Conservative Mayoral candidate Boris Johnson has attacked plans for a cycle hire service covering central London saying the city deserves a “more ambitious” scheme.
In a statement issued by his campaign team Mr Johnson said: “Some of the proposals sound like waffle, some are unambitious. For example, why do Londoners deserve a bike-hire scheme that is a third of the size of Paris’?”
“Unlike Mayor Livingstone, I’ve been in negotiation with London boroughs for many months to deliver a much more ambitious scheme. By his own admission, Mayor Livingstone has yet to start this negotiation.”
“What a feeble record for a man that has spent 8 years in office. Where are his plans to make cycling safer or protect bikes from being stolen? That is how to really get people on two wheels.”
However Johnson’s claims that “the Mayor has been stampeded into this measure because he faces a cycling opponent” will again raise questions about the quality of briefings he’s receiving – as reported at the time Mayor Livingstone first asked TfL to investigate the feasibility of such a scheme in August 2007, almost six weeks before Mr Johnson was selected as the Tory candidate.
The plans have been backed by Green party Assembly Member Jenny Jones who called them “more ambitious than anything which has been tried before in this country.”
In a statement issued by the Mayors office before Mr Johnson’s comments Ms Jones said: “a year ago, I asked Transport for London to come up with a plan that would transform the experience of cycling, walking and everyday living in London. That is what they have delivered”
