Congratulations to Cllr Champion on reaching the milestone of Islington’s 500th on-street bike hanger (‘Five hundred hangars…’), but the Council’s promise to install a hundred more a year is too slow. There are still 2,500 people on the bike hangar waiting list, apparently, here in Islington, and this demand for secure on-street cycle parking will surely only increase in a dense inner-city borough like ours as we move towards a zero-carbon transport system by 2030.
The Green Party’s budget amendments to the council budget each year have shown this is an issue about fairness as well as funding, though. For example, Islington’s rental costs for the street spaces, are currently the highest in London, at more than £100/year, while council tenants living in street properties face these same high bike parking prices, even though fellow tenants on estates rightly get hangar space for free.
If Cllr Champion wants to be truly proud of Islington’s provision, as she suggests, she should quickly iron out these discrepancies.
Andrew Myer, Islington Green Party