Tory walkout stops debate over cycle safety on 'killer' bridge

Tory allies of Boris Johnson walked out of a City Hall meeting to prevent a debate on road safety on one of London's most dangerous bridges.

Hundreds of cyclists and opposition politicians on the London Assembly had called on Transport for London to retain a temporary 20mph speed limit on Blackfriars Bridge.

Two cyclists in 15 months were killed on the bridge seven years ago and the leader of Britain's GPs, Dr Clare Gerada, has called a 20mph limit "imperative" after she was seriously injured as she was knocked from her bike.

A motion calling on the Mayor to scrap plans to raise the speed limit to 30mph could not debated yesterday when all the Tory members walked out over a separate issue. Dr Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: "This shows their disinterest in issues that make a difference to people's lives and health."

Jenny Jones, the Green mayoral candidate who proposed the motion, said the Tories had a right to go on "strike" but "it stops us debating things
Londoners care about". Mark Ames, who writes the I Bike London blog, said: "It makes a mockery of the hundreds who signed petitions."

TfL has promised to reinstate a cycle lane on the north side of the bridge removed while Blackfriars station is being revamped. But it refused to keep speeds on the northbound crossing
at 20mph, claiming that two new pedestrian crossings would slow traffic.

Lib-Dem Caroline Pidgeon accused the Tories of "playing student politics". Labour's John Biggs said they "should not play games where the safety of Londoners is concerned".

The Assembly does not have the power to force the Mayor, who chairs TfL, to retain the 20mph limit but it could have exerted political pressure.

Tory Assembly member Andrew Boff said the walk-out was in protest at the refusal of the Greens, Labour and Lib-Dems to share committee chairmanships. He said: "It's not that we don't care about the 20mph limit- we spend a lot of time talking about it. My instinct is that it should be 20mph."