New Court opens with no cycle parking

On Tuesday 11 July 2006 the new Gee Street County Court opened in south Islington, close to the border with the City, following the merger of Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Courts. Despite the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone stating in 2004 that all new public buildings should have cycle parking, and despite the need being demonstrated by the fact that bicycles now make up 10% of vehicular traffic in the City, the new court has no parking facilities at all for the public, be they lawyers, witnesses or claimants, who wish to travel by cycle.

The project's sponsor, employed by Her Majesty's Court Service (HMCS), said:
"It has always been Departmental Policy not to provide any parking facilities (be it for cars, motor cycles or pedal cycles) for members of the public. The underlying principle for that policy is to encourage the use of Public Transport.

"Despite this general rule, the Department has striven, in co-operation with local Planners, to provide facilities for disabled members of the public and, more recently, for cyclists. Such provision, however, is heavily dependent on the size and nature of the site.

"In this instance, the matter was carefully considered by the Project Design Team. Our site is limited to the building itself which, as I am sure you know, abuts directly onto the public pavements - there is no surplus land on which to provide any parking provisions. The pavements and roads bordering the building are themselves too narrow to accommodate cycle racks. In these circumstances, much as we would like to provide cycle parking facilities, I am afraid that it is simply not feasible to do so."

HMCS is clearly a generation behind when it comes to transport policy, demonstrating a worrying lack of joined up thinking across government. National and London wide policy is to promote sustainable transport: walking, cycling and public transport. Even judges are ahead of HMCS it seems: Lord Phillips, Lord Chief Justice was quoted in the Guardian saying of his colleagues that "We do not live on rundown estates, but we do travel on buses and tubes and bicycles". The public expects to find cycle parking at everything from libraries to leisure centres, why not courts?

It is true that there is limited space on the pavement but there are a huge number of vacant parking spaces, as the photo of the top of the page shows, on Gee Street. Converting just one would be enough for six cycle stands and twelve cycles. Clearly HMCS has given so little thought to this issue that they have not considered asking the London Borough of Islington to do this.

Clerkenwell County Court shortly before its closure shows the need for bike parking at the new court. At least at both the old courts there are railings which can be used to lock a bike to while there is simply nothing by the new court.

Emily Thornberry, the MP for Islington South & Finsbury which is the constituency for this area has campaigned on the issue of cycle parking. As a bicycling barrister herself, City Cyclists is pleased that she has written to the Lord Chancellor in support of the campaign, having been "amazed" to find out about the outdated policy of HMCS. The campaign while focussing on Gee St Court is now moving up a gear and asking for cycle parking at all courts in London with a request for funding to the Mayor of London.

Islington Council cycle parking page shows that there are only about fifty public cycle stands for the part of the borough within the Congestion Charging Zone, despite cycling rates rocketing. Worse still, while new stands are proposed this would only add a couple of dozen more. It certainly looks like Islington will keep the worst record on cycle theft in London if not the UK unless its councillors make an effort to secure more funding for cycling parking. City Cyclists have made an urgent request for new cycle facilities here. However Islington has been putting its efforts into a massive increase in car parking in this area despite there already being over a thousand parking spaces: have they not heard about the successes of congestion charge in encouraging people to switch from driving to cycling?

The nearest cycle parking to the court is by Goswell Road sports centre, two minutes walk away. However not only are the stands already full, both sign posts in this picture also have two bikes each locked to them. There is clearly a massive need - even before further increases in cycling - for lots of bike parking.