Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary

Well, well, well! So when the hundred and fifty or so residents who came to the recent Area Assembly asked Haringey Council whether the fact that the funding for Parkland Walk came from Transport for London’s cycling department meant that they wanted increased cyclists and increased speeds and the Council said no - they were comprehensively mislead (and that is a polite term) - and the Labour councillors present just sat their silent.

How do I know we were misled? Well – I’ve bunged in a freedom of information request to see what (Labour-run!) Haringey Council really said in its bid submission to Transport for London and the results have just come back.

And the bid from the Council actually says that Haringey Council wants to increase cycling speeds on the Parkland Walk through "decreasing journey times for cyclists" and to "increase in the number of people cycling".

From the details of the bid, Haringey Council clearly have been given this money to turn the Parkland Walk into a cycle speedway – but they haven’t admitted this to residents. Now - I could point to a hundred roads in the borough where the cycling provision is poor to dangerous and yet Haringey went for £400,000 for a cycling speedway that’s clearly quite inappropriate for Parkland Walk. The Council should have consulted residents before (yes – before you make the decision, that’s what really consultation means) they entered into this pact with Transport for London.

This issue just runs and runs!

Note: You can still take part in my online survey on the future of Parkland Walk.

Labels: parkland walk, tfl