Cycling in the New Forest – where does each of the parliamentary candidates stand?

CTC, the national cycling charity, is seeking the views of all parliamentary candidates ahead of the general election and is publishing the results on its Vote Bike website. In the New Forest, where cycling remains a contentious issue, most candidates have expressed their support. However, several are yet to respond, including the incumbent MP for New Forest East, Julian Lewis of the Conservative Party.

In January, Desmond Swayne MP and Dr Julian Lewis MP called for statutory regulation of sportives, but Swayne at least has expressed his agreement with all five recommendations of the parliamentary Get Britain Cycling report.

The five recommendations, which form the basis of the Vote Bike survey, are as follows.

1. Ambition. Increase levels of cycling to 10% of trips by 2025 and 25% by 2050.
2. Funding. An average government spend of at least £10 per person per year on cycling.
3. Design standards. Create consistently high design standards for cycling in all highway and traffic schemes, new developments and planned road maintenance work.
4. Safety. Measures to improve cycle safety by strengthening road traffic law and its enforcement and revising the Highway Code.
5. Promotion. Support positive promotion of cycling, including cycle skills training, for people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.

Swayne’s full house of positive responses are matched by Janet Richards of the Green Party, who describes cycling and walking as ‘the ultimate low carbon forms of transport’ and also by Imogen Shepherd-DuBey of the Liberal Democrats with the exception of funding, for which she offered an ‘it depends’ answer. Other New Forest West candidates, Lena Samuels of the Labour Party and Paul Bailey of UKIP are yet to respond.

For New Forest East, Dr Julian Lewis is yet to provide a response, but both Andrew Pope (Labour) and Sally May (Green) have agreed with all five points. May does however add in her comments that she does not agree with massive cycling events like 'The Wiggle,' saying: “There have been too many incidents, in the past, of rudeness, inconsideration and lack of respect for surroundings by the riders.”

Pope, who formed the Southampton Cycling Forum, says he has found cycling around the Waterside and Totton to be ‘too often a dangerous experience’, and adds: “It was alarming to see the false hysteria created by a minority on cycling events – and the mishandling by the National Park Authority.”

The other candidate to have responded is Roy Swales of UKIP, who agrees with all bar funding, for which he has answered ‘it depends’. Swales is a mountain bike leader and instructor and says: “I want to promote the use of bikes as much as possible and encourage people to support this.”