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“Childish antics” – Tory county council leader’s view of calls for safe cycling and walking space during pandemic

Geoff Driver, who heads Lancashire County County Council, also sent blank replies to emails sent to him by public under Cycling UK's call for action...

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson heralds "a new Golden Age for cycling," road.cc has learnt that the Tory leader of Lancashire County Council has described emails sent to him calling for safe cycling and walking space during the COVID-19 pandemic as “childish antics” – and replied to each himself with a blank email of his own.

> Prime Minister heralds “new Golden Age for cycling” – starting as soon as Sunday?

The emails had originally been sent to Green Party Councillor Gina Dowding by some of her constituents in the Central Lancaster ward.

The senders of the emails used the standard letter Cycling UK has drawn up and shared on its website to send to local councillors calling for road space to be reallocated to people on foot and on bike to aid with social distancing and provide protection.

Councillor Dowding, a former MEP for North West England, collated the responses and sent them to Councillor Geoff Driver, the leader of the Conservative-controlled county council, who also chairs the LEP Transport for Lancashire Committee.

One of the original senders of an email to Councillor Dowding told road.cc that she, and others who had sent similar emails, simply received a blank email from the leader of the council in response.

When Councillor Dowding raised the issue with Councillor Driver, asking him what he meant by the blank replies, she was told, in an email seen by road.cc: “It means I’m far too busy dealing with the effects of COVID-19 to respond to the childish antics of the people who have sent me going on 50 almost identical e-mails on this subject.

“If you know any of them, please pass that message on and tell them that their e-mails, like yours, have been dispatched to the bin.”

Transport secretary Grant Shapps is expected this week to announce funding to local authorities in England to enable them to install pop-up cycle lanes, with the government keen to encourage cycling to work to ease pressure on public transport as lockdown measures start to be loosened.

> Getting people riding to work key part of government's post-lockdown plan, says transport secretary

A number of councils across the country have already started reallocating roadspace away from motor vehicles and towards cyclists and pedestrians, with Leicester for example introducing temporary cycle lanes and a number of London boroughs closing streets to rat-running vehicles.

Some of those initiatives have been implemented after campaigners called for action to be taken, including Cycling UK through its appeal to people to write to their councillors.

> Video: MP calls on cycling minister to implement temporary segregated cycle lanes 

The charity’s head of campaigns, Duncan Dollimore, told road.cc: “Cycling UK wrote to council leaders 10 days ago about the urgent need to create safe space for people to walk and cycle, enabling then to socially distance both now and as restrictions are eased.

“To date, we’ve received no response from Lancashire County Council, whilst elsewhere many local authorities have either started to take action or at least begun a conversation about what they could done and where.

“We were conscious when we launched this campaign that local authorities have much to deal with currently, which is why this campaign is about people, and simple, quick ways to ensure they can move around safely as we return to the new normal post COVID.”

He added: “If this isn’t something of concern to the leader of the council, and he has a better, safer, more cost effective plan to get people moving safely as we come out of this crisis and beyond, we invite him to share it with us and any of the voters who asked a legitimate question and deserved more than a blank piece of paper in response.”  

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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17 comments

Avatar
PhilReyFP2 | 3 years ago
0 likes

Just waited a while to put my letter in and guess what, he's still doing it! Blank email reply

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RoryLydiate | 3 years ago
3 likes

I was wondering how many points he'd collected on his licence.

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aegisdesign | 3 years ago
2 likes

Ah LCC. The council who sent me a letter saying I should have been cycling on the left when I pointed out to them the pot hole in the middle of the lane I'd just come off on. Along with pages and pages showing the road had been inspected regularly with no signs of defects and the only claims they'd responded to were car drivers complaining of damage due to chip seal surfacing 3 years prior.

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ibr17xvii | 3 years ago
1 like

LCC are a bunch of useless incompetents.

