So far we've had a good response to our email survey of candidates standing for election to Harrow Borough Council, as well as a number of interesting emails from candidates. We'll post details soon, but so far we've had responses by party (click the "read more" link for details):

 

Christian Peoples Alliance	1
Conservative Party	6
Green Party	2
Independent	0
Labour Parry	15
Liberal Democrats	8
UK Independence Party	0

 

Here's a particularly supportive email from the Green Candidate in Rayners Lane:

 

Thank you for your e-mail.

I have two main forms of transport.
1.  my beloved bicycle
2.  public transport.

Customers of my electrical business have become used to me coming by bike towing a modified trailer to carry tools, cable reels, ladders etc, while a major job I have taken on in Bermondsey (replacement of the electrical installation in the old library) ensures my Oyster card works as hard as my bicycle.

I have just completed your online survey; the results should be waiting for you when you next log into the site.

There are several detailed projects I would like to see put into place.
Advisory cycle lanes frankly have only limitted use and are a very cheap and nasty way of making provision.

The Alexandra avenue cycleway is of limited use as the priorities at road junctions are wrong.  |The cycleway is part of Alexandra avenue, which is the major road, and the cycleway requires the same priority, in fact a Stop line rather than a "Give Way" where the minor roads meets the cycle way would be my prefered method.   Usually I would stick to the road as I can generally manage 20 mph for the level section and the cycle route is a pain owing to having to slow to dead slow and give way to every minor road.  I feel safer on the main road keeping up with traffic.  Generally I made use of it on only very few occasions, one being leaving a job which came my way as part of the new Pets Hill railway bridge which was installing the temporary illuminated hight warnings.  My trusty cycle and trailer had to return homw with 50 metres of armoured cable on a drum left over and couldn't manage the speed to integrate with the traffic.

I would improve the cycle facilities on the double roundabout at harrow on the Hill.  There needs to be a continuation into central Harrow, perhaps re-working the present steps up into college road into a ramp, and investigating a contraflow lane.  The lane making a right angle junction to the main carriageway is also useless.  A merge would be better, where hatchings then a kerb reduce the road width to allow the road to gain the cycleway (in the same way that some motorway junctions deal with a merge by a lane gain for joining traffic

I suspect you can come up with a host of other improvements to existing schemes or indeed a list of horrors where the scheme is a "Token" guesture which is actually worse than useless and where money would be well spent on its removal.

 

And another from a Labour candidate in Greenhill:

 

Thank you for the opportunity of taking part in this survey.

With reference to the question on 10% of the council's transport budget on cycling schemes. I believe that it is importantant that Cyclists need the protection of physical separation from motor vehicles (like Holland). If this takes more than 10% of the transport budget then so be it.

I personally would like to see a high priority given to cyclists on roads that do not currently have physical separation with the assumption that car drivers are in the wrong unless circumstance or witnesses indicate otherwise, but alas, that is beyond the scope of a Local Authority.

Good luck with your campaign