The run-up to the local elections 2018 was a busy time for Tower Hamlets Wheelers. It included our hosting a lively and well-attended cycling and walking mayoral hustings, and we also published the Tower Hamlets Cycling Manifesto 2018–22: this set out our positive vision for cycling in the borough over the next four years, and six of the seven mayoral candidates (including the re-elected incumbent, John Biggs) committed to this.

The election on 3 May resulted in Labour doubling their council seats to 42 (reducing the opposition to just three councillors). Winning a substantial majority can give parties the confidence to implement their manifestoes vigorously, including the more controversial bits – so what pledges did the Labour manifesto contain in relation to cycling, walking and traffic management in our borough?

“We will be the best place in London to walk and cycle”

Labour’s manifesto contained this laudable statement of intent which – if achieved against a context of recent major improvements in some other London boroughs – would represent huge progress. So, more specifically, how might the new administration actually deliver this result by 2022?

One major manifesto pledge is that the five corridors identified in TfL’s Strategic Cycling Analysis as having strong potential for cycling would be implemented as high-quality routes: this would include three new north–south routes, a new east–west route to the north of CS2, and a shorter cycling link up the west side of the Isle of Dogs. If these are completed to a genuinely high standard, with fully protected space on main roads or (where no main roads are available) substantial traffic reduction on minor roads, they would represent a major advance for cycling in the borough.

Another pledge is to start bringing low-traffic neighbourhoods to half the borough by 2022. If this pledge is achieved and the quality of implementation is to a similar standard as that seen in the now-famous Waltham Forest Mini-Holland scheme, this would represent a great benefit not just to cycling but also to walking and local residents. There is, however, a caveat that such schemes will be introduced “where residents want them”: whilst public engagement is certainly important, we will be urging the new administration to proactively lead the conversation on these issues with residents rather than merely responding to campaigns; and the new administration will also need to accept the inevitability that even the best, most carefully-consulted schemes will never achieve unanimity of opinion. This issue may therefore require our borough’s politicians to lead their communities from the front and take some decisions with which not everyone will agree.

On bike parking, the Labour manifesto pledges 100 new bike hangars, each of which will house six bikes. Given the enormous latent demand for secure residents’ bike parking, this is unlikely to be enough; however, the Mayor did subsequently commit to our own Tower Hamlets Cycling Manifesto, which ups his commitment to 300 (by comparison with other boroughs, this is not an unreasonable ask: adding 300 hangars would still leave Tower Hamlets with fewer hangars in 2022 than Hackney has today, and the new administration in Islington has committed to installing 400 hangars over its term).

Other relevant manifesto commitments include the following: making it harder for commuters from elsewhere to park their cars in the borough; using the new Local Plan and Green Grid Strategy to increase the number of walking and cycling routes; continuing to invest in Quietways; supporting the northern alignment of the proposed Canary Wharf to Rotherhithe walking and cycling bridge; applying the London Cycling Design Standards to all new roadwork schemes; ensuring all cycling schemes will cater for non-standard cycles; allowing owners of non-standard cycles to rent garages in which to store them; maintaining the borough’s 20mph speed limit and taking action to ensure that it is better enforced; aiming to introduce “School Streets” (where motor vehicles are banned at drop off and pick up times) around half the borough’s primary schools; continuing to oppose new motor vehicle bridges to and from Fish Island; increasing public bike parking; and working with commercial landlords to increase visitor and resident bike parking.

The rest of the council chamber

The one remaining People’s Alliance councillor, Rabina Khan, was also a mayoral candidate and she committed to the Tower Hamlets Cycling Manifesto. The other two councillors are Conservatives; their mayoral candidate, Anwara Ali, also committed to our Manifesto. We hope that these campaigning commitments will lead to an opposition which supports the governing party where it proposes high-quality cycling schemes, and pushes it to do better if it does not.

In conclusion

These manifesto commitments sit on top of existing positive commitments in the borough’s 2016 cycling strategy and, if achieved, they will represent a further major advance. However, the proof will be seen with the quality of what the new administration actually delivers and the enthusiasm with which it does so.