA.
There are also questions to be asked about the scope of the earlier consultation and how the views of local people have been reflected in the current options proposed.
If you share our concerns, please sign our petition below calling on Labour-run Westminster City Council and the Mayor of London to pause plans for C51 while a more thorough consultation is carried out.
