Agenda item

(i)             “An active transport strategy for Harrow Motion

Motion in the names of Councillor Eden Kulig and Councillor Paul Osborn

This Council acknowledges that all Harrow residents, whether they drive or not, have a shared interest in ensuring that a range of active travel options exist across the borough, and that supporting residents to make active transport choices where possible has beneficial effects for individuals, neighbourhoods and the borough as a whole.

Council Notes:

·        The Leader’s statement on 10 January 2023 that he wishes to see a ‘more unified cycle network’ across the borough and welcomes this commitment to improving the borough’s cycling infrastructure.

·        The Leader of the Council is the appointed representative on the Harrow Cycling Hub.

·        According to TfL statistics, 31% of Harrow households do not own a car.

·        That according to Harrow’s Annual Public Health report of 2021, 54.8% of Harrow residents are overweight or obese, and 24.6% of adults do less than 30 minutes of physical activity a week, and that the most effective way for Harrow Council’s Public Health team to support increased physical activity for these groups would be to promote ways for them to incorporate walking and cycling into their daily routines.

·        That as per the Education Act 1996, all local authorities in England have a statutory duty to support active travel choices for school children.

·        That many residents face challenges to incorporate cycling into their daily journeys around the borough due to factors including a lack of safe and unified cycle routes, and a lack of storage space for bikes within or near their homes or at tube stations.

·        That the administration has pledged in its flagship actions to create safe and secure cycle parking at Harrow-on-the-Hill by May 2024.

Council believes that:-

·        Supporting residents who choose to make active transport choices for short journeys around the borough will reduce air pollution, ease traffic, reduce pressures on parking and make our streets safer for children and more peaceful for all residents.

·        Walking and cycling is a significant contributor to public health and wellbeing, and with NHS guidelines advocating that all adults take moderate exercise each day, the easiest way to achieve this is through individuals incorporating walking and cycling into their daily routines.

·        Harrow’s cycling infrastructure is not currently sufficiently unified, and that it would be beneficial for cycle routes across the borough to be better linked, more separate from roads, and with their signage improved.

·        That a lack of secure storage for cycles can discourage people from owning and using a cycle.

This Council resolves to:

Request that officers:

·        Work in consultation with groups such as Harrow Cyclists, Healthy Streets for Harrow, and the Harrow Cycling Hub, to investigate the feasibility of creating a more unified cycling network across the borough, with cycle routes better linked across the borough, more separate from roads and better signposted, while balancing the needs of other road users and pedestrians.

·        To work towards increasing cycling rates by the end of this administration, in consultation with Ward Councillors.

·        To engage with the government’s recently announced £32.9 million Active Travel Fund as well as exploring using Council funding for improved  active travel infrastructure, specifically for the creation of a cycle corridor linking Station Road and Sheepcote Road, which would link Harrow and Wealdstone town centres, Harrow & Wealdstone station, the University of Westminster, Harrow High School and Northwick Park hospital, and which is one of the highest-demand cycle routes in Harrow according to TfL’s Strategic Cycling analysis.

·        To request TARSAP to review all transport provision while considering the active travel perspective.

·        To examine the feasibility of installing 100 reasonably priced accessible cycle hangars, including spaces for non-standard cycles, in areas of multiple occupancy or terraced housing where people have nowhere to store a bike, as well as at all tube and train stations, and outside all shopping areas which do not currently have bike racks by May 2026.”

RESOLVED:  That the Motion, as set out at (i) above, be adopted.

(ii)           `“Motion calling on TfL to examine the boundary position of ULEZ cameras

Motion in the names of Councillor Paul Osborn and Councillor Marilyn Ashton

This Council notes:

·        Council passed a motion to oppose the ULEZ expansion in July 2022.

·        The Mayor of London’s decision to expand the ULEZ came into effect on 29 August 2023.

·        The ULEZ, on its old boundary, made £224 million in revenue during 2022. It is expected that the expanded ULEZ will extract over £300 million per annum from London’s poorest and most vulnerable motorists and traders.

·        There have been worrying reports by Harrow residents who say that they have received ULEZ fines while driving on non-ULEZ boundary roads.

o   The most frequently mentioned sites are Common Road and Brockley Hill.

o   It emerged over the summer that the Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy had asked a City Hall-funded expert to counter science that questioned the benefits of ULEZ.

o   The Leader of the Council wrote to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities requesting that the government supports a parliamentary amendment which will grant London Councils greater power to reject London-wide schemes like ULEZ.

This Council believes:

·        The ULEZ expansion is a regressive tax on our poorest motorists and struggling trades people.

·        It is wrong that some residents have been allegedly fined while driving on roads which TfL’s website states are not within the ULEZ zone.

This Council resolves:

·        To call on TfL to urgently examine the locations of their cameras near to boundary roads.

·        To tell TfL to ensure anyone who was mistakenly fined while driving along a non-ULEZ boundary road is contacted and refunded.

·        To reiterate our opposition to the ULEZ stealth tax and call on the Mayor of London to stop his war on Harrow’s poorest and most vulnerable motorists.

·        To welcome the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities positive response to Leader’s request for enhanced decision-making powers for London Councils, which will allow councils to reject future schemes like ULEZ from being imposed by the Mayor of London/GLA.”

A tabled amendment in the names of Councillor David Perry and Councillor Natasha Proctor was received and, having been put to the vote, was lost.

RESOLVED:  That the Motion, as set out at (ii) above, be adopted.

[Note:  Councillors Stephen Greek, Susan Hall and Asif Hussain left the room for the discussion and vote on this item].