While Surrey’s Roads Policing unit has gained a reputation over the years for debunking anti-cycling myths perpetuated by angry drivers – such as those surrounding riding two abreast, road tax, and ‘holding up’ traffic – it appears the message hasn’t got through to the county’s police and crime commissioner.
In a lifestyle article for the Guardian this week, Conservative politician Lisa Townsend claimed that “full-Sky-replica-kit Sunday cyclists” ignore red lights, cycle four abreast, and don’t deserve better infrastructure because they don’t pay “vehicle taxes”.
Townsend was appearing in the Guardian’s regular ‘Dining across the divide’ feature, which pits two people from different ends of the political spectrum together over a meal, during which they discuss the issues du jour.
Lisa Townsend
In this week’s edition, Townsend, who replaced David Munro as Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner in 2021 before being re-elected this year, was paired with “left-leaning” human rights consultant David.
After discussing Rachel Reeves’ Budget, approaches to crime, and the drawbacks of tribal politics, talk eventually turned to cycling.
“David is half Dutch, and he talked about how terrible our cycling infrastructure is,” Townsend said after the dinner.
“I know it’s not great, but it would never be a political priority for me to give cyclists better infrastructure, particularly when they don’t contribute in vehicle taxes.”
She continued: “I’m not anti-cyclist. I’m anti the full-Sky-replica-kit Sunday cyclists who ignore red lights and drive three or four abreast in front of me.”
Responding to Townsend’s curious “not anti-cyclist” stance, David questioned her understanding of the UK’s implementation of Vehicle Excise Duty, the levy commonly mislabelled as ‘road tax’.
> ‘Road tax’ is coming… but not for cyclists
“Road tax for bicycles is unworkable. Bikes do use roads, but so do pedestrians, and dogs,” he noted.
“I recently got a hybrid car and the tax is very low. By that logic, if you’re reducing what’s paid for polluting vehicles to pretty negligible amounts for hybrids and electric cars, what would you charge for a bike? How would you enforce it?”
As noted above, Townsend’s attitude towards cyclists appears at odds with the reputation garnered by Surrey’s Roads Policing team, earning praise from cyclists for its active presence on Twitter, where it often challenged the kind of anti-cycling claims made by their Police and Crime Commissioner in the Guardian this week.
In 2017, the force was applauded by cyclists for publishing a video instructing drivers on how to overtake cyclists safely, while in the same year it responded to one motorist’s criticism of a close pass operation by witheringly concluding that they were “too childish to drive”.
And in 2022, the roads policing team’s social media team conducted an experiment by running two polls asking drivers how long they spend on average a week stuck in traffic caused by other drivers and cyclists respectively, in a bid to highlight the often hypocritical claims made by motorists – like Townsend – that people on bikes are constantly ‘holding them up’.
However, the force’s standing among cyclists has taken a bit of hit in recent years, after a Freedom of Information request in May 2023 revealed that 80 percent of the almost 1,000 motorists accused of close passing a cyclist in Surrey over a 15-month spell were issued with warning letters, with only three being prosecuted.
Surrey Police responded to those figures by claiming that “in the majority of cases, issuing a warning letter is the most appropriate course of action”, due to the “evidential viability” of the submitted videos and the “associated threat, harm, and risk” of the driving offence committed.
The force also told road.cc that it “regularly” receives video submissions of alleged driving offences “from the same people”, and called on those who frequently submit close pass clips to “engage with us further and work together to tackle” issues around road safety.
Earlier this year, the Surrey RoadSafe account also came in for some (albeit short-lived) criticism after it shared edited footage of cyclists fined for riding through red lights. In January, a video was posted showing a group ride of four cyclists at a junction in Esher, the footage being widely shared on social media and online.
As the riders made the right turn a police vehicle was being driven just behind, the driver rolling up to the stop line as the group turned across the junction, the police following moments before the group was stopped and issued fixed penalty notices.
Some, including a lawyer from Leigh Day law firm, questioned why the video was “unnecessarily cropped to show the cyclists already passed the stop line and not crossing this when the light is red?”
