CONGESTION CAPITAL

FOR TfL, the removal of the cycle lanes on Marylebone Road is a highly embarrassing U- turn. For the campaigners who argued against the scheme, it is a huge victory.

Tim Carnegie, of the Marylebone Association, said: ‘Those cycle lanes, which nobody used, caused central London to grind to a halt. The U-turn is an unexpected but welcome victory for common sense.’

That sense is yet to prevail across much of the capital. And the consequences could be deadly. In Ealing, bollards were erected over the summer to mark out an LTN. But in August, paramedics had to wait 20 minutes to get to a patient who had collapsed in an alleyway after they found themselves without a key to the bollards.

Ealing Council insisted that the paramedics were able to treat the man within an acceptable time, and that the Ambulance Service has been issued with additional sets of keys.

The same month in Tooting, a fire engine on an emergency call became stuck between planters in an LTN.

Tracy Prescott, whose lobby group Stop Horrendous Hackney Road Closures has more than 6,000 supporters, says the council has no interest in engaging with them. ‘They don’t care about the people who are being inconvenienced, the people who can’t get to work on the bus, disabled people who can’t get around.’

In Chiswick, where busy Turnham Green Terrace was turned into a bus, taxi and cycle lane in July, residents could now face a £130 fine for driving down the road unawares. One placard-waving vigilante has taken it upon herself to spend hours at a time rerouting unsuspecting drivers.