Draft bill will give London councils power to remove your bike from lamposts

10/01/08
A draft bill is currently going through parliament today, to give London councils the power to "de-clutter" pavements. If approved, bicycles could be forcibly removed from London streets. The policy would allow for the removal of bikes chained to railings and lampposts, if deemed to be obstructive.
BBC Link

Sums this shit city up! Livingstone's got a lot to answer for

I love London.

maybe we should collect bikes and chain them up in massive bikes trees all over london
ever growing protect trees

That's a joke. A big unfunny fucking joke.
I'd love to know what constitutes being "parked properly".

D'you reckon they'll then be selling them on down at Brick Lane?

You can guarantee they won't be reimbursing you for the cut locks.

It still really gets my fucking goat that a city that (at least seemingly) attempts to promote alternate forms of transport than petrol-guzzling 4x4s has cycle lanes made of death and tube fares that you need a mortgage to afford. And then, on top of all that, you can't even chain your fucking bike up anywhere.

And while I'm at it: "de-clutter"?! My bikes are bloody sexy as Hell. "De-clutter," my arse. Fucking insulting that is.

me personally not a big fan of locking my bike to lamp posts... if only they will provide ADEQUATE cycle specific parking, which seems rather unlikely to happen, i'll still be forced to use a lamp post. what do we do now? go buy bromptons?

its a joke...for pretty much any bike taken, I imagine they could make up an argument that it was cluttering up the place...

Surely a nicer thing would be for the council to phone you up to ask you to move it. Or just for them to borrow the key, move it to some beautifully-provisioned secure bike parking, and then return the key with a pint of bitter and a smile.

ahhhhh!!! thats fucking bollocks!!!
are they that stupid!? this city is rammed with cars...and they attack us...tossers!...i want to smash stuff up!...sex pistols have dramatically altered my mood.

Object17 That's a joke. A big unfunny fucking joke.
I'd love to know what constitutes being "parked properly".

being in a car probably

Get rid of London Lite/Metro/London Paper distributors.

Next thing you know, they'll be forcefully removing window-shoppers or geriatrics for "cluttering" the pavements.
Fools.

edmundane me personally not a big fan of locking my bike to lamp posts... if only they will provide ADEQUATE cycle specific parking, which seems rather unlikely to happen, i'll still be forced to use a lamp post.

Exactly when we all use lamp posts, I reckon. Like when they put those signs up all along Brushfield St from the Spitalfields Space Protection Scheme, or whatever it was, saying that bikes on lamp posts would be removed. One month later and they whack like one extra bike lock station thing down on Bishopsgate. One. Pricks.

Sparky Get rid of London Lite/Metro/London Paper distributors.

And all chuggers.
And those coppers who stand on the corner with their hands tucked into their kevlar vests looking threatening.

Clutter.

And benches, public toilets, level paving stones - more clutter. They've been working on those for a few years already.

I'm getting the impression that it's mandatory to replace clutter with dogshit though.

Three points:

1 - my bike is clutter its not pretty at all - but i still love it

2 - who say the post about deflatting 4x4's tires, we could do this for any vehicle we see as clutter, for example mercedes/bmw who can't be bothered to park whilst they go into a shop but will be right in the middle of the road

3 - I think we should have a ride just against this stupid bill, it could get passed by politicians who manage to live so far from the real world, they probably would see they're chaffuer (spelling) driven limo as necessity but a bike as clutter, even though they've probably all needed a document in a hurry at some point in their lives and have needed a courier to get it to them.

http://www.whatshouldiputonthefence.com/

Extend the scheme.

it amazes me that this is what the politicians do.....
like they dont have anything else to do.......cyclist are not an issue! fucking cunts!

and they're trying to encourage cycling??

That is pathetic. Most central official bike locking places are always full already - never mind encouraging more cyclists.

Also just means any thief can put on a yellow 'council' jacket & wander round with a pair of boltcutters with bugger all risk of being challenged. Asshats.

Why not email this chap?
He is apparently "Director of Transport, Environment and Planning" at London Councils.
I reckon he'd love to hear all your opinions on all things bicycle!

Nice one Richard, I hope all 1000+ of us mail the politicians NOWWWWW

lets just email him a link to this discussion.