However, Surrey Police released the full unedited footage a day later, leading lawyer Rory McCarron to comment: “Thank you for showing the whole video. Justified FPN, no excuse. A lesson learned to the cyclists (and maybe the poster of the original video). Whilst this isn’t fatal 5, your work generally is applauded.”
And just last week, the force once again shared footage of the moment two cyclists riding metres in front of a Surrey Police vehicle were spotted jumping a red light, before being stopped and issued a fixed penalty notice, with the force telling its followers on social media that “red means stop”.
53 thoughts on “Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner denounces “full-Sky-replica-kit cyclists” riding “three or four abreast in front of me” and “ignoring red lights” – and says cyclists “don’t contribute in vehicle taxes””
Yikes
Yikes
Lisa Townsend wrote:
but…
it’s like, “I’m not racist… but…”
meanwhile, here is a timely reminder that cycle infrastructure is not primarily aimed at team-kit-wearing cyclists, but at enabling your 12-year-old child to be able to use the roads safely and with confidence. You know, like in a civilised country.
Lisa, l hate to feel.that l
Lisa, l hate to feel.that l need to educate you, but l do not contribute to any form of road tax either, and l drive two cars (as well as cycle for local journeys). Of course that is putting aside that Churchill ended the Road Fund License.
Of course we are all paying massive amounts for repair of the roads, even if we are part of the nearly 1/4 of the population who have no use of a car at all. And actually, anyone cycling is avoiding becoming a drain on the NHS by staying healthy, and drastically reducing the potential of becoming a drain on their district council through care costs as a result of becoming ill through inactivity.
I just saw this post on the
I just saw this post on the BBC, and thought…
1/ it’s about time some diversion of funds went in the other direction
2/ Do folks not realise that more active travel means less traffic which means less damage to the roads…?
3/ Why do folks never want to look at the bigger picture?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wlk45lvn7o.amp
Regular traveller through
Regular traveller through that area here, both on two wheels and four. I have watched that housing being erected from when it was scrub. Even today there is NO active travel infrastructure there, after more than 5 years watching the build. Sorry to have to inform, but Barnsley Council is LYING.
Funny how the BBC reports
Funny how the BBC reports money for roads being spent on AT, but never reports that money for AT is spent on roads.
I may have mentioned before that the BBC is biased. Just once or twice.
Alright, 9, 737 times.
What about all those schools
What about all those schools that they keep building along with all of those highly paid teachers that get almost as much time off as Gregg Wallace’s agent? I have it on good authority that NONE of those kids has ever paid tax. And then they’ve got the cheek to want us to slow down whilst we drive past – who do they think we are, some kind of priest?
Look, I’m not anti-education, I just don’t want to waste perfectly good tax money on non-tax-payers.
Traffic lights? What are they
Traffic lights? What are they for? All they do is turn red (then become established) and stop me?! Not being funny but we spend tax on this? That wouldn’t be a political priority for me…
Other people? In front of me?
Other people? In front of me? Not being funny – but they wouldn’t be a priority for me.
“it would never be a
“it would never be a political priority for me to give cyclists better infrastructure…”. Dear Lord.
No, I mean who’d want to protect the vulnerable & make roads safer? (they’re not just for cars dear). Not when “they” are in front of me sometimes. How dare anybody hold me up (even though in the grand scheme of things they’re probably not).
It seems an odd thing to say.
It seems an odd thing to say. Surely her priority should be road safety. Politicing shouldn’t really come in to it.
Most people who go through
Most people who go through red traffic lights are pedestrians. Most people who go through red traffic lights and kill somebody are motor vehicle users. The people who go through red traffic lights and get the most complaints from pedestrians, motor vehicle users and the media are cyclists.
Of course, going through a
Of course, going through a red traffic light as a pedestrian is not (in the UK) an offence, unlike the other two.
Just to be a smartarse, I
Just to be a smartarse, I would note that “jaywalking” IS an offence in Northern Ireland, and could include crossing against a red man.
Every day’s a school day!
Every day’s a school day!
A person oblivious to
A person oblivious to anything beyond the puerile Torygraph-installed prejudices & intolerances she sucks up each day then repeats like an automaton. Comes with other associated preferences that involve various cruelties as well as distain for “the other”:
“Lisa: The food was fantastic, the chef did a lovely mixture from the menu for starters, then I had veal. David looked like somebody who, you know, lives in Surrey – a person I’d be friends with“.
