'Crazy' plan to build Westway cycle superhighway scrapped by Mayor

Pic:The planned cycling superhighway adjacent to the Westway
Staff  reporter(wp/es):

Plans to remove a lane from the A40 Westway flyover to create a segregated cycle superhighway have been axed by Sadiq Khan, it emerged today.

The 4.5-mile route was proposed by then-mayor Boris Johnson as an extension of his flagship east-west Victoria Embankment superhighway and would have linked Paddington and Acton, creating a safe route between west London and Tower Hill.

The idea of removing one of three eastbound lanes attracted 71 per cent support in a Transport for London consultation but had sparked concern among motorists and taxi drivers.

The Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush said it would lead to longer tailbacks for shoppers.

The decision emerged from a discussion between Val Shawcross, Mr Khan’s deputy mayor for transport, and British Cycling campaigner Chris Boardman.

Former cycling tsar Andrew Gilligan, who revealed the route’s axing, said: “The cancellation will probably mean that no segregated cycle route from central to west London is delivered in this mayoral term.

“The flyover is in fact the easiest place to put a route. There are none of the usual issues with residents, pedestrians, buses, parking, loading, or junctions. There were even benefits for motorists – several westbound journeys would have been quicker.” 

The Westway route was proposed because of the refusal of Kensington and Chelsea council to allow a cycle superhighway to be built on Kensington High Street. 

It is believed that TfL is instead looking at “alternative routes that will be better”. This is part of the new Mayor’s wish to make cycling and walking joint priorities.

Green assembly member Caroline Russell: “Taking bikes up and over the Westway isn’t necessarily the best route. If Val, who is very persuasive, has managed to get a street-level route, that is not a problem. If she hasn’t, that is very disappointing.”

Ms Russell today published a report calling on Mr Khan to keep his promise to “make London a byword for cycling across the world”.

She called for “a strategic network of fast, direct bike routes from the suburbs to the city centre” and called for every borough to be able to follow Waltham Forest, Kingston and Enfield and receive TfL cash to create a Mini Holland pro-cycling and walking scheme.

She said the Mayor should use his powers to take over borough roads if councils refused to allow cycle superhighways to be built. She called for £1,55 billion - 15 per cent of the TfL budget over the next four years - to be spent on cycling and walking to bring the capital up to Copenhagen levels of spending.

Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, said the Westway cycle superhighway was a “crazy” idea that would have taken cyclists way off their most direct route. “No-one was going to use it,” he said.

“We’re ambivalent - the A40 [superhighway] would have had very little impact on us. If Sadiq is going to show common sense, we would want him to rule against CS11 through Regent’s Park and Swiss Cottage. We think that is going to cause chaos.”

Mr McNamara added: “We think segregated cycling is the way to go, but on Upper Thames Street, as someone said, it’s done more damage to London than the Luftwaffe. 

“Why wasn’t London the first to have a ‘pop-up’ superhighway? The barriers could have popped up at 630am, gone down during the day and popped up again at 4pm. There’s no-one using the superhighway after 10am but the traffic’s back to Canary Wharf.”

A spokesman for the Mayor said: "Sadiq is absolutely committed to making cycling in London safer and easier - that's why he has asked TfL to increase spending on cycling compared to the previous administration in which Mr Gilligan was the Cycling Commissioner.

"The Mayor has already approved the next two cycle super-highways and is committed to delivering a new East-West route."

two friends killed in horror crash on A12 while driver fights for life in intensive care

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A young father lies in intensive care fighting for life following a “devastating” car crash in which two of his close friends were killed.

Yousif Al-Mussawi, 26, from Maida Vale, was at the wheel of the BMW when it veered off a dual-carriageway and hit a tree.

Farhad-Zubair Maqbool and Yahya Sharif, both 25 and from Acton, west London, were killed instantly in the accident on the northbound A12 at Ingatestone, near Brentwood, at 11.20pm on Saturday.

The trio had been driving to the Chelmsford campus of Anglia Ruskin University where Mr Sharif is a student, friends said.

Mr Al-Mussawi, who works for Virgin Media, was today being held in an induced coma at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge having undergone eight hours of surgery.

According to his Facebook profile, he moved to London from Baghdad and studied engineering at Kingston University. He married in 2011 and has a young daughter.

His family today shared a shocking image of the keen footballer on his hospital bed to “spread the word” about his condition. 

