MSP faces backlash after claiming school bike bus pupils are being used to make cycle lanes look popular
| Author | Donald Turvill |
| Published date | 28 June 2022 |
| Publication title | EdinburghLive (Scotland) |
But at a council meeting in 2020, the former Edinburgh councillor praised a group cycle to school initiative at James Gillespie's Primary as a "fantastic opportunity" and supported a motion to 'support and enable bike buses.'
Lesley Macinnes, SNP spokesperson for transport on Edinburgh City Council, said her change in tone on the subject "represents significant hypocrisy."
Councillor Macinnes, who oversaw the implementation of temporary bike lanes in the last term as part of the Spaces for People programme, since renamed Travelling Safely, added Ms Webber's comments were "weaponising volunteer-driven initiatives."
However, Ms Webber argued she was raising "legitimate concerns of parents that children were being used as part of a highly-politicised campaign."
Writing in the Edinburgh Evening News, the Tory MSP for Lothian, previously a ward councillor for Pentland Hills, said local residents had noticed an increase in people cycling along Lanark Road on "one of the most contentious schemes" over the last week.
In an article published on Monday, June 27, she wrote: "Until very recently, householders along the route have seen very few, if any, young people cycling up the long, steep hill.
"But then a leafleting campaign was organised ─ by the same people who organised the "Critical Mass" cycle lane protest this time last year ─ to encourage parents and children to join a "bike bus" from the bottom of Lanark Road to Juniper Green Primary."
She said a "genuine attempt to boost cycling numbers" would have set-off from Baberton Mains "where there are more pupils and greater potential to boost safe cycling to school."
The MSP added it looked like "an attempt to prove the coned-off lanes are popular" by starting from "the most distant part of the catchment area with far fewer children."
She said: "There is something deeply distasteful in exploiting children in this way."
But some were quick to point out her remarks are in stark contrast to opinions voiced about James Gillespie's bike bus two years ago when she was still a councillor.
Primary pupils visited the City Chambers in February 2020 to tell the transport committee the new initiative had been a success. Bike bus organiser Ewan Mclean, who accompanied youngsters to the meeting, urged councillors to support school bike buses being...
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