L OBBY N EWS R OUND U P

emily Rochester, BmF Government Relations executive

As you may have seen in the Autumn issue of Motorcycle Rider, I am now the BMF’s fulltime Government Relations Executive. I have been learning a lot from Anna Zee, and we are excited for the year ahead! One topic sure to keep us busy this year (and beyond) is decarbonisation –we are still waiting for a government response following last year’s consultation, to which we responded. At the MCIA conference Jesse Norman, Minister of State for Decarbonisation and Technology, stated that the response will be published “in due course.” The Government seems set on the phase-out dates proposed in the consultation, and we will continue to engage with them on this.

We also took part in the first meeting of the Motorcycle Strategy Group. Chaired by Mark Winn from the DVSA, this covered potential changes to training for motorcycle instructors and also CBT and licensing changes. Due to uncertainty about what EU legislation might be retained, we do not yet know how long this might take. The Road Safety Strategic Framework, which has been delayed but is now expected, was also discussed.

The expansion of London’s ULEZ seems to be going ahead despite a lot of pushback. Some London boroughs seem to be trying to block it by refusing to allow the installation of ANPR cameras – TfL are confident that the boroughs will come into line, to prevent drivers using their roads to avoid the charge. We have lobbied for exemption for motorcycles, and will continue to do so – this seems a no-brainer given that many other clean air zones and similar schemes do not charge motorcycles.

It seems that every week, local authorities are introducing charges for drivers and motorcyclists. We are still working alongside the NMC and the SaveLondonMotorcycling (Twitter) group on the Hackney parking charges, and submitted our response to the Greater Cambridge Partnership regarding their £5 a day Sustainable Travel Zone proposal. We await their response.

Speaking of local authorities, we are always campaigning for bikes in bus lanes and this year we are hoping to provide better resources to help our reps to tackle this at a local level. We would like to thank all of our new and existing reps – if you are interested in getting involved, please get in touch!