Neil Coyle

I congratulate the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) on securing the debate. I will focus my comments on the cycle hire regulations in Southwark. We should be a success story of more lanes and more users, but—and I have a big butt, which makes me a wobbly cyclist—the number of complaints, increasingly from other cyclists, is colossal and rising. The need to regulate is only too apparent when visiting any transport interchange in Southwark. Last week, dumped bikes blocked the only pedestrian crossing from London Bridge station on to the bridge itself, not in rush hour, but on a Saturday lunch time. I get so many complaints, including from Stephen about bike dumping at Canada Water; from Sacha about bikes in pedestrian areas and local parks; and from Sanjay about insurance after a recent collision. Then there is Whelan’s, a pub in Rotherhithe with a bike bay outside that overflows regularly with dumped bikes, blocking the way of customers and blocking a bus stop, but most worryingly, blocking the delivery of beer to the pub. A pub without beer cannot stay open very long. It is on a red route, so alternatives are limited. I am working with Lime and others to address this issue, and I raised it directly with the City Hall’s cycling commissioner last week, but a business and jobs are at risk through the failure of Lime and others to regulate themselves. Regulations are necessary and welcome. I hope the Minister will tell us this morning when the next consultation on secondary legislation will come forward, but I hope he also recognises that some solutions are available now. Southwark council could replicate Ealing and remove bikes at cost to the providers. Constructively, the council could move the bay outside Whelan’s to the verges on the opposite side of Rotherhithe Old Road. Council inaction is inexcusable, especially under a Green leader who last year filmed a promotional video for Lime inside the council office, breaking council rules. I await the council investigation into that with some interest. Inaction is also inexcusable because the council announced a new deal for discounted bike use three months ago in an arrangement that has delivered no better management of bikes, and not one person has yet had a discounted fare. It is an amateur, premature fanfare of a scheme. Conditions should have been set for clearing bikes with the providers. Lime claims it has 400 staff to clear bays and more need directing to those sites, but it says Southwark council sends no one to them. Council inaction is even more inexcusable because Lime has a £500 million fund to provide bays that local authorities can bid for. Embarrassingly, Southwark has bid for nothing—that is the summit of its aspiration for our community. It seems the Greens and their Lib Dem sidekicks in Southwark are too busy obsessing over Israel and international affairs to get on with helping people in our community. It is frankly incompetent and I will be pushing further to help everyone affected.