Elected on a manifesto which promised a clean, green borough, Labour’s delivery on cycling in Croydon has been, at best, sub-optimal.
Disappearing cycle lanes on South End and London Road might be bad enough, but the abandonment of the car-free Quietway experiment on Norbury Avenue last summer was a significant defeat, especially as so much of the opposition to thwart the scheme was identified as coming from a lone car campaigner based in Coulsdon utilising a variety of online identities.
Meanwhile, the council pays lip service to commuting cyclists by staging one-off nights of bike racing – at a cumulative cost of at least £250,000 – which have proved to be irrelevant as far as encouraging more cyclists or improving their safety when using Croydon’s badly polluted roads.
So the latest council consultation, on whether to allow cycling through Park Hill, Wandle and Lloyd parks, could justifiably be taken with a fistful of salt by the borough’s frequently ignored bike riders. “Croydon Council is committed to encouraging cycling as a healthy, cost-effective and environmentally friendly form of transport,” the council’s documents say, though the evidence to support that commitment is meagre.
After all, what sort of place is it that in the 21st Century actually forbids cyclists from riding through its public parks?
The consultation arises because some funding for safe cycle routes has come from Transport for London and Sustrans, the transport charity. According to the Croydon Cycling Campaign, “The Sustrans Connect2 route is perhaps the only significant cycling project Croydon Council has attempted in the past eight years. It’s a simple route, not changing too much, not costing much and not impacting on much.”
Which sounds about par for “ambitious” Croydon.
Park Hill Park appears as if it was created to provide a transport corridor to link two parks of the borough. Yet at present, cyclists are banned
Yet, there has been very slow progress, not least because of residents’ opposition around Park Hill Park, a thin strip of a corridor from the quiet houses and streets of Park Hill through to the busy dual carriageways close to the town centre.
“Resistance from residents on the adjacent road has dragged it out for years,” say the frustrated-sounding cycle campaigners.
The arguments in favour of the in-park cycle routes are so obvious, they hardly need stating at all.
“Croydon needs places where adults can take their children to learn to cycle,” the cycle campaigners say. “They need routes they can practice cycling with, and be able to make real journeys into the town centre accompanied by their children in safety. Child obesity rates in Croydon are soaring with a lack of exercise a major contributor. Air pollution is severely damaging to the delicate developing organs of our young. We have to get people out of their cars and on to bikes.
“Cycling in parks is a key part of making this vision happen.” The cycle campaign says its fears that “some residents picture a small local park like Park Hill being overrun by racing cyclists. This route will never appeal to fast, racing or even commuting cyclists however. This will appeal to adults with young children, the elderly and children cycling to school.
“Opposition to this scheme also puts future schemes at risk. It’s demoralising for staff at the council working on the project and discourages councillors from attempting more cycling projects in future.
Cycle routes around the fringe of Lloyd Park and, above, through Wandle Park are also part of the council’s latest consultation
“The Sustrans Connect2 route aims to connect up green spaces across the centre of Croydon, creating a pleasant and attractive (albeit slow and indirect) east-west route, passing through the very heart of Croydon. This is a route for leisure cycling, particularly for parents travelling with children.”
The cycle campaign makes a plea for residents to support the proposals: “Please help support us in our vision to make Croydon a safe and pleasant place for the future.
“We’ll all benefit in the long run.”
- Still Croydon’s only independent news source, and based in the heart of the borough: 1.97 million page views 2013-2015
- Inside Croydon: Named among best regional media campaigns, 2014
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event to publicise, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
I cycle through Park Hill anyway, on the very rare occasions I need to get from nowhere much to nowhere much.
Not really sure where a cycle path through either Wandle or Lloyd parks would lead and what value for money it would represent so can’t help feeling the whole project is lip service.
Spend the money on a north-south cycle route from North End to South End. You could base some of it on old disused cycle lanes…
How many of the cyclists who currently cycle through all of these parks (and others) are aware that they should not be doing so?
Would it stop them if they did know?
I know, and I still do it, albeit with great care for fellow park users. I have never had so much as a dirty look from anyone for cycling carefully along the paths.
So, whose job is it to stop people from cycling in public parks? And how often does this happen in our borough? What exactly do they say, assuming that they have managed to make a cyclist stop to chat.
And what are the punishments or consequences?