Labour's war on motorists

Cllr Martha Levy says the council leadership has an ideological problem with driving

Road Closed Ahead and Diversion signs alongside traffic cones

Labour is at war with motorists. They may not admit it, but their contempt for us is written across every interminable roadworks scheme, every vanishing parking space and every journey turned into a miserable ordeal. Labour no longer sees driving as a freedom to be enjoyed or even a necessity to be tolerated. Motorists are no longer residents to be served but a nuisance to be cleared off the roads.

Endless roadworks churn on, and Barnet Council show no urgency whatsoever about getting things moving again. In my ward, Hampstead Way has had temporary traffic lights for months. I have rarely seen a worker there, though I have seen plenty of cones. Residents, meanwhile, are expected to put up with it day after day, with no end in sight.

The Labour-run council have an uncanny talent for finding roads where parking is already scarce and then painting double yellow lines all over them. Residents struggle to park outside their own homes, and instead of helping, Labour appear determined to make the problem worse.

At the same time, road space is increasingly being reallocated to cycle lanes that are often lightly used, even on routes where congestion is already a daily frustration. Most residents support giving people the choice to cycle, but that should not come at the expense of motorists who have no realistic alternative for work, school runs, caring responsibilities, or running a business.

Residents could be forgiven for wondering whether the purpose of some cycle lanes is to move cyclists, or merely to provide motorists with something else to queue beside.

Add to that the ongoing flyover works at Brent Cross, and motorists across the borough are living in gridlock. A journey from Finchley to Hendon that once took ten minutes now takes upwards of forty.

Yes, the works are necessary, but meekly accepting unacceptable consequences must stop. The Labour council and TfL can and must do better: at the very least, some urgency, some coordination and some regard for what their works do to people’s lives.

Barnet Conservatives, by contrast, have a proud record of improving motor transport around our Borough. The wonderful Mike Freer fought for and won the improvements at Henlys Corner, making it both safer and easier to use.

Our Conservative Group Leader, Peter Zinkin, fought for many years to achieve much-needed changes at the junction of Hoop Lane and Finchley Road. So, it was rich to see Labour MP Sarah Sackman taking credit for the scheme. Claiming other people’s work as their own is, it seems, the one thing Labour can deliver on time.

I would like to reassure motorists from Barnet that relief is at hand and that soon all will be well. Sadly, I cannot.

Sadiq Khan’s London Plan will pile yet more pressure onto Barnet’s already blocked roads. Thousands of new one- and two-bedroom flats will be built under planning policies that reward developers for providing less parking per home.

It is naive to the point of absurdity to think that new residents will not own cars. More residents, more cars, less parking and years of construction disruption: what could possibly go wrong?

Labour’s antagonism towards motorists is not confined to Barnet. Across London, Sadiq Khan has repealed the full Congestion Charge exemption for electric vehicles and pressed ahead with his plans to close Oxford Street to traffic. Londoners are being asked to pay more for the privilege of driving, whilst finding it ever harder to get anywhere by car.

I believe Labour’s problem with motorists is ideological. They simply cannot fathom that people who work hard and pay for their cars, petrol, insurance and road tax actually want to use them.

For Barnet residents, driving is not an indulgent luxury. It is how they get to work, collect their children from school, care for the elderly and fulfil their daily needs. Labour seem determined to make driving so expensive, so inconvenient, and so frustrating that motorists will eventually give in.

To borrow their motorist-hating metaphors, it’s about time we told Labour, ‘on your bike’.

Martha Levy is a Conservative councillor for Garden Suburb ward

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