Stop Killing Cyclists to hold Treasury protest calling for increased investment in cycling

Stop Killing Cyclists is to stage a protest and ‘die-in’ outside the Treasury on Horseguards Parade on Saturday February 11. The campaign group is demanding that Chancellor Philip Hammond allocate ten per cent of the transport budget to walking and cycling by 2020.

Protestors will assemble at the National Gallery from 1pm with the rally and die-in scheduled to take place outside the Treasury at 2pm. The Facebook event can be found here.

The date was chosen because Hammond is now putting together his first budget which will be delivered in March. Speaking in December, Stop Killing Cyclists' Fred Smith told road.cc that he also expected that the commencement of Trump’s presidency would "highlight climate change inaction."

The protest will feature children playing in gas masks “to symbolise the thousands of UK children whose lungs are being stunted from living on traffic polluted streets or attending polluted schools.”

Stop Killing Cyclists spokesperson Caspar Hughes said: “Air pollution is poisoning millions of people in the UK, whilst traffic carbon emissions are contributing to the climate emergency. Road danger means most people do not feel safe cycling on UK roads, which means they lack life-saving physical exercise.”

He added: “There is now an urgent health crisis which is costing the NHS billions. It is now crucial that our national cycling infrastructure gets its fair share of national infrastructure investment.”

The group wants to see the government commit to increasing the funding for cycling and walking to five per cent of the 2017 transport budget and ten per cent by 2020.