A councillor who called for the temporary Old Shoreham Road cycle lane to go has offered to paint out the lines herself.
Work is expected to start on removing the lane early next month although Brighton and Hove City Council said that this would depend on having people available to remove signs and carry out repairs.
Conservative councillor Dawn Barnett, who was the first member of the council to speak out about the lane, said that she was frustrated by the delay in restoring the road.
The Hangleton and Knoll councillor said that she wanted the wands marking the lane edge to be removed straight away.
Councillor Barnett said: “I’m sorry it’s not being removed quicker than that after it went in overnight. I’ve offered to go along there with a tin of black paint to cover up the white lines.
“I understand highways have got to remove the high signs and burn off the white lines but I don’t want it dragging on.
“The council could go along there and get the posts out. It shows willing and lets people know it is happening.”
The council said that there was no fixed date other than early September, adding: “We are working towards removing the temporary stretches of the Old Shoreham Road cycle lanes as quickly as possible.
“This involves a considerable amount of planning to make sure we fulfil legal requirements in terms of removing the road markings and wands, reinstating the carriageway and repairing it where necessary, removing or changing the signage and adjusting traffic signals in a safe and co-ordinated manner.
“It is also dependent on our highways contractors, who tend to only have limited availability at this time of year.”
The temporary lane between The Drive and Hangleton Road traffic lights will definitely go after Labour and Conservative councillors voted for its removal at a meeting on Tuesday (10 August).
It was one of a series of “active travel” schemes introduced across Brighton and Hove during the first national coronavirus lockdown at the behest of the Conservative government.
The emergency active travel schemes were introduced when the government was urging people not to use public transport.
The Old Shoreham Road cycle lane was created in May last year, in place of a lane of other traffic on each side of the road. It joined the existing cycle lane between The Drive and Dyke Road.
At the time, Labour was the biggest party on the council. On Tuesday, Councillor Gary Wilkinson, who speaks for Labour on transport, said that the government had pushed forward active travel in “challenging times” when public engagement was not possible.
The council had to work “within weeks”, Councillor Wilkinson said, and he quoted a transport minister as saying: “We have no interest in requiring councils to keep schemes which are proven not to work.”
The council received more than £3 million from the government in the first two tranches of “emergency active travel funding”.
A report before councillors on Tuesday said that almost £280,000 of funding was immediately at risk because of the vote to remove the cycle lane.
The council could face the same fate as neighbouring West Sussex County Council which lost funding opportunities after it took out cycle lanes.
Green councillor Amy Heley said that the decision to remove the cycle lane was “shameful”.
She said: “I’m scared for the future. This is the tiniest thing we could have done, a step in the right direction, but they just don’t care. It’s very disappointing.”
Who knew the council would drag this out? We all did. When they want to they can do it quickly, (remember the partial removal of the A259 cycle lane over night?). The transport department proving yet again its all their agenda and not the city.
Lets hope that people remember this when it’s time to vote next time.
Lets kick these green dictators right out next time.
It’s sad to see how those involved in our city decisions can act quickly to get what they want – and yet are so slow to respond when they find residents want something else.
Do we blame the council’s administrative inefficiency here, or do we blame the stubborn councillors in a position of power?
It does seem like the council officers as well as the Green party councillors are firmly under the thumb of lobbying groups – whose cultist representatives are also on their payroll. This has been a massive conflict of interest, creating a town hall cultist bubble.
With this cycle lane we have had lies over usage, and then we had a non productive PR campaign with set-up photos of ‘happy families’ apparently using the cycle lane, and yet never seen there again. We’ve also had a result-weighted consultation where cycling lobbying groups were encouraged to take part in favour of a lane they would never use – but where residents still objected in large numbers.
Once it became clear that no-one was actually using the lane the Greens still couldn’t accept that, and then they fantasised that one day children would grow to love a hilly route no adult chooses. That argument is as strong as me saying that my future descendants will be pleased we dyed the sea pink. One of their lobbyists went on record to discount the whole consultation on the basis that only ‘older’ people had taken part.
And then they claimed that climate change would get worse unless we took their side. This is another lie, or a conflated lie, because you don’t resolve carbon emissions by creating traffic jams or by displacing traffic after closing roads.
So they – the council and the Greens – have lied and tried to fake the figures, they have thrown toys out of the pram when cyclists themselves didn’t like the lane, and then they ignored the democratic will of the people. They keep trying to defend a misplaced cycle lane which doesn’t even achieve their stated aims.
And now they prove just how unfit they are to rule, because they can’t organise a simple thing which everybody wants and which has been democratically agreed to.
Those of us residents who are properly concerned with green issues are appalled by this debacle. You’ve been elected and/or employed to serve the needs of all the residents of our beautiful and unique city, and yet you seem determined to chase your own fantasies whilst mucking up the environment for everyone who doesn’t follow your narrow and misguided view.
In many ways, this cycle lane issue is just the tip of an inefficient iceberg. Our bins are not emptied, and recycling in this city is so difficult. Green councillors have been caught laughing at those trying to dispose of their rubbish responsibly. The unwanted cycle lane was also used to block access to the main Hove recycling centre.
Those of us who trouble to recycle everything find our recyclable materials still end up in an incinerator.
Our roads are no longer cleaned, and that means weeds are allowed to cause long term damage to pavements and to the city drainage infrastructure.
I’m surprised we have not seen any resignations over this mess.
I was just limbering up to say much of what you have covered. Essentially how can we expect a transport department who has behaved so despicably throughout this sorry saga to now efficiently remove this cycle lane? They have used dodgy data to try to justify the lanes retention and then when instructed by the 10 councillor ETS committee to prepare a report into its removal, came back with a report recommending its continued retention!
The residents of Brighton and Hove can no longer have faith in this department. It should be broken up with all directors and officers involved with policy making or planning forced to resign and if they so wish, reapply for their roles. Anyone unable to prove they have had nothing to do with these actions should not be considered. We cannot have departments at the council behaving against the wishes of their residents.
If they removed this unwanted, ineffective and damaging cycle lane even half as slowly as they put it in, I might be impressed. Instead, this council and its officers are continuing to show an arrogant and inappropriate contempt for democracy. Either the cycle lane should go or those dragging their heels should go, although ideally both would be gone for all our sakes.
Who knows what compromises might have been reached had the meetings not been chaired by Cllr Heley in such an aggressive and confrontational manner?
Her behaviour was truly shocking and it comes as a surprise that the Green Party has failed to replace her with someone more suited to participate in public life in a more mature way.
That’s me back in the car then. I used this lane every day as did school kids and others. The OSR was one of the most dangerous roads to cycle on in Brighton. It’s going to be like that again.
Very poor show from Labour supporting this.
This is a backward step and disgraceful when we should be cutting car use.
Well said. No one (that understands that climate change is a problem) should be cheering the removal of a cycle lane.