High Street Kensington cycle lanes could be reinstated under options being considered at crunch meeting

But ‘do nothing’ is also an option - and emergency services are said to oppose the lanes

The possibility of reintroducing the cycle lanes in High Street Kensington was today proposed as one of four options for councillors to consider at a crunch meeting next week.

Kensington and Chelsea council has called the meeting next Wednesday evening after a pledge to review its decision to axe the temporary “covid pop-up” lanes after seven weeks last December, to an outcry from teachers,school children and cyclists.

Last week Mayor Sadiq Khan called on the Tory council to reintroduce the lanes, on either side of the high street, after a phone survey of 1,000 borough residents found two to one in favour.

The council today published the agenda papers for next week’s committee, and listed the restoration of the temporary lanes as one of four options.

The options are:

·      Install temporary cycle lanes in full. This would “allow the council to carry out further monitoring of the cycle lanes”, though at a time when vehicle traffic is “atypical” due to the pandemic and easing of the lockdown.

·       Install parts of temporary cycle lanes. “This would involve providing segregated cycle lanes in the outer sections of the route, where the road is widest,” the council papers state. “It would not provide a continuous route in either direction but would assist people to cycle to and from the area on the sections of road where traffic tends to be faster.”

·      Do not install temporary cycle lanes but consider an alternative scheme in the longer term. This research “could begin in the summer and lead to a feasibility study in the longer term”.

·        Do not install temporary cycle lanes. This “would maintain the current levels of traffic capacity along the High Street for general traffic. Conditions for cycling would remain as they are today.”

Today’s papers also state that the London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service are opposed to the cycle lanes.

This is despite the lanes being, at 2.5m, wide enough for emergency vehicles – and using plastic wands to delineate the space, which can be safely driven over by vehicles.

The council papers state: “Both the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade raised concerns about the scheme and noted that their vehicles would not use the cycle lanes.

“The LFB stated that as an organisation, they were not encouraging fire appliance drivers to drive over the collapsible wands because, although many incidents within the borough are responded to by local stations, incidents can require attendance from crews outside of the borough.

“These drivers may not be familiar with collapsible wands and, as there is no common standard used across London, it is hard for drivers to know which are and which are not over-runnable. This might lead to damaged brigade vehicles.

“The borough commander said that the gaps in between the wands were too short for appliances to drive through and the cycle lanes too narrow for appliances to drive along. Drivers feared being blocked in if theyused the lanes.

“The borough commander believed that cycle lanes London-wide were causing significant delays to LFB responders as well as when returning from routine work in the borough, suggesting in some cases it was taking in excess of an hour for vehicles to return to station.”

In relation to the London Ambulance Service, which has previously backed pro-cycling schemes such as low-traffic neighbourhoods because of their wider health benefits, it “shared concerns regarding response times and overall ambulance journey times with the LFB”, additionally believing that the implementation of cycle lanes would cause pinch points.

The council papers said: “The LAS also felt that the wands would prevent ambulances parking up in order to access properties along the route easily and safely.

“The service would also not encourage the use of cycle lanes by ambulances because of the risk of damage or of being unable to exit the cycle lanes easily.

“Unlike the LFB, ambulance crews do not have home stations and so are even more likely to be unaware if wands protecting a cycle lane are over-runnable or not.

“The responding group manager for the London Ambulance Service, whilst appreciating the public health benefits of cycling, believed this should not be at the detriment to the public who require immediate medical care in an emergency, and he requested that the scheme was reviewed.”

A Kensington and Chelsea spokesperson said: “We know the depth of feeling on both sides of the debate surrounding cycling on Kensington High Street.

“That’s why the council leader asked to look again at the decision to remove the cycle lane and officers have prepared a report with the most up-to-date views, data and four options for consideration by the leadership team on March 17. The report is available to all via the council website.”

The Evening Standard has approached London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service to request the release of their full correspondence with the council.

A similar request has been made to the council, which said in an initial response that the information was provided in emails “not intended as public documents”.

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