“Voting record Conservative – Lisa has been a party member since she was 17.”
A tortured-calf eating woman who likes only people just like herself and will employ any alternative-facts available to demonise whatever and whoever The Spiv Party tells her to. Been that way since she was 17.
Bottled blighter-barmpot bonehead …….. . 89 guineas a quote, 25 extra for a pic showing vacuous ingratiating gurn.
I saw someone in full Sky kit
I saw someone in full Sky kit once. Sky jersey. Sky bibs. All the gear, I thought; bit much, I thought. Then I saw the branded helmet. And the Pinarello. And the Racing Jackets. It was G.
Reminds me of an incident
Reminds me of an incident about 10 years ago. I saw a group of about 200 men in lycra team kits ,riding about 10 abreast on the A6108 near Ripon. They were even occupying the opposite carriageway, as well as ignoring red traffic lights. There was a fleet of cars stuck behind them for miles, unable to pass. I was incensed when I found out that it was stage 1 of the Tour de France, and that most of the cyclists were foreign and didn’t pay road tax.
A few years ago riding in the
A few years ago riding in the Brecon Beacons, approaching a traffic light where another rider was stopped in the oncoming lane, me: “Wow, look at this wannabe, got the full Sky kit on [get closer] my God, look he’s even got the helmet and the socks [get closer] and he’s even on a Team Sky branded Dogma, what a saddo…”
Mrs H: “That’s Luke Rowe, isn’t it?”
Me: “Ah. As you were then.”
Mine was very similar. Me,
Mine was very similar. Me, driving, approaching a red light in Cardiff. Him, already stopped at red on other side of junction. Plenty of time for me to do the mental inventory before the penny finally dropped!
Let’s face it, the Police and
Let’s face it, the Police and Crime Commissioner “job” was invented to give party members who are so utterly and completely useless that they couldn’t even make it as an MP or a regional mayor, something to do that’ll “earn” them their eventual “rightful” place in the House of Lords.
Oh, the irony in a Police and
Oh, the irony in a Police and Crime Commissioner pontificating on wasting taxpayer money. Although I suppose in this instance it’s actually a relief that PCCs cannot influence police operational matters.
She’s a prize winning idiot –
She’s a prize winning idiot – not least for failing to realise that the cyclists riding “three or four abreast” still take up less road space than she does driving her vehicle with no-one else in it.
A pity there wasn’t time to
A pity there wasn’t time to drill into when and where and if this actually happened.
(Local Facebook horse rider “I’m against cycling because of what happened to my friend 2 years ago”)
Horse riders always seem so
Horse riders always seem so arrogant and entitled.
To say nothing of prejudiced
To say nothing of prejudiced and bigoted
… oh, wait.
David9694 wrote:
In all fairness, it almost certainly NEVER happened…
She sounds like a twitter
She sounds like a twitter troll. I wonder what car she drives? It would be deliciously ironic if it were a zero tax EV – anyone know a way to find this out? Also I wonder what she thinks abour Surrey Police’s fleet of EVs? I look forward to her introducing a policy that they must yield to any “road tax” paying real motorists.
“I know it’s not great but it
“I know it’s not great but it would never be a political priority for me to give non-smokers better healthcare, particularly when they don’t contribute in cigarette taxes.”
My letter to Surrey PCC
My letter to Surrey PCC
Dear Ms Townsend
Having read your Guardian article (Dining Across the Divide – 06/12/24), in which you set out your opinions on a variety of topics, I am slightly aghast at your comments relating to cycling.
Whilst you will undoubtedly respond that these were personal opinions, they repeat anti-cycling stereotypes and inaccurate information relating to the funding of road infrastructure. Why for example, should cyclists not enjoy wearing appropriate clothing and ride (not drive) 3 or 4 abreast? You also repeat the tired claim that they jump red lights. Yet strangely, you seem largely ignorant of your own ‘Police and Crime Plan’, in which you identify that, “Our roads carry over 60% more than the national average amount of traffic. High profile cycle events in recent years, coupled with the beauty of the countryside, have made the Surrey Hills a destination point for cyclists and walkers as well as off-road vehicles, motorcycles and horse riders” You also state that, “Our roads, footpaths and bridleways are vibrant and open Surrey up to economic prosperity as well as leisure opportunities.”
