Councillors Continue Pressure To Have Cycleway Run Along A4

Call for 'seamless boundary' between Hammersmith and Hounslow

Chiswick councillors and residents campaigning on the High Road

With only weeks to go before Hounslow Council gives the expected go-ahead to Transport for London's (TfL) cycleway the nine local councillors have called on Hounslow Council to collaborate with Hammersmith & Fulham to extend the A4 cycleway and have a 'seamless boundary' across both boroughs

A cabinet meeting to consider CS9 will be held on Tuesday, 3 September at 7pm at Hounslow House.

It is expected to attract a full house with both supporters and opponents of the cycleway from Chiswick attending.

Leader of the nine Conservative councillors in Chiswick, Jo Biddolph said, "If this is workable in LBH&F, it is workable in Hounslow. If LBH&F's cycling scheme for more confident cycling, along the A4 from Hammersmith Gyratory to Chiswick, were to continue through Chiswick to Brentford, that could be a remarkable win for LBH&F and Hounslow residents.”

"It is essential that both councils work together on this and, in particular, that councillors who represent Chiswick should be involved in discussions about, for example, how the Safer Cycle Pathway joins Chiswick High Road and how the Cycle Highway will work along the A4 in Chiswick. Chiswick needs a scheme that works seamlessly over boundaries."

The proposal for an A4 cycleway has previously been dismissed by Hounslow's head of Transport, Mark Frost, who told a Chiswick Area Forum meeting last year it would be difficult to implement because of cyclists needing safe access to cross the A4 to Chiswick High Road.

Cllr Patrick Barr (deputy leader) said if Hammersmith & Fulham Council recognised that King Street was not suitable for a 2.5m-3m wide segregated cycle lane, then by clear inference, the same was true for Chiswick High Road."

Those agains the cycleway for Chiswick High Road claim that policies to encourage cycing have met with limited success and that the Embankment cycle highway CS3 cost over £47m, but its daily use has only increased by 754 since it was built..

It is also pointed out that with a possible two years in which construction of the pathway is taking place there will be significant extra delays from construction in the area.

CS9 opponents marked pavement space they say is to be lost. Picture: @W4resident

The Hounslow Cycling Campaign have previously issued a point by point rebuttal of the claims made by local councillors saying their petition against the cycleway is based on ‘scaremongering, erroneous and misleading statements’.

Michael Robinson, Co-ordinator, Hounslow Cycling Campaign said, “The most disappointing aspect of the Chiswick councillors’ position is their complete failure to address the issues affecting us all - air pollution, climate change, health and safety of people on the roads. Statements such as ‘we need to promote cycling’ are meaningless without infrastructure that actually enables people to cycle safely. Other boroughs have seen measurable reductions in air pollution and increases in life expectancy for residents after investments in safe cycling infrastructure, but the Chiswick councillors continue to ignore evidence-based public health justifications for this investment.”

With regard to figures published by councillors claiming to show a decline in cycling over the last decade in local boroughs, the pro-CS9 group says no source has been given for these numbers and Department for Transport data shows an 88% increase in cycling in Chiswick from 2009 to 2018. Similarly they query the source for claims made about usage of CS3 saying figures show a 200% increase in cycling since it opened.

It is also pointed out that Chiswick High Road is already single file at certain points and that TfL’s predictions for journey times show that the cycleway will actually reduce travel times for motorised traffic at certain times of the day.

August 24, 2019