With Mike Hakata’s sudden resignation in January (see his letter below), it hasn’t been quite the start of the year that we expected. Mike has been the Cabinet member for the Environment, Transport and Climate Action in Haringey for the last four years, and a local councillor for much longer. The news leaves a big black hole nearly as large as the one for cycling infrastructure in the borough. (Okay not quite as big as that obviously, that would be ridiculous, but you get the idea!)
Mike has been an inspiration to so many of us – as residents and campaigners he’s made us feel that someone in power is listening, which is very important when you’re putting a lot of energy into getting your message across. If you’re shouting into an abyss, you can feel like giving up.
He cycled everywhere, joined us on group rides, and made impassioned speeches. In fact, during one of his speeches at a Friends of the Earth rally, everyone around me was so moved they were crying. (His words were hand-written on A4 paper, which seemed to add to the effect). It was good to know that someone with Mike’s powers of persuasion was sitting at the top table of the council, as it were.
In his resignation letter, he wrote: “Representing one of London’s most vibrant communities has been the privilege of my life”. He also outlined the change that has taken place since he’s been in the role – the borough has gone from having 2 to 36 School Streets, and the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, he says, “serve 55,000 residents with traffic reduction”.
Not that much is written about the importance of having both residents and politicians who are on the same page at the same time, but it can help with bringing about change. If people are emailing their local councillors across the borough and saying “I need a safe route to cycle to work”, and a cabinet member is saying “I think we need a safe route for cycling through the borough”, it’s probably more likely to happen.
Our interest was piqued with a couple of lines from Mike’s letter: “We’ve developed designs for a network of high-quality cycle lanes … The groundwork is there for whoever chooses to build on it”. Well how interesting!
So what next? With local elections coming up, we want to encourage the leaders of all parties standing in Haringey to include in their manifesto that they’ll create a safe, connected cycle network here. Our aim is to make sure we see these plans (or a version of them) become reality.
This is a reproduction of an opinion piece Carla wrote for the Ham and High. You can read the original here.
As a first port of call, now is a good time to email your local ward councillors and let them know how important a safe route for cycling is for you:
- Where do you cycle in the borough? What are the main routes you take, and why you think you need safe routes?
- Are there any particular spots that you consider most dangerous or that you think most need attention?
- Ask your ward councillors if building a safe, connected cycle network will be in their party’s manifesto. Tell them this could influence how you are going to vote.
Even brief messages really can influence things – it’s important your ward councillors understand how important having safe routes for cycling is for you.
WRITE TO YOUR LOCAL COUNCILLORS TODAY!
Here is Mike’s resignation letter in full:
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