Kensington High Street cycle lane under review

The council decision to remove the cycle lanes along Kensington High Street is to be revisited. Last September, the council introduced the temporary cycle lanes in response to Covid-19 and to help people walk and cycle safely while capacity was reduced on public transport.

The lanes had only been in place for seven weeks when, at the end of November, RBKC announced that it planned to remove them. At the time RBKC’s lead member for transport, Johnny Thalassites, said that businesses had, “told us loud and clear that they believe the experiment has not worked.By removing the temporary lanes as lockdown lifts, we hope to help get the High Street moving again.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan condemned the move and Prime Minister Boris Johnson was said to be unhappy about the decision.

When Bike is Best campaign group asked RBKC how it had assessed whether or not the cycle lanes were working, the council admitted: “No criteria or metrics were developed by which the scheme was to be assessed.”

Hoping to calm the highly emotional pro and anti bike lane lobbies and come up with a working plan Council leader Elizabeth Campbell says: “I have asked the council to look again at the decision to remove temporary cycle lanes on Kensington High Street, and I will be seeking views and a decision from the entire Leadership Team. We will do this without the Lead Member for Transport in the interest of fairness and balance.

“It is important we consider the most up-to-date information and views we have available, and so officers have been asked to prepare an up-to-date report for us to consider at our meeting on March 17th.”

NNB will publish the report as soon as it is available.