LCC's My Liveable London Campaign
Thank you to the leaders of the four parties in Ealing who pledged to install a high quality Liveable Neighbourhood scheme in Ealing. TfL is funding the development of a scheme in West Ealing and this will ensure it will be cycling and pedestrian friendly.
Julian Bell - Labour Party
Gary Malcolm - Liberal Democrat Party
Ealing Green Party
Gregory Stafford - Conservative Party
More details about what this means at: https://lcc.org.uk/pages/my-liveable-london
Ealing 2018 Local Election Manifestos – How the parties compare on cycling
Here are what the different parties are proposing for cycling in Ealing – parties in alphabetical order:
Conservatives
Promoting cycling
We will work to extend TfL Santander Cycle docks to Acton and Ealing and we will hold a consultation on the need for bike parking spaces or drop off points for increasingly- popular bike sharing services — such as Mobike— to balance the convenience of the new services with the need to keep pavements clear.
We will help to protect bikes from theft by underwriting a borough-wide bicycle insurance scheme. We will work with cycling campaigns to hold more bicycle health-check drop-ins.
We will support the recommendations of the review of the Uxbridge road, to make it safer for cyclists, pedestrians and especially our vulnerable residents.
Cycling infrastructure needs to improve, but it must also be fit for purpose. We will continue to oppose CS9 and back more local cycling quietways instead.
Green Party
The campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists are asking Londoners to write to political leaders and candidates standing in the local elections in May to incorporate eight demands into their manifestos.
They are not all easy to implement and would need careful consideration and consultation with our fellow Ealing residents.
However, each demand is crucial to the health and safety of people living in Ealing, whether they are cyclists or not.
Ealing Council has been making positive movements in the right direction, but needs a Green voice to push the current initiatives further, and drive for new ones like a CSH quality segregated cycleway along Uxbridge Road, and the Mini Holland already specified in our original 2014 Mini Holland bid.
Therefore, the Ealing Green Party will commit to endeavouring to meet these demands, and influencing other parties to implement them, should we be elected to the council in May.
Mini Holland and protected cycleways
Demands 1 and 3 refer to the creation of a ‘Mini-Holland’ and newly protected cycleways.
Ealing Council and Ealing Cycling Campaign have already carried out a lot of analysis and planning for their Mini Holland bid in 2014 and we will update and adapt this existing plan. Uxbridge Road is a prime candidate for a properly protected cycleway. We will insist that the current patchwork of substandard cycle route is upgraded to CSH standards.
Demand 7 refers to the danger of left-hand turns. We would fully support the introduction of protected left-hand turns and T-junction bypasses at traffic lights for cyclists where they don’t currently exist and audit the ones that are currently in place. We will push for the publication of the Uxbridge Road safety audit and ensure that its recommendations are actioned quickly and effectively.
If we are successful at implementing demand 1 and 3, we believe the safe left-hand turns should be addressed at the same time. In areas where we have not yet secured protected cycle lanes, we would want protected left-hand turns and bypasses created as soon as possible in consultation with the local community to better understand where these are most needed.
As part of our commitment to safer cycling, we currently support Cycle Superhighway 9 from Brentford to Kensington Olympia via Chiswick. In consultation with Ealing residents, we would also ask TfL for our own Cycle Superhighway for Ealing along Uxbridge Road.
Speed limits and traffic-free high streets
Demand 4 asks for a 20 mile per hour speed limit throughout the borough and Demand 6 asks for a traffic-free high street with a cycleway through it.
Given much of Ealing is currently under 20mph limits we would work to ensure the 20mph limit is implemented Borough-wide. We would also work with the Police to start to enforce this limit.
Driving in London is extremely frustrating as it is so congested, and drivers often forget that everywhere they go there will be people walking and cycling. With the 20 miles per hour speed limit we would greatly reduce the risk of accidents by vehicle collisions. People in Ealing are taking to walking and cycling at an increasing rate, we hope that safer roads will encourage even more people to do so. We believe this will help decrease the number of cars on the road.
Many high streets in other areas of London and throughout the UK have become pedestrianised successfully. We would support pedestrianisation of Ealing high streets in close consultation with local residents and businesses. Since West Ealing has won the Liveable Neighbourhoods funding we will work to ensure it delivers on its initial promise and provides a safe, liveable active travel area for all ages.
