“When was the last time we heard of bus users against tram users?” Brompton Bike Hire chief blasts Rishi Sunak’s “cyclists versus drivers” rhetoric as “an artificial construct”

The managing director of Brompton Bike Hire has become the latest voice within the cycling industry to criticise Rishi Sunak’s recently-announced batch of “proudly pro-car” policies, describing the prime minister’s attempt to halt the so-called ‘war on motorists’ as “wedge politics” and an “artificial construct” which will “hopefully blow over given time”.

Speaking at the same event, the CEO of a community health centre in Birmingham, which is currently working alongside Brompton to get more local women on bikes, said that Sunak’s ‘Plan for Motorists’ is a “short-term vote winner” that “in the long run will cost everybody”.

Last week, Transport Secretary Mark Harper’s pledge to introduce a number of pro-motorist policies at the Conservative Party conference, outlined by the prime minister a few days before, including a review of 20mph speed limits (and opposition to their “blanket use”) and low-traffic neighbourhoods, was roundly condemned by cycling and active travel campaigners, with Cycling UK accusing the government of being “intent on undermining” some of the “most successful transport policies of recent years” in an “ill-fated attempt to win support” ahead of the next general election.

> Cycling charity accuses Conservatives of "ill-fated attempt to win" votes with pro-motoring policies "undermining" active travel success

Julian Scriven, managing director of Brompton Bike Hire, joined that chorus of disapproval while speaking at an event in Birmingham, where the company joined forces with a local community centre cycling club to offer extended loans of their folding bikes to women from deprived areas, in a bid to encourage daily cycling.

Referring to Sunak’s ‘Plan for Motorists’, and the relative underfunding of active travel measures in the West Midlands, Scriven told Birmingham Live: “We have the lowest spend per capita in England on funding cycling and activity.

“I think wedge politics of making it cyclists versus drivers is an artificial construct. When was the last time we heard of bus users against tram users? Hopefully it will blow over given time.

“I have been working to get more people cycling now, if you want to get people from low-income households or ethnic communities into cycling, it’s real work and takes massive commitment.”

> Rishi Sunak’s ‘Plan for Motorists’ will “rob people of choice” and force them to drive, say cycling and walking campaigners

Naseem Akhtar, CEO of Saheli Hub, whose cycling club – which is focused on teaching South Asian women of all ages to ride a bike to improve their physical and mental health – received 15 bikes from Brompton, with a further 35 loaned to locals, agreed that Sunak’s pro-car policies could have a devastating long-term impact on the health of people from lower-income backgrounds.

“The majority of the community live in congested areas which impacts their health,” she says. “If more people get active, you are saving the whole system including the NHS and long-term costs of coronary heart disease and diabetes.”

Responding to the prime minister’s proposals, she added: “I think this is a short-term vote winner for him and his backbenchers, but in the long run it will cost everybody.

“Life expectancy in the neighbourhoods we operate in, most men don't even reach 65 which is shocking. It should be a scandal. As soon as men over 60 pass away you plunge the family into poverty, not just because the majority are still breadwinners but it's the impact on the whole family.”

> Chris Boardman urges Rishi Sunak to stick with "fantastic" pro-cycling plans, admits concerns with language of "war on motorists" policies

Last week, after the Conservative politician unveiled his much-debated ‘Plan for Motorists’, national active travel commissioner Chris Boardman urged Sunak to “just stick with” policies promoting active travel, while Cycling UK’s chief executive Sarah Mitchell called on the government to produce a plan that considers all modes of transport, not just for those who drive cars.

Mitchell said: “When Beeching took an axe to local railways in the 1960s, we were robbed of the freedom to choose how we travel. The government’s reported ‘plan for the motorist’ feels like history repeating itself.

“We need a holistic plan for how people can travel — not a plan that zooms in on one particular mode of transport. A plan that gives us the freedom to choose how we travel, maximising our ability to opt for healthy, cheap, and convenient options.

“Better public transport, and safer ways for people to cycle and walk are entirely compatible with driving. Focusing on one way of travelling is like trying to complete a jigsaw with half the pieces missing.

“No. 10 seems intent on undermining some of the government's most successful transport policies of recent years. Ministers should be proud of their achievements on walking and cycling rather than ditching them in an ill-fated attempt to win support in advance of the general election.”