Hello all,

As our weather has improved locally I got myself out to the Hayling Island bike meet to try and up the number of petitions supporters. We are currently sitting with supporters just over 300 but now the weather is improving I intend to get myself about with a target of 1000 signatures in mind, which I think will show the folks at PCC that there is significant support for a rethink on thier plans. I met up with our long standing Hayling Bike meet our long standing steward Colin (with the checkered flag) and I believe he has now put up my petition on his Facebook page so I'm hoping that this gets other bikers thinking about what's going on. Just use the QR code and it will bring you to the right place. 

I'm also aware that MAG (Motorcycle Action Group) have been trying to push this aspect of bus lane access at a National level but I fear that following the election this may not progress as well as I personally hoped. 

I think as well as the signatures target I'm going to put together a FOI (Freedom of Information) request to PCC. As I mentioned earlier in my updates they seem to have gone very quiet since I challenged their reasoning in thier responses last year, so I think something a bit more official would get a few more answers. I'm particularly interested in their justification about likely not consulting the community about who would be able to use the bus lanes as the governement advice is to do so before making these kind of decisions. In addition I'm going to try to get some figures on how many fines they are issuing , particulalry to bikers of course. I'm also going to ask for any council minutes from meetings where the buslane access was discussed.   

So just to remind everyone the salient points to my mind are as follows:

1. Why did PCC not follow UK government guidelines in implementing the bus lanes.
2. Why are PCC council not taking a safety first approach for Portsmouth city. (again this is mentioned in the Government guidelines).
3. Could a minority (Lib Dem) council not being challenged strongly by the remaining majority of councillors. Currently Lib Dems make up 17 of 42 councillor positions with previously mentioned Cllr Candlish both in charge of the bus lanes and he leads the Lib Dem councillors. Sadly, the May elections were postponed as there are bigger things a foot in our area which I'm sure most know about regarding the amalgamation of various councils and this includes Portsmouth, but for now we are stuck with the incumbents. I realise that a coup concerning this subject is highly unlikely but where uncertainty exists so does opportunity. 
4. Why have private hire taxis been given access to the bus lanes, not a safety concern surely , in fact some would say, just the contrary. 
5. After communication I have thus far, I believe we seem to have a certain amount of prejudice in play, which means logic doesn't play a big part in proceedings but lets see how things go with the FOI , which will bring more facts into play. 

I'd just like to end this update by reminding anyone that feels as strongly as I do about all this are welcome to email Cllr Candlish expressing your thoughts. This is particularly powerful if you are a Portsmouth resident, as you will be then a council tax payer and most importantly a voter. If anyone does that then I'd be happy to add that to this site with your permision of course as he should be duty bound to reply to you.