Progress on a long-awaited cycle route between Kenilworth and Leamington Spa could be halted after the Reform UK-run Warwickshire County Council announced it is conducting a county-wide review into whether cycle lanes are “actually worth it.”

The K2L scheme, a five-kilometre (3.1-mile) link along the A452, has been years in the making. Construction was initially expected in 2021 and 2022, but project management issues and the complexity of the route meant progress slowed. The first section, from Clarendon Avenue to the Kenilworth Road boundary, was finally completed in early 2024.

More than 3,000 residents had signed a petition calling for the cycle track to be included in the county’s plans, with £4.75 million in funding allocated for the route in December 2019. The most recent timescale given for completion was between 2027 and 2028.

However, Reform council leader George Finch suggested the scheme could be subject to review, the BBC reports.

“We will have to look at whether the review of the cycle lanes start there, whether we finish that project because the money is there or do reviews elsewhere – maybe in Weddington or other places across Warwickshire – to see whether cycle lanes are actually being used,” he told a press conference.

> Reform UK branded “utterly clueless” after pledging to scrap LTNs – where none exist

Finch also said the council would not be “crazily putting down cycle lanes” as it did not believe this was “best for the residents.” He claimed cycling schemes were unlikely to solve either congestion or climate change, which he described as a “crisis they seem to fathom up.”

“As an administration, we believe the addiction to cycle lanes doesn’t solve the crisis that they seem to fathom up, the climate change crisis,” Finch said. “What we do see is when it comes to congestion on roads, cycle lanes are not the most sensible option, which is why you have seen a change in the political sphere here.”

When asked to clarify whether K2L itself could be affected, Finch said that if “all had been ticked off then it is hard to repeal that,” but left open the possibility of re-examining the scheme.

The comments align with Reform UK’s stance on cycling and active travel, which has been a recurring theme for the party since its early years.

Marble Arch cycle lane (inset: Nigel Farage)
Marble Arch cycle lane (inset: Nigel Farage) (Image Credit: Simon MacMichael/Gage Skidmore via CC BY-SA 2.0)

> Nigel Farage lashes out at “cycle lanes that no one uses”, accusing councils facing bankruptcy of wasting “tens of millions” on cycling infrastructure

In May, Reform was ridiculed after it pledged to scrap Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in the 10 councils where it had taken control following local elections — only for those councils to confirm that no LTNs existed in their areas.

The party’s chair Zia Yusuf had promised to enact a “large-scale reversal” of the traffic-calming schemes, which he described as policies “supported by and made to benefit more affluent people.”

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson accused Reform of being “utterly clueless about how to run a council,” while Conservative sources said the party was “pandering to the terminally online.”

Reform has also repeatedly singled out cycle lanes as a target. In April, Nigel Farage told BBC Breakfast that councils on the “verge of bankruptcy” were wasting “tens of millions” on “cycle lanes that no one uses,” accusing them of mismanaging money while basic services such as adult social care were under strain.

Farage has regularly made cycle lanes a political issue. In 2020, he rebranded his Brexit Party as Reform UK and pledged to stand candidates against councillors who backed new bike lanes and road closures. He wrote at the time that “for much of the day these new bike lanes with their endless lines of shiny white posts lie empty while traffic jams block what is left of the roads,” describing the schemes as “madness.”

The following year, he escalated his criticism by sharing a video of an ambulance stuck in gridlock beside a protected cycle lane in London, writing on Twitter: “This is totally insane. These cycle lanes are a joke.”