Money
Demand 2 of the 8 for 2018 campaign asks that the equivalent of £20 per person per year is spent on protected cycling infrastructure in the borough from the Council’s budget. Promoting cycling is a high priority for the Ealing Green Party in the view of air pollution reduction, health benefits through exercise, and reduction of risk of traffic accidents. We would, therefore, support this demand and commit at least £20 per person per year is spent on protected cycling infrastructure.
Ealing council vehicles
Demand 5 and 8 refer to the vehicles used by the council itself.
Demand 5 asks that the council encourages its staff to go to and from council business by bicycle instead of motor vehicle, where practical. We strongly support this. With the government’s Cycle Scheme in the workplace and initiatives such as the Santander Bikes and the newly introduced Mobikes, we feel people have genuine access to bicycles and therefore have no substantial reason for getting into a car. Especially with the right infrastructure, cycling to and from meetings will be much more time effective than cars or even public transport for short distances, and following their introduction in other councils, Ebikes for longer journeys.
Demand 8 refers to blind-spot equipment in the HGVs owned by Ealing Council, their contractors and their subcontractors. Ealing Council has already installed Cycle Safety Shield System in all its large vehicles and Ealing Green Party will insist that all HGVs that work within the Borough are equipped with the system or similar.
However, we do believe that HGVs and cyclists should not be sharing the same road space in the first place, so this demand would be implemented in parallel our efforts to create segregated and protected cycle paths. We do not want a false sense of security that blind-spot equipment could potentially provide and we do not want this demand to detract from the need of protected cycle paths.
Labour
We will invest at least £7million in our roads by 2020, fixing potholes and improving safety for all road users.
We will complete the roll out of our Borough wide 20mph zone, and work with the Metropolitan Police to ensure that it is properly enforced.
We will invest more in making cycling and walking in our Borough safe and easy, including £8.5 million of Liveable Neighbourhoods funding in West Ealing and along the Uxbridge Road.
We will continue to expand the network of segregated cycling routes, quiet ways and campaign for cycle superhighways within the Borough in order to make cycling a safer and easier way of travelling.
We will reduce and work towards eliminating the number of dangerous junctions in the Borough, through investing in better road layouts and crossings.
We will increase the amount of secure bike parking in residential areas to make bike ownership practical for more residents.
We will audit the provision of cycle parking to ensure that locking bicycles is easy across the Borough, and ensure there are bike hoops outside every shop, public building and leisure facility.
We will introduce new space standards in our planning policies to ensure large employers provide appropriate cycle parking, changing and shower facilities within large buildings.
We will expand dockless cycle hire schemes to cover the whole borough so everyone has access to a bicycle wherever they live and encourage their responsible use.
We will sign up to the Construction Logistics and Community Safety scheme, to ensure that construction companies take seriously their responsibilities around site safety and training for HGV drivers – making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists around the Borough.
We will look for opportunities to pedestrianise appropriate parts of our town centres, in consultation with residents, starting with Bond Street in central Ealing and support ‘car-free days’ across the Borough.
We will reduce clutter, unnecessary street furniture and remove railings on our high streets to reduce the number of barriers that make it difficult to walk unimpeded.
We will work to create places that residents want to live in and low-traffic neighbourhoods that are safe for walking and cycling, by signing up to the ‘Sustrans Streets for People Pledge’.
We will encourage parents and school children to ditch cars and walk or cycle to school, and pilot closing roads around school entrances at the start and the end of the school day to achieve this.
Liberal Democrats
Deliver a borough network of electric car charging points using lampposts, and deliver an Electric Bike scheme.
Encourage the use of bikes by promoting the use of bike hangers.
Change local planning policy to allow the building of small bike sheds.
Support Mobikes (free standing bikes that people hire using an app) as they encourage residents to exercise at a cheap cost.
Cutting congestion on our roads, by increasing cycling, and improving safety for all including pedestrians and cyclists.
All Council contractors to introduce safety devices on their vehicles to cut the risk of injury to cyclists.
Develop a Summer Streets Scheme, similar to New York, temporarily pedestrianising streets so that we are all encouraged to travel on foot.
