“Bicycles are very narrow and they’re not going to get wider”: Councillors slam plans to widen “dangerous” cycle lane, asking “why are we spending money on things they don’t use?”

Conservative councillors in Brighton and Hove have criticised plans to widen an existing narrow cycle lane to enable two-way cycling along the seafront, claiming that “bicycles are very narrow and they’re not going to get wider”, and that the existing infrastructure is both “rarely used” and “very dangerous” to pedestrians who are forced to “dodge” cyclists when crossing the bike lane.

However, the plans – which form part of a last-minute redesign hastily arranged by the new Labour administration last year – have also been questioned by local cycling campaigners, who despite supporting the scheme have expressed concerns about diverting funds that were originally earmarked for a section of the seafront which currently lacks any form of cycling infrastructure.

This week, Brighton and Hove City Council approved a £4 million scheme, which would see the installation of a “safe and direct two-way cycle lane, separated from traffic and pedestrians” along the A259 seafront in Hove.

The design, which is split into two sections, will convert space from one of the motor traffic lanes to install a two-way bike lane between Fourth Avenue and Hove Street, where shopfront pavements will also be widened, while a new two-way cycle lane pavement will be created between Hove Street and Wharf Road, where a shared-use path currently exists.

The A259 scheme was first approved two years ago at a projected cost of £475,000 by Brighton and Hove’s previous Green-controlled council, with the support of Labour.

A drawing of the original design approved by the Green-controlled council

However, last June, shortly after taking power and just before work was about to commence on the scheme, Labour paused the project to allow a redesign to take place, which the party said would change the layout of the planned cycle lanes, in line with national standards, and maintain a two-way vehicle system to ensure the “the scheme keeps traffic flowing” – a shift in focus council leader Bella Sankey claimed “has the potential to be a win-win-win for pedestrians, cyclists, and road users”.

Nevertheless, Green opposition leader Steve Davis countered at the time that Labour’s redesign – which came as local active travel activists began to question the new administration’s commitment to active travel – constituted “champagne dreams on light ale money”.

One year on, after the council gave the green light to the project, Labour now finds itself under fire from the other side of the aisle, as the Conservatives argued that the decision to widen the existing narrow cycling infrastructure along the A259 would increase conflict with pedestrians.

> Labour to redesign Brighton and Hove seafront scheme to ensure a “win-win-win for pedestrians, cyclists, and road users”

Despite failing to attend last week’s council meeting to discuss the project, local Conservative leader Alistair McNair said in a statement: “Bicycles are very narrow and they’re not going to get wider. They’re rarely used down on the seafront.

“It’s very dangerous, the cycle lane you cross as a pedestrian, you have to look and dodge them to get to the traffic lights.”

Meanwhile, deputy Conservative leader Anne Meadows told the meeting: “You’ve got cycle lanes that were put in at great expense down Grand Parade. I still see so many cyclists on the road with large lorries trying to get around them.

“They shouldn’t be on there, so why are we spending money on things they don’t use?”

> Business owners blast “totally crazy, ridiculous” plans to remove two car parking spaces – to make way for eight hire bikes

However, Sussex World reports that, despite the Conservative councillor’s claims, the council’s cabinet member for transport, Trevor Muten, pointed out that Labour’s redesign would make the cycle lanes safer for pedestrians, and help ease tensions between road users.

“A year ago we set out to show leadership on active travel to demonstrate that this could be done better and safer and to move away from an all-too-often toxic polemic – a them and us between cyclists and motorists that many have experienced, in part fuelled by poor design and hurriedly installed cycleways, with wands in the road reducing traffic capacity and increasing congestion,” Muten said.

“We’ve seen three cycle lanes installed and then immediately changed, additional costs, and a fourth removed altogether.

“A year ago, we stopped a scheme that continued with this approach, fuelling the polemic I described.

“We stopped taking out a whole traffic lane from the westbound only cyclists in front of Victoria Terrace and between Hove Street and the Lagoon, demarked using wands in the road, putting pedestrians between the east and westbound cycle lanes and all eastbound cyclists going along the often-busy shared-space promenade in front of the King Alfred.”

Labour leader Sankey added: “I’m really pleased we are now able to look at what I think will be an improved scheme, which I’m glad to see cycling organisations have welcomed as an improvement on the previous scheme, with all the many benefits highlighted.

“We are very serious about active travel as an administration, but we want to properly invest in it and create cycle lanes that are the best that we can create and that we’ll be able to sustain over the longer term.”

> "Actively against active travel": Brighton's Labour council accused of "wilfully destroying cycling infrastructure"

However, despite Sankey’s claim that local cycling groups had supported the scheme, both Brighton Active Travel and Bricycles have since emphasised that, while they do in fact back the design, they currently have reservations about the reallocation of funds necessary to achieve it.

According to the council, the £1.2 million which was secured from Active Travel England by the previous Green administration to create a brand new two-way cycle lane on Marine Parade – where activists say protection for cyclists is desperately needed – will be repurposed to help fund the A259 project.

Campaign group Bricycles has said it “believes both schemes can go ahead without cutting one to pay for the other”.

> Ex-mayor of Brighton & Hove calls for two lanes of seafront road to be turned into bike lanes

The group added: “While there are some attractive elements on the redesigned scheme between Fourth Avenue and Hove Lagoon, the loss of better safety, particularly for people who walk, wheel, and ride bicycles on Marine Parade, is of serious concern.

“A better solution would be to progress the scheme between Fourth Avenue and Hove Street (we are 100 per cent supportive of the plans for this section) and keep the Marine Parade funds for Marine Parade, where there is currently no cycle lane at all.”

Echoing the cycling group’s concerns, local Green Party leader Davis said: “When Labour took the administration, the A259 scheme was fully funded, fully consulted on and ready to go.

“Given that Labour had worked on the project and voted for it prior to last year’s election, it was a shock when they decided to delay the scheme, slowing down progress, and increasing costs.

“The massive budget over-run caused by their delays should not be reason to deny the east of the city access to safe active travel infrastructure.”

> Cyclists fear being ousted out of decision making after council abolishes active travel forum without telling them for months

“It was the previous Green council that won the £1.2 million for the improved cycle lane and now that the anti-active travel Labour council are in full control they will almost certainly not do anything to deliver on that,” former Green councillor Jamie Lloyd told road.cc last year, after Labour’s approach to active travel again came under the spotlight when it was revealed that the local authority’s Active and Inclusive Travel Forum had been disbanded – despite similar forums for bus and taxi drivers remaining.

That decision, along with the year-long pause of the A259 scheme, prompted several cycling campaigners in the coastal city to describe Labour as being “actively against active travel” and accused of “wilfully destroying cycling infrastructure”.

However, as part of its new plans for the A259, the council said this week: “While funding from the Marine Parade scheme would be reallocated, Marine Parade remains a priority area and would be delivered as part of the wider plans for a high-quality cycle route along the entire seafront.”