A GoFundMe page has set up to raise money to support all three families raised more than £7,000 in its first 24 hours.

Omar Elsisi, 23, who studied with Mr Sharif at Anglia Ruskin, told the Standard: “Yahya was a decent man and well-liked among students. He would help anyone without ever asking for something in return.

“He went to London on Saturday morning to get to the barbers for a trim and buy a new jacket. He was aiming to get back in the evening after visiting friends.” 

Mr Elsisi said he became concerned for his colleague when he failed to answer messages on WhatsApp on Saturday night.

He said: “The next day he wasn’t online and we all found out on Facebook that they had crashed, we are all devastated. 

“Yahya was so bright and friendly, he was aiming for the top achievements on the course.

“He was very young, we are broken up about it. He loved his friends and they were very close.”

Abdifatah Abdi, who created the campaign, wrote: “Three of our friends were driving to Essex when their car lost control and collided with a tree. 

“Farhad and Yayha were pronounced dead at the scene, while Yousif underwent eight hours of surgery and is currently in a critical condition.

“They were driving to drop Yayha at his university and there was no other car involved.

“All three were good natured people, they had ambitions for the future, and now the future on this earth is gone for at least two of them.

“While this is so hard to accept, we must channel our feelings at this time to help support their families who we class as our own.”

Anisa Choudhury paid tribute to Mr Maqbool, with whom she had studied at Queen Mary University of London, on Facebook. 

She said: “I never in a million years thought you would leave this world so soon. 

“You were full of life, ambition and you had so much ahead of you, so many plans, hopes and dreams that have now been cruelly snatched away. 

“I wish someone would tell me it wasn’t true, I keep calling your phone waiting for you to pick up but you don’t. 

“The world is not the same without you. Life is too short. It could have been any of us in their place.”

DS Damon Bainbridge, of Essex Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “We are appealing for any drivers who were in the area at the time and saw the BMW before the collision.

“We are particularly keen to trace a driver who was travelling ahead of the car and might have seen what happened.”

High Court orders prison guards to end unofficial 24-hour 'strike'

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Prison officers who walked out in a 24-hour protest have been ordered to go back to work by the High Court.

Up to 10,000 officers in England and Wales had stopped work at midnight on Tuesday in a demonstration against a "surge in violence" in jails.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) protest threw the criminal justice system into chaos with the Jo Cox murder trial at the Old Bailey one of many postponed.

The justice secretary had claimed the action was unnecessary and branded it "unlawful".

And at the High Court on Tuesday afternoon, the Government won an injunction against the walkout.

Mr Justice Kerr heard an urgent application for the injunction to "restrain" the POA from "inducing any form of industrial action".

The judge's order will have immediate effect with prison officers expected to return to work "forthwith".

He said it was a "very urgent" application with evidence of up to 80 per cent of staff taking some sort of action in the majority of prisons.

"A number of incidents have occurred in prisons today and the situation is very concerning indeed," he said.

Stuart Brittenden, counsel for the union, had argued: "The POA's position is that the Secretary of State is in breach of their contract in failing to provide a safe place and a system of work, and, as such, any instruction to them to continue working in those conditions in this environment is an unlawful one."

The POA had directed all its members to take part in the protest on Tuesday morning after negotiations with the Government over safety broke down.

Prison officers cannot by law take part in a strike and Mr Gillan had earlier admitted the action would be interpreted as one.

The protest, which began at midnight, followed a number of high profile incidents, including an alleged murder, a riot and two inmates escaping.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Justice Secretary Liz Truss said she met the POA on November 2 and talks with her team over safety measures continued over the next fortnight.

"These talks were due to continue this morning," Ms Truss told MPs. "Instead the POA failed to respond to our proposals and called this unlawful action without giving any notice."

Ms Truss said the union's position is "unnecessary and unlawful" and "will make the situation in our prisons more dangerous".

Announcing the move, the union said the "continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self harm", coupled with the recent alleged murder and escapes "demonstrate that the service is in meltdown".

About 60 guards gathered in the car park within the gates of Pentonville. Dave Todd, POA representative for London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, said conditions in prisons were "volatile and dangerous".

"We need to act to protect ourselves," he said. "It has not come about quickly - it's a build-up over probably years actually.

"It's just unsafe. To me, prison officers taking this type of action speaks volumes for what's happening inside."

thousands of Tube workers vote for walkouts

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Thousands of London Underground staff, including drivers, have voted to go on strike over disputes about staffing, safety and industrial relations.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union said station and platform staff backed walkouts by 85 per cent over staffing and safety.

