• I WAS intrigued to read in last week’s New Journal (Lack of transparency and questions over councillor’s new job, October 5) that Councillor Phil Jones has just got a job as a planning assistant with Turley Associates, the planning consultants for several controversial developments in Camden.

Being Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Transport and Planning certainly makes for a good CV.

Did Cllr Jones also have a conflict of interest regarding his unfailing support for cycle infrastructure interventions when he was the main decision-maker on whether they should go ahead or not?

The trial scheme along Tavistock Place removed a key westbound route in favour of wider cycle lanes. This arrived – unannounced to most local residents – in November 2015.

A website was established to promote the trial. On December 14, Cllr Jones tweeted his support for this “business campaign group”, albeit the website is called Safer Bloomsbury. Business campaign group is perhaps more accurate.

The route goes through the University of London Estate and the university is a business, as well as an esteemed institution.

A re-tweet by Cllr Jones three days later spells it out: “Work close to TaviPlace? We need employer/college support”.

In February 2017 it became an all-Cabinet decision, not simply the responsibility of Cllr Jones, and a public inquiry was announced.

This starts this week with Martin Elliott as the independent Inspector. The key supporters are those who were consulted in the first place, the objectors (local residents) all those who weren’t.

Cllr Jones would be one of the cyclists keen to make use of the Tavistock Place route, convenient for employees on their twice-daily ride to work and back. Lack of transparency and unanswered questions make one sceptical.

Many of us who live south of the Euston Road (and also cycle) witness the negative impact of the Tavistock / Torrington scheme on local residents’ daily lives, but it seems we are fighting ideology, inflexible council policy, influential landowners and politicians with their own agendas.

DEBBIE RADCLIFFE
Judd Street, WC1