Such derogatory remarks have no place in a civilised society: Councillor slammed for branding cycling campaigners the Active Travel Taliban and for spreading unwarranted misinformation about bike lane scheme [Video]

The Labour leader of Wirral Council has hit back at a Conservative member of the local authority who claimed that the “Active Travel Taliban” is behind plans to introduce a new continuous cycle lane in the borough against residents’ wishes, and that the project is a “monumental waste of taxes” – as the Labour councillor accused his Tory counterpart of “spreading unwarranted misinformation” about the plans and argued that “such derogatory remarks have no place in a civilised society”.

Last week, Wirral Council Conservative leader Jeff Green branded the Labour-run local authority’s plans for a protected cycle lane connecting Birkenhead and Liscard, which will be discussed this week in a meeting of the council’s environment and transport committee, as “bonkers” and claimed “there is no desire” for the active travel infrastructure in areas it will pass through.

The proposed 3.5-mile new cycle lane, which forms phase one of a wider active travel project hoping to link …