Barnet Eye Campaign - Boris Bikes for Barnet

On Friday morning at 8.20 am I conducted a little poll. As I walked down New Bridge Street in Blackfriars from Fleet St to Bridewell Place, I thought I'd count how many lovely blue shiny new Boris bikes passed me going up the hill in the one minute the walk took. The answer - 2. A 50/50 mix of the sexes as well. I think the scheme is a fantastic idea. I spoke to a local Green on Saturday who grumbled about it, but the only rational reason I could spot for her moaning was that it was associated with Boris. I suspect her grumps "It's too expensive", "You don't get a helmet", "It's only in the city for the rich" would not have been mentioned had green GLA member Darren Johnson been the champion of the scheme rather than Boris.

Rather strangely, I think that often Tories are better at doing "Iconic statements" than the left. This blog has previously mentioned that the last Tory to run London, Horace Cutler, was the bloke who invented the London Marathon. At the time this was derided by the opposition. Sadly for Horace, it didn't become known as the Horaceathon. The Boris bike is most certainly part of brand Boris, even though the preparation for the scheme began under Ken Livingstone.

The question for me as a resident of Barnet is this. When can we expect to see Boris bikes here? I think it would be great to have a Boris Bike depot at Mill Hill Broadway train station. This would allow visitors from Central London to access the RAF museum at Hendon quickly and easily and would enhance a great day out. If First Capital Connect had any commercial acumen, they would immediately pay for a station and market it like mad to tourists. Given the number of great cafe's, restaurants and stores in Mill Hill, surely you don't have to be a genius to see the potential.

This blog is starting a campaign for Boris Bikes in Barnet. I have kicked it off by emailing all London GLA Tory members with the following questionaire :-
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Boris Bike - Survey of Conservative GLA members


This week saw the extremely successfull launch of the Boris Bike hire scheme. I am pleased to say that the scheme is popular with Londoners and looks likely to become a lasting monument to Boris's reign as mayor. I am emailing all Conservative GLA members to kindly ask if they could answer the following three questions. I will be publishing the results in the Barnet Eye blog. FYI - Whilst the blog is not generally supportive of Boris or the Conservative regime, we are fully behind this scheme. This is for a positive piece on the scheme, which will be suggesting it is rolled out in Barnet ASAP. A simple yes/no will suffice, of course a more detailed answer would be appreciated.

a) Have you used the Boris Bike scheme yet?
b) Do you intend to use the scheme in future?
c) Do you think the scheme is value for money?
d) Would you like to see the scheme rolled out in outer suburbs such as Barnet?

Please feel free to add any comment you feel appropriate.

Thank you

Roger Tichborne
The Barnet Eye
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I will post a blog detailing the responses later in the week. Our local GLA rep is Brian Coleman, he's also the Barnet Transport supremo.