Ealing Council Leader, Peter Mason, went on an impassioned defence on Twitter of the council's public consultations around cycle storage in the borough. 

Last week Ealing Council launched a consultation to ask for the public's help over where bike hangars would be most useful for those wish to store their bicycles, Ealing Council plans to install 50 in the next year and 150 by 2026. 

Amid criticism of the council's decision not to use their mandate to press forward with their manifesto plan to install these, Mason swiftly launched to the defence of the decision on Twitter. 

Mario Arundel said on Twitter in response to the announcement: "Why so few and why not put them where your waiting list say we want them. You're killing us with consultations rather than taking active travel action." 

Ali Mullaley added: "Emergencies require quick & decisive leadership & action. Endless consultations about the smallest things are at complete odds with that- whichever way you spin it." 

Mason responded to Mullaley by saying: "'If they agree with you, they'll expect you to be a dictator. When they don't they'll call you a tyrant.' 

"You can't build harmonious & sustainable communities if you can't take people with you.  

"We said we'd be open, inclusive & transparent. That's exactly what we're doing." 

Amid continued criticism from various residents other the speed of the council's action on their transport plans, the Council Leader continued in his defence of continued involvement of residents' voices. 

He said: "The thing about interventions are that they tend to need to be defensible on the basis of evaluation. 

"Which you can't really do without an actual hypothesis, baseline, controls and measurements. 

"Drawling lines on a map and praying they'll work doesn't cut it. 

"When you design interventions (based on data that tells you where you need to focus) you need to be able to evaluate them. 

"Traffic counts, sentiment, and behavioural, diffusion tubes etc. etc. are all part of that... And we have set out our priorities for 2022/23. 

"That's pretty much what the LIP Transport Plan consultation was about Andy [Hillier]. To set out the principles and intervention we'll make. 

"I seem to recall it was pilloried, by you and others. Once the evaluation is done, the submissions will be published and sent to TfL for next year."