Cycling is supposed to help people live healthier lives and GPs across the country will soon be prescribing cycling to combat obesity.

But the cycle lane at Old Shoreham Road is having the opposite effect and putting people’s health and lives at risk.

Cars are backed up and stationary for miles along Old Shoreham Road at peak time particularly around the entrance to the Hove Recycling Centre where cars crawl along waiting for access which will become a lot worse when the schools go back.

The result must surely be more pollution and fumes from the tail back of cars.

In the still air in the heat of summer this presents a real health risk to residents - particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic which is essentially a respiratory disease.  The research shows that pollution is a danger factor at this time.

So by reducing the capacity of Old Shoreham Road by 50% - and as already mentioned with no notice or consultation with councillors or residents - Labour and the Greens have created an environmental hazard in my ward of Hangleton & Knoll.

Last week new statistics released by Friends of the Earth showed that Brighton recorded the third worst result in the country for Nitrogen Dioxide pollution out of 1300 sites, coming in at more than double the Government’s annual air quality objective.

This is an indictment on the Labour and Green Administration’s transport and environment policies.

Since 2011 we have had nearly 10 years of Green, Labour and now Green are back in again in administration.  To record the third worst pollution rate is shameful indictment of their record after 10 years in office.  It shows that transport policies from Labour and the Greens are creating more pollution and not less.

The City’s transport policy should be about improving traffic flow and cutting pollution and emissions.  We need a balanced and interconnected transport policy.

That is why the Conservatives are calling for an urgent impact assessment on the Temporary Cycle Lanes.

The health of our residents must come first.

As a lot of you already know I am an avid cyclist myself and I support cycles lanes.

But I cannot support this cycle lane which causes pollution and puts people’s health at risk during a pandemic.

Converting a 4 lane arterial road into 2 lanes, reducing road capacity by 50% has not worked and I call for the road to revert to its previous state before more lives are put at risk.

Thank you.