It’s been a busy few months at the Haringey Cycling Campaign in the run up to the local elections that took place in early May. We wanted to make sure candidates from all the main parties knew that ambitious plans for walking and cycling were a real vote-winner, and encourage them to pledge to do as much as possible before residents went to the polls. The big question was, would all three parties commit to one simple ask from LCC: to build a safe, connected cycling network by 2030?
The process of encouraging them to do so included careful negotiations and diplomacy, and applying a certain amount of pressure at the right moments – “turning the screw,” as it were. After a big leaflet effort, emails and meetings, it was an in-person event that really seemed to hit things home for certain councillors.
Why we need to “turn the screw”
It feels like a pivotal time for Haringey, and over the last four years, there’s been a mix of some good results, and some disappointments too. Before the previous elections in 2022, Mike Hakata was the cabinet member for Climate Action, Environment & Transport. On behalf of Haringey Labour back then, Mike pledged to complete: “a North/South route along Green Lanes with the aim of running from Enfield to Hackney. The first stage of this work is fully funded and will focus on the Turnpike Lane to Finsbury Park section.”. This sounded really positive to us.
In those elections, Haringey Labour won 50 of the 57 seats, Mike was re-elected in his seat and held his cabinet position, and the council started off promisingly. Haringey’s ten year Walking and Cycling Action Plan (WCAP) was adopted in March 2022, which included information that £400,000 was approved for protected cycle lanes on Green Lanes, between Finsbury Park and Wood Green. The money was coming from TfL and the Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy. It was projected that the scheme would be completed in 2-3 years (so by March 2025).
The council also got on with implementing three low traffic neighbourhood trials which all became permanent, making 40 miles of residential roads safer for cycling, and “serving 55,000 residents with traffic-reduction” as Mike later said.
But despite this, there was then no progress on Green Lanes as the years slipped by. We all wondered what on earth was going on. Then Mike Hakata resigned in January 2026, and in his letter said: “We’ve developed designs for a network of high-quality cycle lanes… The groundwork is there for whoever chooses to build on it”.
Jon Stone then said in this video that “Haringey recently got cash from TFL to develop its own cycle lanes on its bit of Green Lanes”, but “my understanding is that there are now designs for this, but that they are sitting in a desk drawer in Haringey town hall”. We didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed some blocking of the plans had occurred.
Obviously we’re *quite* keen for those plans to get out of a drawer and into action – they are life-saving plans, quite frankly, which is why this election felt so crucial to us.
Engaging with candidates
We have a very active group here at HCC, with over 500 members that receive our emails and join our rides, and 92 members on our busy whatsapp group. We also have monthly meetings that either take place online or in person. From last autumn onwards, we invited representatives from each party to come and talk to us about their ideas, and hear from our members.
Cllr Scott Emery from the Lib Dems came to talk to us on 7 Oct 2025. He told us about how he cycles 10 miles a day, commuting to work and back in Barnet. He also mentioned how he’d had some advanced commuter lessons from me (Ben) several years ago – Bikeability level 3, including how to negotiate roundabouts and multi-lane roads and so on.
Green Party Councillor Ruairidh Paton was elected in St Ann’s ward in a by-election back in April 2025, becoming Haringey’s first Green Councillor. He joined us at our January 2026 meeting. He told us how he used to cycle a lot during his childhood – he grew up in Germany, but how he doesn’t cycle in London – because he doesn’t feel safe. We could relate to that! He emphasised that cycling should not require bravery; if it does, it fails as transport.
Labour Cllr Ibrahim Ali replaced Mike Hakata as the Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Environment this year in January. He came along to a site visit we organised jointly with our sister LCC groups from Islington and Hackney at the dangerous junction on Seven Sisters Rd, on the proposed Cycleway 50 route near Finsbury Park station – his counterparts at Islington and Hackney councils came along too, so it was good to talk then.
He was also invited to one of our monthly meetings. He didn’t take us up on the offer, but had been responsive to messages, and we hoped we would cross paths again at a future date.
Our members pored over the different manifestos and the local leaflets they got through their letterboxes, and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each party on our whatsapp group, depending on their ward and candidates.
Encouraging pledges and flyering locals
London Cycling Campaign (LCC) had encouraged its members across the capital to ask their local party leaders to commit to one simple ask: to build a safe, connected cycling network by 2030.
We reached out to all parties as HCC, and asked people cycling across Haringey to email party leaders using the LCC system. We got over 1,000 flyers delivered, and our members got up at the crack of dawn over four or five different days, to give them out at schools and at traffic lights on busy cycle routes.
As a result of this and our emails to members, over 100 people in the borough emailed all the local party leaders using LCC’s system – and in this regard we were the second most active borough in the campaign across London. Many more of our members wrote directly to different candidates and councillors also.
The Green party were the first to sign up to the LCC pledge, on 8 April.
When they pledged, they also emailed us at HCC HQ with more details of their plans. Here is the text in full:
From Ruairidh Paton, Green Party
“Pledge: I’m writing on behalf of Haringey Green Party to affirm our commitments to making cycling safe in Haringey. We share your ambition for Haringey to be a place where cycling is safe, convenient and accessible to everyone.
