Last year Kingston Council bid and won for over £30m of Mayor of London’s mini-holland project money. The projects are supposed to create a dutch style environment to encourage more residents to cycle.

The first scheme to come before the Councillors has been labeled as ‘hugely disappointing’ by the borough’s cycling community. Portsmouth Road from Surbiton to Kingston, was due to be re-designed to give a fully segregated cycle lane, but under the scheme now being consulted on only a small proportion is segregated.

Portsmouth Road is a problem for cyclists, and for the car drivers who need to overtake them. Giving a fully segregated cycle lane makes it safer and encourages more cyclists. For the motorist, it means not having to judge when to overtake a cyclist between cars coming the other way and central islands.  For pedestrians using Queen’s promenade, it means less cyclists taking this safer (for the cyclist but not the pedestrian) route. Everyone wins.

says Councillor Diane White

The scheme came before Kingston Council’s Infrastructure, Projects and Contracts committee on 13th January and Kingston Cycling Campaign (KCC) came along to object.

As the first scheme, costing £1.3m, it needed to set the tone for the whole mini-hollands project, but it had been watered down so much by the current Tory administration, that it is little improvement on the current situation for most of the road. The Lib Dems on the committee agreed that it was not good enough. We had asked why KCC had not been consulted before it got to the public consultation stage. But it all fell on deaf ears and the scheme has been agreed for public consultation by the Conservative majority on the committee.

added Councillor Liz Green, who was Leader of the Council when the mini-holland project money was awarded.

The consultation period will run from 19th January to 18th February and will include leaflet drops, website information and a manned exhibition at the end of January (date tbc).