London Cycle Campaign

The capital’s schoolchildren are at risk of missing out on cycling training under new rules being introduced by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson according to new claims by the London Cycling Campaign.

The LCC says that in 2009/10, around £3 million was spent on cycling training in the city for both children and adults, but warns that funding could fall dramatically during 2010/11.

A BBC London TV programme aired last night, and available to watch now on the BBC iPlayer for viewers throughout the UK, has hit out at ‘Lycra louts’ who ride through red lights and on pavements, but failed to acknowledge the dangers that cyclists themselves face daily on the capital’s roads.

The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea is hosting its first cycling forum on Wednesday 10 March, with local residents invited to give their views on how the council can "help make a difference for cyclists and let us know how we can improve cycling."

Speakers at the event, which starts at 6pm at the Mosaic Music Rooms, 226 Cromwell Road SW5 0SW, include Philip Darnton, chairman of Cycling England, and Tom Bogdanowicz, local campaigns manager at London Cycle Campaign.

The Tour de France may be the world’s biggest annual sporting event, but however much of a cycling fan you are, it has to be admitted, perhaps grudgingly, that in even-numbered years the World Cup or Olympic Games are the sporting showpieces that capture the public’s imagination.

This summer, however, a bike ride visiting the home grounds of all of London’s clubs aims to bring together the worlds of football and cycling to help raise money for charity.

Local cycling campaigners in South East London are celebrating the success of a campaign to reduce the speed limit in Greenwich Park from 30mph to 20mph, and are now seeking the help of their local MP to ensure that the necessary legislation can be passed before the forthcoming General Election.

Following pressure from campaigners including bereaved friends and families of accident victims and the London Cycle Campaign, the Metropolitan Police is to reconstitute its Commercial Vehicle Education Unit (CVEU) under a new name, the Commercial Vehicle Unit (CVU).

Last October, Mayor of London Boris Johnson came under heavy criticism after he announced that he had decided to disband the specialist lorry safety unit, particularly because since the start of 2009, eight cyclists, six of them women, had been killed by lorries in the capital.

A survey has found that cyclists in a London Borough are deterred from cycling more by “scary road conditions” and “bad drivers.” The poll was conducted by Waltham Forest Cycling Campaign (WFCC) at this year’s Tour de Waltham Forest guided ride in which 300 cyclists participated.

Cyclists across London are being urged to wear blue tomorrow and join guided local rides into the heart of the capital to join a demonstration in favour of tackling climate change that is expected to be one of the biggest mass protests in British history.

A police initiative to teach deaf children to ride bicycles is among five projects that will be recognised this evening in the annual London Cycling Awards.

Other winners of the awards, announced at the annual general meeting of London Cycling Campaign (CLC) and sponsored by Evans Cycles, include an off-road cycle route linking Camden with St Pancras, a training scheme in Lambeth that brings HGV drivers and cyclists together, an initiative to promote cycling on three housing estates in Hackney, and a re-thinking of a hazardous junction in Islington.

A South-London based charity that helps disabled people experience cycling has made an appeal for donations after an arson attack earlier this month destroyed its collection of bikes and other equipment at one of the two locations it operates from.

The fire at Brockwell Park near Brixton, where the charity called Wheels for Wellbeing is based, resulted in the destruction of a dozen three- and four-wheeled bikes and 11 bicycles. It also means that the brick storeroom they were in can’t be used. The circumstances are being investigated by Brixton Police.