As I understand, 742 people were seriously injured on Surrey Roads in 2023, with 28 deaths. Can you advise the proportion of those caused by cyclists? Moreover, are you aware that on one stretch of non-motorway roads in Surrey, over 18,000 motorists were caught speeding in a single year. It would be interesting to have your comments in relation to this non-compliance of road traffic regulations. As for jumping red lights, I would be interested to receive information from your office as to how many morists have been fined for this offence compared to cyclists. The last information that I can find is from 2015 and indicates that two roads in Surrey were in the top 20 for this offence, with over 1,500 motorists fined for this offence.
In terms of taxing cyclists, you will be aware (perhaps not) that road tax does not exist and that vehicle excise duty is a general taxation and does not directly contribute to road infrastructure. Take for example, the M25 improvements in Wisley, a scheme that will cost £317 million. Can you let me know how this has been funded directly by motorists? In fact, non-motorists will have contributed to this infrastructure project and one may question why they should have done so, not least to ease the congestion created by the 60% higher volume of motorists that use Surrey roads (your figures not mine). Perhaps if there were more cyclists (the ones that contribute to the economic prosperity of the county – again, your words), these congestion pressures would be eased and damage to the roads would not require Surrey County Council to invest an additional £300 million on road repairs over the next 5 years.
In short, as an elected official, your comments and inability to grasp simple facts in relation to both taxation and policing are worrying. The fact that you are simply parroting the misconceptions of the anti-cycling brigade and presenting them as if they are fact would lead me to conclude that you are unfit to hold the office that you do. In this regard,I look forward to receiving your response.
Slightly aghast?
Slightly aghast?
bensynnock wrote:
The English understatement.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Go give her some feedback
Go give her some feedback https://x.com/_lisa_townsend
Veloism wrote:
Is she on that white-supremacist platform? Sounds about right for someone involved with the police.
When was the last time she
When was the last time she rode a bike on a road next to angry drivers like herself? Either never or it was so long ago she’s forgotten what it’s like.
PS How roads are paid for, maintained, and which methods of transport cause all the damage and death should be part of the driving theory test.
My opinion is that most horse
My opinion is that most horse riders, like most cyclists, are sensible and amenable people. The same cannot be said of most drivers. However, some of the riders have adopted the DM anti-cyclist position and assume the right to make imperious demands from what they see as their rightful physical and moral high ground. I recall labouring up a steep hill, towing my trailer, on the Pennine Bridleway when I encountered a rider coming towards. The horse baulked and stopped, and the rider berated me. I think it was a posh accent, but I might be imagining that. She thought I should have got off and waited for her to pass and claimed that my little flag mounted behind the trailer had upset the horse. There are many more frightening sights for a horse than an oncoming cyclist travelling very slowly
I think if you were trailing
I think if you were trailing a billowing plastic bag it could be the most terrifying combination that the horse had ever seen.
Some horses really can’t do the bicycle, I reckon old bikes could be left in horsey fields to at least acclimatised the animals to the object?
ktache wrote:
Maybe it’s a bit like showing taxi drivers autonomous cars (in say 5 years’ time)? Or driving a rail-replacement bus by a steam train?
It’s a single piece yellow
It’s a single piece yellow triangular flag, maximum dimension 6”
Here at Coniston
Here at Coniston
I’ve been careful never to
I’ve been careful never to risk the issue but apparently long low-slung things approaching at speed signal “predator!” to a horse – so recumbent bikes are apparently kryptonite.
OTOH horses seem to be animals primed for flight and capable of self-spooking. So I just treat them with extreme caution whatever kind of bike I’m riding, or even when on foot!
When road.cc reports on
When road.cc reports on disinformed rants against cycling, I sometimes wonder whether there’s an AI-filter, only letting unhealthy looking tories get through – of the kind that should pay more “road-wear-tax” not just for the ‘political’ weight they carry…
Are these people pre-selected or do they really all look alike???
You sort of made sense, until
You sort of made sense, until you put ‘Tories’. Then your point becomes irrelevant, hidden under a blame the Tories for everything rant.
