An MP who had her e-bike stolen in the centre of Oxford the “first time” she rode it into town has been told there’s a “CCTV blackspot”, despite filming surrounding cameras herself.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon since 2017, said her Black Pakyak E+ with a baby carrier on the back had been locked up with a Diamond lock and left for 40 minutes last Friday night. But when she returned from a trip to a nearby pub, the bike had gone from the railings where she had locked up her bike.
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Writing on Instagram, Moran wrote she had “already made a police report and hope Thames Valley Police can do their best. I know this happens a lot but I am so gutted.
But despite filming several CCTV cameras located in proximity to the bike racks, Moran later criticised the “CCTV blackspot” that police said that existed. A police spokesperson told the BBC that they were looking to move some cameras to “suitable locations” and that work was “ongoing” to transfer ownership of CCTV cameras to a partnership between police and local authorities.
Moran has been a long-term campaigner for better conditions for cyclists, speaking out in Parliament after the deaths of two cyclists in Oxfordshire in 2022. She subsequently arranged meetings with the relevant junior minister and Active Travel England.
In contrast, Thames Valley Police (TVP) do not have the best reputation when it comes to addressing the needs and concerns of cyclists. In February, the force were criticised after carrying out a one-hour operation where cyclists riding without lights were fined. Criticism centred on whether the operation was effectively targeting “the biggest risk to road safety in Oxford.”
In October 2024, the force in Windsor and Maidenhead also came in for criticism after naming an operation seizing illegal ‘e-bikes’ and scooters ‘Operation LYCRA‘. The Neighbourhood Policing Team said the mission’s aim, “was to stop and seize the use of privately owned E-Scooters and modified E-Bikes as well as cyclists contravening traffic signs on the one-way system on Eton High Street.”
However, the force was accused of stoking a culture war, and possibly infringing on copyright by naming its operation as such.
More broadly, the force were accused of “astonishing victim blaming” after criticising a council proposal to introduce more bike parking in the Oxford on the basis it would increase crime and “further burden” the police. Those comments were defended by the Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner.
The comments prompted the Oxfordshire Cycling Network to post, ““Do TVP want parking spaces removed to reduce car crime? Will TVP object to a shopping centre because it will bring more shoplifting? That new housing development will have burglaries, or burglars, so they should object. But they only object to bike stands.”
