Abbey Road Ward Councillor Lindsey Hall joined protesters at the Anti-CS11 march at Swiss Cottage recently following the Major of London's announcement in August of his intention to push ahead with the CS-11 cycle superhighway through St John's Wood including the closure of most of the gates to traffic in Regents Park saying "CS-11 will play an important role improving the quality of our toxic air, improving Londoners' health and make thousands more people feel comfortable cycling."
Whilst we support efforts to improve the safety of cycling and wish to encourage a greener city, we do not believe the proposals as they currently stand will achieve this, particularly as they do not take into account localised pressures of traffic on the Finchley Road with major developments such as the Barracks and confirmation that HS2 will now go ahead.
At a packed local meeting we secured a powerful mandate from our residents to explore constructive alternative safer routes for our cyclists that will ensure Regents Park remains open for ALL to share and that our local streets will be protected from worse congestion, rat runs and pollution. To that end we are working closely with local stakeholders and Cabinet Members to lobby Mayor Kahn and ensure that alternative proposals are properly considered and that TfL does not ride roughshod over the 4,500 local people who signed the Anti-CS11 Petition delivered by Cllr Lindsey Hall to City Hall last spring.
We are also calling on TfL to properly assess the impact of other Cycle Superhighways such as the Embankment and in Hyde Park before imposing more schemes in other parts of the City particularly in light of the extra pollution caused by gridlocked traffic. We believe the key to safer cycling and improved air quality is the better utilisation of 'quiet-ways' rather than the expensive reduction of arterial road space. A decision will be made later this year.