Too many of our streets are dominated by motor traffic, despite the fact that the majority of households in Haringey do not own a car, and are often the people most reliant on greener, more affordable forms of transport. For us, active travel, and the cycling in particular, is an issue of inequality and a means to tackle the cost of living crisis to many of us face in the borough.
Expanding high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure is essential if we are to support healthier lives, reduce pollution, and provide affordable transport options for residents. Haringey Green Party is fully committed to delivering a safe, connected cycle network across the borough through delivering on Haringey’s Walking and Cycling plan in full. This includes progress on key corridors including Green Lanes, Seven Sisters Rd, Tottenham High Road, and routes connecting Wood Green, Tottenham Hale, Crouch End, Muswell Hill and the Lea Valley. These corridors are critical to creating a coherent borough-wide network.
We are also committed to delivering other aspects of the plan, including improving junction safety, delivering low-traffic neighbourhoods, and improving links with schools, parks, stations and town centres.
Unfortunately, Haringey has not kept pace with our neighbouring boroughs in delivering protected cycle infrastructure. We are determined to change this. Working in partnership with TfL and the Haringey Transport Forum (as well as community groups and campaigns like yourselves), we will prioritise delivery of the WACP in full.
Safer streets for everyone is central to our wider priorities – tackling the cost of living crisis and climate crisis. A well connected cycle network ensures sustainable and affordable travel is an option for everyone.
We look forward to working with you to deliver on these plans in full”.
At this time, the Lib Dems and Labour were yet to pledge, and we were very keen to encourage them to do so.
A moving hustings event that changed everything.
Together with local Haringey groups including Living Streets, Friends of the Earth, Mums for Lungs, and the London groups Possible and London Healthy Air Coalition, we also organised a hustings on active travel and clean air. It was to take place in a local school hall on 22 April, two weeks before polling day. We were delighted that candidates from all three main parties accepted – Green Party Cllr Ruairidh Paton, Lib Dem Cllr Luke Cawley-Harrison, and Labour Cllr Ibrahim Ali. All the hundred tickets available were snapped up in advance.
On the night, the pressure was on. All three Councillors arrived, but ten minutes before the start, only a few people were in the audience, and I worried those on the stage would be talking to an almost empty room. Then suddenly, dozens of people poured through the doors in the last few minutes, and North Harringay Primary hall quickly filled up. There wasn’t a single spare chair – latecomers sat on gym benches.
Passionate locals across the borough came out on a chilly Wednesday evening to speak – with real feeling – about the change they wanted to see. In real time, I could sense a shift in some of the panellists, and by the end of the night, both the Lib Dem and Labour Councillors made positive noises about the LCC pledge that the Green Party had already signed.
You can watch the video recording of the hustings here.
Careful negotiations and progress on pledges
Five days before polling, the Lib Dems agreed to pledge with a ‘subject to funding’ caveat. Along with pledging, they emailed us with the following message:
From: Luke Cawley-Harrison , Liberal Democrats
“Pledge: We are committed to working to complete the core cycling network TfL has identified as vital for Haringey by 2030, subject to TfL providing sufficient funding”.
Then, after some back-and-forth, Labour pledged just two days before polling – though only committing to begin works by 2030, rather than completing them.
To accompany their pledge, they included the following:
From: Councillor Ibrahim Ali, Labour Party
“Pledge: Since 2022, Haringey has brought 63.6km of road in the borough under the protection of low-traffic neighbourhoods – making these residential roads much safer to cycle on. On main roads, Haringey has installed wand-segregated cycle lanes on Bounds Green Road and Station Road in Wood Green, on Phillip Lane in Tottenham and on several others in the borough. This is just the start.
We want a cycling infrastructure network in Haringey that allows our residents to travel by bike on main roads, in either a safe segregated cycle lane or a bus lane, for the entirety of their journey. We will of course need sustained TfL funding into the future to deliver this.
We have committed in Haringey Labour’s 2026 manifesto to invest in safe segregated cycle lanes on dangerous main roads in the borough. We will work hard to ensure that works are underway on the cycle routes identified by Transport for London by 2030, subject to funding. We’ll set out more detailed plans for these roads in our Streets for People Investment Plan for 2026-2031, set to be published later this year”.
We were pleased to get all parties to pledge something before the election. We had also worked hard and felt like we’d impressed upon candidates the importance of these issues, and had built good relationships with them too. But we were interested to see what the results would show.
Historic election results for Haringey
In the elections on 7th May this year, the Green Party won 28 seats, Labour 21, and the Lib Dems 8, and all three of the hustings candidates were re-elected. Two by-elections will soon take place, but at the time of writing, there’s no overall majority. The new council – whatever shape it settles into – has the rare luxury of acting on something that ALL the parties have committed to. We’d be delighted to see parties from right across the chamber take the issue of safe cycling routes up together.
This is only the beginning of our next chapter of work, but we feel we have a good start. We have positive relationships with councillors, and feel genuinely hopeful that change could finally be on its way. (Although we have learnt better than to get our hopes up too high). But I don’t think the passion in that room in North Harringay Primary School in April will leave the councillors in a hurry. It certainly won’t leave me.
Links:
Carla Checking in on Green Lanes – KSIs and safety