Clause 40 - Extension of powers of community
Anti-social Behaviour Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
Good afternoon, Mr. O'Brien. This group of amendments address a matter that we take very seriously.
I had the benefit of a discussion with some of my colleagues during the time since the Committee rose. I do not wish to break the sanctity of the Commons Tea Room, so I shall not name the colleagues with whom I was discussing these matters. A colleague was making observations about the abuse that cyclists in central London make of traffic lights. We proceeded to the subject of how another colleague had given up cycling to and from the Palace of Westminster because he had been knocked off his bike three times in recent weeks. We then discussed the menace that so many of our
constituents suffer, particularly the elderly, from the misuse of skateboards, in-line skates and roller skates. None of us wants to be a killjoy. I am the first to recognise that it has been of great benefit when a number of local authorities, including in my own area, have built skateboard parks. Skateboards were a fad for a time, then seemed to go out of, and certainly come back into, fashion. If one has teenage children, as I have, then one is aware that many of the rock and pop videos that go with pop songs have not only pictures of young people using skateboards—here, in America and in many other countries all over the world—but promote the use of skateboards by young people as part of the pop and rock culture.
There is no doubt that there is a place for the responsible use of skateboards. Indeed in the recent local government elections, when I was canvassing in one of the housing estates on the outskirts of Camberley, which is the main town in my constituency, I was chatting to a group of young people about skateboards and the provision that there would be for new skateboard parks. They were articulate, sensible and intelligent teenagers with a point of view. I am sure that they were not the groups of youths who terrorise particularly elderly pedestrians by using skateboards inappropriately.
Given that the Government are rightly taking powers relating to cycles, we thought that it would be sensible to have a debate about whether one could make the legislation even more helpful in looking after the interests of elderly, or indeed any, pedestrians, by giving powers for similar provisions to be used when people are misusing skateboards, roller skates or in-line skates. I hope that the Minister will accept that this is a genuine attempt to improve the Bill and provide more flexible powers.
Furthermore, I have personally observed that the behaviour of cyclists has undoubtedly changed in my adult lifetime as a driver, not only in London but in towns and cities around the country. When I first learned to drive at the age of 17 the vast majority of cyclists using the road used to obey traffic lights. It was not a common practice to see lines of cars coming to a halt at traffic lights and cyclists charging through the red lights as if they did not apply to them. Now, I suspect that it is the common observation of any Member of the Committee and any citizen of London. Particularly in London, but also other towns and cities, many cyclists, both young and mature, seem to have it in their heads that red traffic lights do not apply to them. A great many accidents—