London's mayor should be given new powers to push through cycle superhighways in the face of opposition from local councils, it has been claimed.
The call comes in the wake of ongoing delays to Cycle Superhighway 9 (CS9) between Hounslow and Hyde Park , work on which has yet to begin one-and-a-half years after it was scheduled for completion.
The project was initially held up by concerns from Kensington & Chelsea Council over congestion, safety and even the use of blue paint on Kensington High Street, before being further delayed by a London-wide review of cycle superhighways.
Green Party London Assembly member Darren Johnson wants Boris Johnson to seek new powers from the government to assume control of borough roads where councils block plans for cycle superhighways, as happened with CS9.
He made the call as he launched a report criticising outgoing London mayor Boris Johnson's record on delivering cycling improvements in the suburbs.
"The mayor let the plans get bogged down by an inflexible local council when he could have sought powers to take over local roads where necessary to complete his network of cycle superhighways," Mr Johnson AM wrote in the report.
Cycle superhighways are wide, continuous bicycle lanes marked with blue paint - the cycling world's equivalent of motorways.
The mayor's office this week confirmed there were still plans to open CS9 and that the mayor's cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan and the councils concerned were "working closely" to develop the proposals.
Mr Gilligan defended his boss's record on cycling, saying the mayor had overseen a number of projects in the suburbs, with many more in the pipeline.
getwestlondon understands CS9 is now likely to run only between Hounslow and Hammersmith, though it could be extended to Heathrow as desired by Hounslow Council.
A spokesman for Kensington & Chelsea Council said: "We have always been worried about the impact on pedestrians of having to cross a fast moving cycle lane. It's also clear that the mayor's east-west superhighway is having an impact on traffic congestion across central London, and the High Street is already heavily congested.
"However it would be wrong to characterise the council as anti-bike. We are not.
"We do a very great deal to promote cycling, from pioneering two-way cycling schemes and installing bike parking to running safety courses for all ages and introducing quietways for people put off cycling by sharing the road with heavy vehicles. We will have five such quietways in the borough by close of 2016.
"Locally-elected politicians' sovereignty over local roads is an important principle that should continue to be respected."
