We're urging our supporters to respond to Westminster Council's consultation on its Cycling Strategy before the deadline on Monday 20 January.

At present, the strategy fails to provide a blueprint for improving the borough's inadequate cycling provision, so it's vital you respond calling for the council to prioritise cycling.

This strategy could shape the council's decisions on cycling provision for the next decade, affecting the journeys of hundreds of thousands of Londoners who cycle in the borough.

Below are our comments, and we urge you to respond to either the cycling@westminster.gov.uk email address or fill in the short Westminster Council survey (takes <5 mins).

You can read the comments from our local Westminster Cycling Campaign group here, and from Dr Rachel Aldred, chair of the LCC Policy Forum, here:

Responding to the consultation

- Westminster Council needs to start recognising that cycling is a solution to congested streets, not as part of the problem. Its policy to prioritise of private motor traffic when nearly two-thirds of its borough households don't own a car makes no sense, and stifles latent demand for cyciing.

- It's vital Westminster focuses on getting its core cycling network right, which means providing protected space on main roads and at major junctions, and removing through motor traffic and reducing traffic speeds on smaller roads.

- There must be a commitment to the borough's cycling provision meeting Transport for London's 2014 London Cycling Design Standards, defined in terms of coherence, directness, comfort, safety, attractiveness and adaptability.

- Westminster Council needs to move away from its policy of putting 'cycling last', and an attitude that cycling is something to facilitate only "where feasible". It must recognise there are solutions for all types of street, and that claiming central London is too "narrow" or "medieval" for good cycling provision isn't at all convincing when evidence from similar cities like Amsterdam shows that high-quality cycling provision is possible, even where space is limited.

- The delivery of 'quick wins' needs to be accelerated, such as making the many one-way streets in Westminster two-way for cycling.

- Westminster Council should define how it will measure the extent to which it becomes a "national leader" in cycling provision and reach a target of 7% cycing journeys, as proposed in its cycling strategy.