Waltham Forest ‘mini-Holland’ row: politics, protests and house prices

Boris Johnson's east London suburban cycling scheme is meeting strong opposition, though estate agents seem very keen on it

It was a lively scene outside Walthamstow Town Hall: hundreds of people, young and old, female and male of many faiths and ethnicities united in advance of a full council meeting against what they see as the heedless imposition of one of Boris Johnson's "mini-Holland" cycling infrastructure schemes. "Let's have justice not a dictatorship," read one placard. "We are not the silent minority, we are the vocal majority," a banner cried.

This is not how things were meant to be. When the Labour-run borough secured "full mini-Holland status" and 30m from Conservative-run City Hall in March 2014, Johnson declared himself "incredibly impressed" by the "thirst" of all the leading borough funding bidders "to transform themselves into better places for people." Clearly, a lot of people who live in Waltham Forest aren't seeing the changes in their streets in quite that way.