Jim Fitzpatrick MP lies in Parliament

This is disappointing to have to write, but I fear it must be done. Last week Jim Fitzpatrick, MP for Poplar and Limehouse, stood up in Parliament and said of plans to put a segregated track along the Embankment that, "TfL plans to prevent 80% of that traffic using the road". This is a complete lie. The plans are widely available online (TfL have been paying money to advertise them even on Facebook!), and they clearly show that only 1 lane of motor traffic is going to removed from the Embankment. That is not "80% of the traffic".

Fitzpatrick then went further, claiming that only "9% of traffic on the Embankment is private cars", when TfL's data shows that the actual figure is a whooping 69%. This is a big mistake for someone who has previously worked as both Parliamentary Under-Secretary and Shadow Minister for Transport. Given his prior experience in the Transport department we can only put the wild inaccuracy of his comments down to deliberate lying.

Jim Fitzpatrick MP

And why would a man deliberately lie in this instance? Well, it's not hard to find an answer:

Jim Fitzpatrick on a free holiday courtesy of Canary Wharf Group. Thanks to @peterjuan23four on Twitter for finding this.

Jim Fitzpatrick has had free holidays (and perhaps free gifts and money?) from Canary Wharf Plc, an organisation which has admitted to spending large amounts of cash privately briefing against Boris Johnson's segregated cycle programme. So when it comes to crunch-time he gets up in Parliament and sings blatant and obvious lies from Canary Wharf's hymn sheet. Despicable.

He's as bad as Peter Anderson.

Anti-cycling Canary Wharf Finance Director also on TfL Board and chairing crucial meeting on Cycle Superhighways funding

It was recently discovered by Danny Williams, the author of the excellent Cyclists in the City blog, that Peter Anderson (pictured below) the Finance Director of Canary Wharf Plc is also Chair of Finance and Policy at TfL. This is an issue because Canary Wharf Plc have admitted privately briefing against the segregated cycle lane programme and even sending paid lobbyists to all the recent party conferences with an briefing sheet full of falsehoods, lies, and plain rubbish designed to make politicians oppose TfL's revolutionary new plans.

Peter Anderson: anti-cycling and anti-people. Using his position at TfL to implement policies favouring Canary Wharf executives who will only travel to work in a limo.

On November 25th this same Peter Anderson is currently due to chair a meeting at TfL at which it will be decided whether the segregated cycle-highways programme is given funding! Peter Anderson is in this privileged position as part of being Chair of TfL's Finance and Policy Committee. Given Canary Wharf's incessant briefings against TfL's cycling programme (see this document) there is a clear conflict of interest here and Peter Anderson should be removed from his position at TfL immediately.

It is understood that TfL are seeking legal advice on the issue. However, it is disappointing that they have not sacked him immediately. We can but hope.