Wednesday 10 March 2010

Waltham Forest: the council’s latest assault on walking begins

Let’s be quite clear about this, shall we? The London Borough of Waltham Forest is an anti-walking council which doesn’t give a toss about climate change and is totally committed to car dependency. Its Climate Change policy document is a piece of cosmetic trash, its Green Fair is a a fraud, and its leaflets asking people to walk more and use their cars less are a waste of paper.

Here, in the small print of the latest issue of the council’s lavishly subsidised propaganda rag Waltham Forest News, are the traffic orders which show how pavements currently for pedestrians only are to be turned into car parking spaces. This has implications for cyclists as well as pedestrians, since cyclists will now have to cycle between parked cars and moving vehicles. Let me say it again: conditions for walking and cycling are getting worse in this borough, not better.