Westminster Council clamping down on cyclists...

Article here:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23780505-danger-cyclists-to-be-policed-by-council-staff.do

Essentially the police will "delegate authority" to the council's own "inspectors" who will hand out on-the-spot £30 fines.

Thoughts?

I think there are going to be a lot less fat council inspectors

Angela Harvey, chairman of Westminster's scrutiny committee, sounds like a right cunt:

We're always getting little old ladies who are knocked down and abused by a cyclist, who leave them on the ground as they ride away.

What a ridiculous thing to say.

How many little old ladies per day would you think?

Or has she just made that up....

Although I might support this if the inspectors could equally administer fines to ASL offenders.

They would make a lot more $$ for the council if they slapped a £60/3 points fine on each vehicle that ignores the green box.

I can account for todays incident.

Seems like a good point to throw in a link to this very good blog post:

http://thecyclingsilk.blogspot.com/2009/11/cycling-against-car-culture.html

(credit to TheBrick for original post on it)

Lycra louts blah blah blah
Tax blah blah blah
Menaces blah blah blah
Held accountable blah blah blah
Danger blah blah blah

Did I miss something?

- Mike C, London

Made me chuckle.

hahaahaha they posted it!
Wonder who that was. God I really should be doing some work

Angela Harvey, chairman of Westminster's scrutiny committee, sounds like a right cunt:
[quote]We're always getting little old ladies who are knocked down and abused by a cyclist, who leave them on the ground as they ride away.

What a ridiculous thing to say.[/QUOTE]

I've only ever seen 1 little old lady in danger of being knocked down, and she was crossing where she wasn't meant to be.

What can they do to stop you just riding off if you get stopped? I assume it's an offense to try and get away from a police man, but from a 'council inspector'?

haha, surely they don't think people are actually going to stop for some fluorescent prick trying to hand out fines.

You should check out the comments on the Times article for this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6946724.ece

It's hard to tell if the comments are being sarcastic or for real. Always gets me worked up when the harp on about making cyclists pay a road tax.

Comment from the original article...

I can see the day when cycling will be as anti-social as smoking, keep this selfish attitude up and that day will soon arrive

Pure gold.

An old lady is knocked over on the pavement by a cyclist in Westminster every fifteen minutes.

She's seriously considering moving.

One in ten cars is uninsured in East London.

Hit and runs are becoming more common, where an uninsured driver smashes into a cyclist or pedestrian and flees the scene.

In a random survey by City Of London police, every single HGV lorry stopped in central London was found to be unroadworthy, the driver was uninsured, had exceeded the safe working hours or was driving a dangerous vehicle.

On my cycle commute I will see several drivers on mobiles, they don't care because they won't be caught.

Drivers flout the Advanced Stop Lines designed to increase safety for cyclists, not one single London driver has ever been fined for encroaching an ASL or a mandatory cycle lane.

Cycling on the pavement is usually done by twatty chavs on BMXs with stunt pegs and their arse hanging out.

Uninsured vehicles cost the rest of us £400 million last year, how much did pavement cyclists cost us?

The Times and Standard dig up a quote from some obscure Westminster fart-knocker councillor who says old ladies are knocked to the ground and then beaten up by lycra nazis. The old ladies cry and cry but the cyclists just carry on.

Both papers get lots of hits on their website from cyclist/cyclist haters. Advertisers are pleased, all the fuss dies down and nothing changes.

...some obscure Westminster fart-knocker councillor

lulz!

it is estimated that up to one in five breaks the Highway Code.

"estimated"
"up to one in five"

nice to see the all facts there in the article...

Drop the Cllr a line here and ask her to justify her comments.

http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/forms/emailform.cfm?cllr_id=23&comments=&CFID=2646881&CFTOKEN=42507214

This is one of the issues that was in the TfL/LLA Bill defeated by the LCC in Parliament. Westminster appear to want to bring it back via another route. We are opposed to the proposals, as we believe that enforcement is a matter for the police.

have dropped her a line

haha! DJ, did you call her a "you know what" ?

I haven't got a problem with it - we expect other road users to abide by the rules, and yet complain when attempts are made to make us abide by them too.

but they are not getting the Police and PCSOs to do the work but council workers.

Drop the Cllr a line here and ask her to justify her comments.

http://www3.westminster.gov.uk/forms/emailform.cfm?cllr_id=23&comments=&CFID=2646881&CFTOKEN=42507214

Done.

Dear Cllr Harvey,

I was surprised to read the following quotation, attributed to you, in the Evening Standard:

"We're always getting little old ladies who are knocked down and abused by a cyclist, who leave them on the ground as they ride away."

Could you confirm whether you were quoted accurately, and if so, would you be able to cite evidence of any such incidents, or even quantify what rate of incidents (in terms of incidents per day, for example) you mean by "always" in the above context.

I thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

I haven't got a problem with it - we expect other road users to abide by the rules, and yet complain when attempts are made to make us abide by them too.

but they are not getting the Police and PCSOs to do the work but council workers.

No-one is objecting to enforcement--in fact, the LCC wants more traffic police in London and for motoring offences to attract suitable levels of enforcement, too. However, we object to placing enforcement into the hands of council officers.