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Zebulebu | 3 years ago
16 likes

And sending blank replies isn't childish? Fucking mug

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eburtthebike replied to Zebulebu | 3 years ago
4 likes

Zebulebu wrote:

And sending blank replies isn't childish? Fucking mug

Quite.  If the blank responses were sent to council constituents, they should be making a complaint about the failure of this councillor to treat them with respect, which is a requirement of being a councillor.

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handlebarcam | 3 years ago
12 likes

Would that be this Geoff Driver...?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-43897436
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-47250117
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-45284595

Or rather would that be Cllr. Geoff Driver CBE, because of course he's got a CBE...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-22909483

The mistake is not using form letters; it is in thinking people like that become councillors to make the lives of all the people living in the area better.

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Agent57 replied to handlebarcam | 3 years ago
0 likes

Haha, OneConnect. I still have my mug. 

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brooksby replied to Agent57 | 3 years ago
5 likes

BBC wrote:

They reveal that Lancashire Police said they had gathered evidence to show before his arrest Conservative councillor Mr Driver sent emails to a witness in a concerted campaign to undermine him.

I wonder if he used a form/templated email to (allegedly) threaten witnesses...?

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to handlebarcam | 3 years ago
4 likes

I'm guessing in the end they didn't prosecute him or the others for attempting to pervert the course of justice or witness intimidation then. And I wonder how does someone manage to wipe and / or destroy 8 pieces of kit by accident days after the Police visit asking for information?

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brooksby | 3 years ago
5 likes

There was me thinking that county councillors were public servants...

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Simon E replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
4 likes

brooksby wrote:

There was me thinking that county councillors were public servants...

You obviously don't know any.

They invariably are self-important, pompous little people who want to get their own way and tell other people what to do while looking important and taking advantage of whatever privileges they can get. Often they are failed entrepreneurs who couldn't even run a small business properly. Public service is not why they stand for election.

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eburtthebike replied to Simon E | 3 years ago
0 likes

Simon E wrote:

brooksby wrote:

There was me thinking that county councillors were public servants...

You obviously don't know any.

They invariably are self-important, pompous little people who want to get their own way and tell other people what to do while looking important and taking advantage of whatever privileges they can get. Often they are failed entrepreneurs who couldn't even run a small business properly. Public service is not why they stand for election.

It grieves me to agree with you totally.  When I was a CTC rep, my local council wanted to make a narrow pavement shared use, and when I pointed out that it was far too narrow and this would be dangerous for both cyclists and pedestrians, quoting CTC policy, the councillor pushing the project wrote to the local press saying that I was making up my own policies.  He denied that what I had quoted was policy, and insisted I was lying.

I got the regional rep to send him a copy of the CTC policy handbook, with the relevant paragraphs highlighted; he still denied it was CTC policy.

He was one of these people who thinks that talking loud and long made him right, which he did at every opportunity.  I heard the council employees name for him was Bluster Bracey.

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Accessibility f... | 3 years ago
1 like

This is why I don't use email templates when asking councillors or government employees to engage with something I think is important.

In support of Lancashire Council, I'll point people in the direction of the excellent work they're doing on the Valley of Stone cycleway and the work they're doing between Ramsbottom and Accrington.  It's first class, although by Coronavirus standards I think it will be apparent that the new tracks are too narrow.

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eburtthebike replied to Accessibility for all | 3 years ago
5 likes

Peowpeowpeowlasers wrote:

It's first class, although by Coronavirus standards I think it will be apparent that the new tracks are too narrow.

If it isn't wide enough to give someone a 2m berth when passing, then it most certainly isn't first class.

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handlebarcam replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
6 likes

First class or not, it was funded before the Conservatives regained control of the council.

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Accessibility f... replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
3 likes

Much of it is wider than 2 metres, but there are some pinch points where remaining distant is not possible.  I'm not going to criticise those two routes, they're an extremely valuable alternative to busy roads.  They have no stupid barriers and have good, smooth surfaces.

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