If Paris can be a cycling city, so can London

Say what you like about the French, but when they decide to go for something as a community they really do go for it. Take cycling for example. When I left Paris in 2004, after six years of living and working there, cycle lanes were unheard of. Even last year there were none to speak of. Yet almost overnight they have sprouted up everywhere in the French capital. Every road seems to have a properly separated two-way cycle lane.

Contrast that with London where cycle lanes are usually part of the main traffic flow and often disappear altogether for no reason. London's cyclists struggle to negotiate parked cars, buses and speed bumps, and they can be fined hundreds of pounds for cycling in parks. We want to encourage people to cycle more because of the environmental and health benefits, but we make it so difficult and dangerous for them to do so.

In Belsize parents often tell me they would let their children cycle to school if only it wasn't so dangerous. That's why I'll be pushing for a big increase in proper cycle lanes throughout Camden over the next four years.

Recycling bins I have known and loved

Ho, ho! My recent posting on the need for more attractive recycling bins (like the French ones above) made it into the Guardian diary this week:

www.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,,1992724,00.html

So, for the benefit of the Guardian, here's a photo of those Swiss bins. If you look carefully you can just about see the "dashing", "passionate", "young" blogger of the Belsize Lib Dems rhapsodising over the joys confronting your average Swiss recycler!

It's true I believe PASSIONATELY that recycling bins can and should be attractive pieces of street furniture as they are in Switzerland and elsewhere on the continent. All too often we in the UK are fobbed off with bins that are ugly to look at, revolting to use and hard to feel proud of.

I also believe PASSIONATELY that most of the recycling done in this country has little environmental value. Councils have been forced to think in tonnage by the government rather than energy consumed. That's why we in Camden are about to embark on a comprehensive audit of all our recycling practices - to work out what makes sense in environmental terms, what might make sense as recycling markets become more sophisticated and local, and what will never make sense.