My Lords, it is always a delight to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb. She did say that some of my noble friend’s amendments were quite tough but that she liked them. I think the Committee would agree that the noble Baroness is quite tough and we rather like her as well. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond on the initiative he has undertaken in tabling these important amendments. He is to be congratulated by all disabled people, fighting our corner—or narrow strip of pavement, as the case may be.
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I speak from 15 years’ practical experience of navigating my trusty chariot down pavements in this country and abroad. Reflecting on the work I have been doing with the Council of Europe, I have driven it in Paris, Strasbourg and St Petersburg—although I am banned from there now, not because of my pavement driving but because President Putin does not like me and some others. I have driven it in Baku in Azerbaijan, Ankara, Istanbul, Georgia, Belarus and, a couple of weeks ago, in Sofia in Bulgaria—monitoring the elections there—and various other countries. I can tell the Committee, in all honesty, that in the last two years, the pavements of this country, especially in London, have become infinitely more dangerous for pedestrians and disabled people than in any of those foreign countries I have been in. That has increased dramatically in the last two years.
I have added my name to my noble friend’s Amendments 455 to 458 because I share his concern that street furniture will make it extremely difficult for disabled people, especially wheelchair users, to get past inappropriately positioned tables and other items placed on the pavements by cafés and restaurants. Sometimes, while the café has positioned tables that allow pedestrians to pass, the users move more chairs round a table and block the pavement. At this moment, I could take noble Lords down Horseferry Road and they would see that the tables outside Pret A Manger, for example, permit the free passage of pedestrians. That is okay until half a dozen people from an office block pile out and move all the chairs around one table and block the pavement. They usually move when I ask them politely, so I can get past, but I have encountered occasions when some eastern European men are deeply resentful of having to move the chairs—and they were smoking some fairly vile cigarettes. Where is my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham with his portable cigarette fire extinguisher when I need him?
If it was just plastic chairs and tables blocking the pavement, it is an easy matter to move them aside. They should not block the pavement in the first place, but we can move them. However, I have another
concern: many restaurants and cafés put out big planters and flower boxes, partly to delineate their pavement space and make the environment more attractive to customers. There are places on Wilton Road, for example, that do that. One also puts out A-boards outside the planters on the edge of the dropped kerb. As a wheelchair user, one suddenly finds oneself dipping down at a potentially dangerous angle to get past. Now, it is no problem for me: I simply flatten their board and drive on, but it is a problem for others with less powerful wheelchairs.
The problem will increase: I looked at the 2020 Act and street furniture is not just tables and chairs but can include these big planters and trees in pots. Technically, they will have casters on the bottom so they can be moved, but they are impossible to move in most cases—and will not be moved. I also suggest that since these licences will be for up to two years, the majority of cafés and restaurants will invest in these planters, flower tubs and screens and the pavement will be permanently narrowed.
That will be compounded by most of these places offering takeaways. So we will find the narrowed gap cluttered with Deliveroo and Just Eat bikes, where the couriers simply do not give a damn about riding on the pavement and leaving their bikes on the pavement right outside the takeaway doors. That is not speculation on my part, I find it outside cafés and restaurants every time I go down Victoria Street.
Thus, it is vital that some amendment is made to Clause 210 to make it abundantly clear that every place getting one of these licences must leave space for people in wheelchairs and parents with child buggies to get through. Also, of course, there are those, such as my noble friend, with guide dogs who need the same width of space to get through. All of us demand the right to do it without hassle and without having to beg people to please move their chairs or tables out of the way.
My final point is this: I decided not to table an amendment on it but to make my rant in the course of these amendments. The Department for Transport must stop pandering to the e-bike and scooter thugs who ride on the pavement and dump their bikes on the pavement. Some of these big electric e-bikes are the same size and weight as motorcycle trail bikes—they are enormous. I congratulate Westminster Council on taking action and, I hope, purging our pavements of this despicable littering. I can tell the Committee that I am helping: every time I find an e-bike or scooter left on the pavement, I shove it over and use my chair to bulldoze it onto the road, where I hope it might be run over by a 30-tonne truck. I usually do about two a day, coming in or going home from this House, and I did one this morning coming here.
I wanted to make sure that I was behaving legally so, a few weeks ago, I asked the DfT a Written Parliamentary Question on what guidance it gives to pedestrians who encounter these illegal hazards on the pavement. The Minister replied as follows:
“The Department has published guidance for local authorities and e-scooter operators on the conduct of e-scooter trials. This makes clear that there will need to be sufficient parking provision in trial areas. Where a dockless operating model is being used,
local authorities should ensure that e-scooters do not become obstructive to other road users and pedestrians, particularly those with disabilities.
Pedestrians have the right to use the footway without undue hazards. Rule 70 of The Highway Code advises, but does not require, people to park their cycles where they will not cause an obstruction or hazard to other road users.”
I take that as a green light to assist councils to move these hazards off the pavement. I urge all disabled people to get a bit more militant and reclaim our pavements, in the same way that I urge motorists to reclaim our roads from the Just Stop Oil agitators. We do not glue ourselves to the road and we want the freedom to move. Wheelchair-bound people cannot get into 70,000 public buildings, which have not bothered installing ramps, and the equalities department, obsessed with gender, does not give a hang about it and will not change the law. Now we find the pavements barred to us as well, so let us take them back for genuine pedestrian users who have the right to move freely, unhindered by street furniture and mobile death hazards. Once again, I congratulate my noble friend on tabling his amendments, the noble Baroness opposite on speaking on her amendments, and everyone in this House who speaks up for disabled people.