A CAMPAIGNER welcomed the announcement a cycle lane would be axed - calling on the council to stop "posturing" on tackling climate change and focus on sorting the city's recycling system.

Laura King, joined other activists in celebrating outside Hove Town Hall after the result of the vote which will see the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane scrapped.

She said: "Brighton and Hove is not solely responsible for climate change," and added that the vote to remove the cycle lane is the "first step of correcting things that need to be done".

"There are businesses in Kingsway that are dying because their parking and delivery spaces are being replaced with cycle lanes," she said.

Jeremy Horne, who lives along the road, also praised the decision, blasting the cycle lane as "diabolical".

He also claimed Green councillors have acted like children over the issue of the cycle lane, "throwing their toys out of the pram."

However, environmental activist Chris Williams said the decision will "cost the city lots of money and make our roads less safe."

He said: "We need a cycle network and that cannot happen without this lane."

Green councillor Amy Heley, chair of the environment, sustainability and transport committee, expressed disappointment and anger at the decision of the council.

She said: "Instead of working constructively to support making journeys by physically active means, such as cycling, Labour and the Tories have remained fixated on removing a lane already in use by communities.

"This will be to the detriment of young people cycling to school from September and some of the city’s poorest communities who have had safer, cheaper transport options snatched from them.

"Short-term decisions which will defund Brighton and Hove are deeply irresponsible.”

Labour councillor Gary Wilkinson hoped that the vote to scrap the cycle lane can bring closure and allow the city to come together to combat climate change.

"Labour is determined to promote active healthy communities as well as tackling climate change - that's why we declared a climate emergency and set up the city's first ever climate assembly based on transport.

"Residents must be the drivers of transport changes and their opinions must be respected. They have made their feelings clear and want this lane removed."

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