Off topic pal.
Rik Mayals underpants wrote:
Hardly. Most of the mis-informed, blatantly biased anti-cycling rants are from tories.
And while they aren’t necessarily to blame for everything, they’re certainly to blame for most of s**t we’re enduring now.
anke2 wrote:
It ain’t just Torydpiv that have these prejudices and standardised-lies for demonising various mass media-created out groups ….. but the Toryspiv party and its various media mouthpieces do seem to exert a very strong cultural mouldng, inclusive of fashion-factors that create not just various potted language-revealed attitudes, potted opinions and behaviours but also various associated standardised fashions in clothes, hairstyles and, strangely, facial, gesture and body language expressions that they share. I suppose its one way of signalling to others with identical attitudes and outlooks that. “I’m one of you”.
It’s always been an alarming feature of human societies that large cliques of identical ciphers will willingly create themselves under the slightest mass media inducement. They’ll even boast about it ….. “I’ve been a member of The Tory Party forever and always will be [no matter how wildly their policies vary and go against my own interests]”.
No one is immune. Consider all the wannabe “racing cyclists” that adopt a standardised language, equipment-type, dress-style, behaviours and attitudes. The adoption of the fashion doesn’t arise out of actually being anything other than an eager consumer of a mass-media created supposed in-group since they never actually race.
Ditto “the taxi driver”, “the white van man” and several other groups who seem to self-create via adoption of the same subset of mass media organs and associated ready-potted attitudes/opinions.
There are, of course, exceptions to these self-forming stereotypes. (There are even a few genuine racing cyclists 🙂 ). But so many of them are products of mass media specified “identities” with close to zero “self” based on their actual everyday experience of reality.
Goebels, Hitler’s popaganda
Goebels, Hitler’s popaganda minister flat out said, that no mattter how outrageous, inspite of evidence, if a lie is repeated loud enough and long enough, it will eventually be believed
It doesn’t have to be very
It doesn’t have to be very loud or frequent for the police and legal process to accept pro-offender propaganda, especially where annoying cyclists are concerned
He may well have done, but
He may well have done, but drawing any kind of parallel between Goebels/Hitler and the Surrey PCC is an insult to the memory of those who suffered Nazi atrocities. Get some perspective – she’s holds some views you disagree with.
Sriracha wrote:
I didn’t read Geoff H’s comment as trying to compare them, but as a comment on how lies become accepted through repetition. Seems an appropriate comment to me as this is what a lot of anti-cyclists do.
But yes, I agree that there’s a world of difference between anti-cyclist comments and the Nazis.
It was either Stalin or
It was either Stalin or Goebells who said that a lie often repeated becomes the truth: something that has been embraced by politicians ever since.
Does tory HQ have training
Does tory HQ have training courses for politicians to firmly plant both feet in their mouth? With wellies on. Or in this case, skis.
Isn’t the post of PCC supposed to be non-political, objective and unbiased?
Anyone who is quite so anti-cyclist as Lisa Townsend without being much more aggressively anti-bad driving is clearly biased. Drivers kill, at a conservative estimate, somewhere around a thousand times more people than cyclists, but the problem is cyclists.
I have been paying VED
I have been paying VED (commonly and erroneously known as ‘road tax’) continuously since 1989. For over a decade of that I was paying to tax a motorcycle as well as my car.
Like many of us pedalling types, I have been paying income tax, NI, multiple insurance taxes and an abundance of other taxes, duties and levies all that time and yet the roads are STILL full of potholes and STILL have too many shithead drivers who don’t know the rules and/or don’t care about them (or about anyone else’s safety). And it seems the plod don’t care either despite the money I’m relieved of every month.
If I want to wear Team Sky kit when I ride a bicycle then I will. What I wear is absolutely none of her effing business. And if I want to ride 7-abreast on my invariably solo rides then I will. And I’d like to see her try to stop me.
I am debating whether to also send a copy of this to SurreyPCC@surrey.police.uk – found at https://www.lisatownsend.org.uk/ where, among other piles of excrement, she writes that she is “passionate about being a strong, supportive voice for victims”. Spare me your barefaced lies, madam.