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Council fines London bike shop that provided free pump for cyclistsTrack pump outside Isambard's Cycles (via Twitter).jpg

Council fines London bike shop that provided free pump for cyclists

Tower Hamlets says Isambard's Cycles needs to apply for licence to keep goods on the pavement...
by Simon_MacMichael
Mon, Jul 31, 2017 18:52
33

A London council has fined a bike shop for placing a track pump on the pavement outside to enable cyclists to fill their tyres with air.

Officials from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets fined Shoreditch bike shop Isambard’s Cycles £100 for placing a bench outside the shop with the pump attached, reports the London Evening Standard.

The shop’s owners, Sarah Breese and Timothy James, removed the bench but left the pump there, prompting a return visit from a council enforcement officer who threatened them with a further fine unless they took it away or obtained a licence.

Ms Breese told the newspaper: “The council’s attitude to small business is that of a feudal lord to a tenant farmer. This fine is the tip of the iceberg but totally in keeping with their broader approach.

“We’re a community bike shop. We keep bikes on the road affordably for thousands of local residents. We try to price people into cycling.

“It’s increasingly difficult for us to survive with the council behaving in this way though.

“Yesterday, the same enforcement officer who fined us the first time was taking pictures of our shop and when we asked what he was doing he said we needed to obtain a licence to be able to have the pump there, otherwise we would be fined.

 “We’re still not sure what the issue with the bench is either - the pavement is wide, it's a corner shop and that road is very quiet. The bench gives us no commercial gain,” she added.

A council spokesman said: “Isambard’s Cycles has not been fined for having a ‘free foot pump’.

“We visited the shop on July 16 to tell them that they need to apply for a licence to have items on the footpath outside their shop including bicycles for sale and a bench. This was followed up with a letter.

“The area outside the shop is narrow and it is already difficult to get a pram or a wheelchair past the shop, without these items being displayed.

“A week later they had still not applied for a licence so we issued a fine for having goods on the highway. We then visited again last weekend and they still had not applied for a licence so we said that we would fine them again.”

He added: “We will visit the shop for a fourth time this week to offer help in applying for a licence and, if they do, we can review the latest fine.”

Recently, the council was in the news for another fine, imposed on a girl aged five and her father who had set up a stall outside their Mile End home to sell lemonade to people on their way to the Lovebox festival in Victoria Park.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/fiveyearold-girl-bursts-into-tears...

News of the fine emerged on the same weekend that more than 28,000 cyclists passed through Tower Hamlets during yesterday’s Prudential RideLondon-Surrey sportive, which started at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in neighbouring Newham.

 

Track pump
Isambard's Cycles
Brick Lane
Shoreditch
Tower Hamlets
Simon MacMichael

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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33 comments

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 7 years ago
1 like

By all means campaign to change the local byelaw or apply for the appropriate licence. But the problem with not enforcing rules for some circumstances is that you end up not enforcing them for any circumstances.

Avatar
don simon fbpe replied to Mungecrundle | 7 years ago
2 likes
Mungecrundle wrote:

By all means campaign to change the local byelaw or apply for the appropriate licence. But the problem with not enforcing rules for some circumstances is that you end up not enforcing them for any circumstances.

Which is all well and good, except they cancelled the lemonade fine. By their own admission, they have discreption. They reapply the ludicrous fine to little Ms Spicer or show common sense. 

What I don't understand, though, is why they picked up on the bench, but not the bikes on display around the corner.

EDIT: Maybe they have, but the story wouldn't have seemed quite so ridiculous if that had been made clear.

Avatar
don simon fbpe | 7 years ago
2 likes

So this is the council that tells its staff to be sensible and use common sense then.

Quote:

“The area outside the shop is narrow and it is already difficult to get a pram or a wheelchair past the shop, without these items being displayed.

I suppose the upside is that there is ZERO pavement parking in the borough.

And just as a third point to counter the rather strong comments from the oppressed shopkeeper. How much will a licence cost them?

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