Councillors paid to get on their bikes

3:30pm Thursday 7th August 2008

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VOTERS have been telling politicians to get on their bike for years. But now city officials are paying York’s councillors to do just that.

Nine members of City of York Council are being paid a monthly allowance of £9.14 to leave their car at home and get around on two wheels instead of four.

Councillors can claim the allowance if they turn down a car parking permit, which gives free parking when on council business.

Of the 47 councillors, 35 take the parking permit, while nine currently opt for the cycling allowance instead – but that group does not include the council’s official cycling champion Joe Watt.

Councillor Watt today said he cycled the two miles to and from work each day, whatever the weather, and also regularly cycled from his home in Skelton to and from Guildhall for council meetings.

He said: “I do have the free car-park pass, because I think everyone is entitled to use their car when they so wish. But I would certainly encourage everyone who can to cycle to work and even councillors to use their bike more often.

“I think they should lead by example and it’s also an education for them to see the problems faced by cyclists.

“When you are on a bike going through York you can become anti-motorist or even anti-pedestrian. It’s a strange phenomenon and we should all experience that. Also, the more cyclists use the road, the more motorists will take notice of them.”

The nine councillors who take the cycling allowance instead of the parking permit are Greens: Andy D’Agorne and Dave Taylor; council leader Andrew Waller and his Liberal Democrat colleague Ceredig Jamieson-Ball; and Labour councillors Janet Looker, Dave Merrett, Tracey Simpson-Laing, Denise Bowgett and Roger Pierce.

The three who claimed neither the permit nor the bike allowance were Ruth Potter, Jonathan Morley and Paul Healy.

Coun Healy, who represents rural west York but lives in the city centre, said: “I do have a bike and I could claim it, but because I live so close to the council I can walk there almost as quickly.

“I do not have a car, because it got stolen in Leeds. I thought about the economics of the situation and my carbon footprint and decided I did not really need a car.”

In 2007/8 the cycling allowance cost the public purse £1,109.