Make Mayor's walking and cycling czar full-time job, Sadiq Khan urged

'Backward step': Chris Boardman with Sadiq Khan during his mayoral campaign
Alex Lentati
Ross Lydall @RossLydall16 August 2016

Sadiq Khan faced calls today to maintain the focus on cycling by making his “walking and cycling commissioner” a full-time job.

The Mayor has launched a search for a successor to Boris Johnson’s cycling czar Andrew Gilligan, but the three-day-a-week job will also include responsibility for improving conditions for pedestrians.

While campaigners supported moves to encourage walking and make roads and junctions safer for all “vulnerable” Londoners, they said the need to build on Boris Johnson’s “cycling revolution” needed more time than a day and a half a week.

Their fears follows concerns that Transport for London could be forced to cut the capital’s cycling budget as it seeks widespread savings after its government grant was slashed.

Chris Boardman, the former Olympic champion who is policy adviser to British Cycling, said: “Reducing the seniority and clout of the cycling commissioner would be a backward step that isn’t consistent with the Mayor’s promises on cycling and puts at risk the progress London has made.”

City Hall today published the job description for the walking and cycling commissioner, offering a pro-rata salary of up to £98,000, which works out at £58,800 for the part-time post.

Mr Khan, who spoke of his wish to widen the role during the mayoral election campaign, is seeking someone to promote “healthy, active, non-polluting travel”, be a high-profile ambassador, lobby for “third-party funding” and understand the “political, financial and commercial realities” of making changes to a “crowded road network”.

The job description has been substantially upgraded from a previous draft, offering a salary of £42,000 to £54,000 and based within Transport for London instead of City Hall and with no direct access to the Mayor. The new czar will now report to Val Shawcross, the deputy mayor for transport.

Mr Gilligan said cycling needed to have “its own voice at the top table” to overcome the “political and bureaucratic barriers to meaningful cycling improvements”.

He added: “I had direct access to the Mayor and I was not answerable to TfL — they were answerable to me. That is part of the reason why things got done, and it must be the test for the new post, too. I also think that if the post is going to be shared with walking it should be full-time.”

A spokesman for the Mayor said: “Sadiq has given his support for progressing with major cycling schemes, including Cycle Superhighway 11 and the new North-South Cycle Superhighway. Sadiq will work closely with the new walking and cycling commissioner to ensure he is the most pro-cycling Mayor yet.”

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