Hundreds to protest outside Camden Council’s offices to call for safer streets following latest cyclist death in Holborn

Hundreds of cyclists are expected to protest outside Camden Council’s offices this Friday before riding to the junction in Holborn where cyclist Marta Krawiec was killed earlier this month.

The 41-year-old paediatrician is the seventh cyclist to have been killed on the Holborn Gyratory system since 2008, with lorries involved in all but one of those fatal crashes.

> Holborn lorry crash victim named as children’s doctor Marta Krawiec

In late 2019, Transport for London (TfL) and the London Borough of Council announced plans to overhaul the junction under the Liveable Neighbourhoods scheme, but funding is currently on hold.

Friday’s event is being organised by the campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists, with participants meeting outside the council’s new headquarters in Pancras Square, N1 4AG at 5.30pm before departing at 6pm to head to the junction of Southampton Row and Theobalds Road, where there will be speeches from 6.30pm.

A spokesperson for Stop Killing Cyclists told road.cc: “Eight people have been killed at this junction in recent years six of whom were cycling and still Camden Council haven't made it safe for people cycling and walking.

“Seven people in London have been killed whilst cycling this year, we've a long way to go before our roads are as safe as they need to be.

“Camden need to put a covid style emergency traffic order in place to make this junction safe immediately and the government needs to spend £6 billion a year or 20 per cent of their transport budget on safe cycling.”

Protests by Stop Killing Cyclists and London Cycling Campaign (LCC) at Bank Junction following the death of cyclist Ying Tao in 2015 helped pave the way for a radical rethink by the City of London Corporation of the use of road space within the Square Mile.

Since 2017, Bank Junction has been closed to all vehicles other than buses and bicycles between 7am and 7pm on weekdays, and earlier this year, a consultation was launched over plans to pedestrianise part of the junction.

> How the City of London listening to cycling campaigners led to a safer Bank Junction

LCC plans to stage a mass protest ride over dangerous junctions through central London on the evening of Wednesday 8 September, and has also launched a petition urging London boroughs and Mayor Sadiq Khan to take action on the issue.

> London Cycling Campaign launches petition demanding action on capital’s lethal junctions