And 84 per cent of Piccadilly Line drivers voted to go ahead with strikes over a "wholesale breakdown" in industrial relations.

Around 3,400 workers are involved in the two disputes.

The news followed an announcement from the Transport Salaried Staffs Association that it held a ballot for hundreds of Tube members for strikes over the closure of ticket offices and now the two unions could co-ordinate any action in the run up to Christmas.

The RMT executive will consider the ballot results before deciding the next move.

General secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT members on the London Underground stations see day in and day out the toxic impact of the job cuts programme and they are reporting back that it is horrific.

"With the constant overcrowding on stations and platforms it is only a matter of time before there is a major tragedy if we don't act decisively.

"Our dispute is about taking action to haul back the cuts machine and put safety back at the top of the agenda.

"In the separate dispute involving drivers on the Piccadilly Line, safety is again a major factor and is tied in with the ripping up of policies and procedures and ignoring warnings from staff.

"Our members have been left exposed and vulnerable and we have no choice but to blow the whistle before lasting damage is done."

The TSSA said its members had been subjected to increased threats and abuse since a programme of ticket office closures started.

A survey for the TSSA found that most of the 540 staff felt less safe since they moved from ticket offices on to station concourses and the union said staff were being targeted by frustrated passengers if ticket machines do not work.

Steve Griffiths, Transport for London's chief operating officer for London Underground, said: "Our staff work hard to serve the millions of customers that pass through the Tube and rail network every day.

"Everyone has the right to go about their work without fear or intimidation and we do not tolerate any form of verbal or physical assault on our staff."

London house prices surge by 20 per cent in 'super suburbs'

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Record low mortgage rates are driving massive demand for homes in London’s booming “super suburbs” where property prices are soaring at up to 20 per cent a year.

Latest official figures today revealed a post-Brexit “Tale of Two Cities” with rapid growth in more affordable areas to the east or in outskirts favoured by first-time buyers, while central London’s property market languishes.

The biggest jumps in England were seen in Newham, where average prices rocketed 20.3 per cent to £371,139, and Barking and Dagenham, where they are up by 19.3 per cent at £290,583, according to the Land Registry.

Other areas with strong double-digit increases included Havering (18.6 per cent), Croydon (16.6 per cent) and Redbridge (16.5 per cent).

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of home buying agent Garrington Property Finders, said: “The conclusion is clear — four months on from the shock Brexit result, and the sky has resolutely refused to fall in. In fact, annual rates of price growth remain comfortably above where they were a year ago.”

Property experts said the autumn house market had been turbo-charged by the Bank of England’s decision to drop its interest rate to a record low of 0.25 per cent in August.

The cut dragged down the cost of borrowing for home buyers to levels never seen before. 

The average two-year fixed rate stood last month at 2.34 per cent, a new record low, while average five-year deals are below three per cent for the first time.

Although the 10.9 per cent annual rise for London as a whole was a slowdown from the 12.1 per cent recorded in August, a strong monthly jump of 1.4 per cent was bigger than anywhere else in the country, suggesting that the London market is far from running out of steam.

Ben Madden, managing director of London estate agent Thorgills, said: “London has shown remarkable fortitude in outperforming all other regions of the UK.”

Richard Snook, senior economist at PwC, said: “We now have three months of post-Brexit official housing figures, which show price growth remaining robust, but fewer properties changing hands. 

“At the start of the year, we expected slower house price growth, but in fact it has shown impressive resilience.”  By contrast prices in the once red hot — and most expensive — boroughs of central London, continue to flatline under the pressure of the huge stamp duty burden on properties over £1 million and uncertainty about Britain’s post-Brexit future.

The biggest annual fall in average prices was in Hammersmith & Fulham where they were down 2.9 per cent to £757,131, the fifth biggest annual drop of any local authority area in Britain.

Latest figures today from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that first-time buyers borrowed £4.9 billion through 31,500 home loans in  September, up 14 per cent on September last year. 

Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: “It was steady as she goes for September with borrowers getting on with it and securing mortgage deals at rock-bottom rates. 

“The cut in base rate in August further pushed mortgage rates, which were already at historic lows, down further still and with lenders keen to do business before the end of the year, the flurry in cheap mortgage products looks unlikely to change anytime soon.”