Blind and disabled campaigners have staged a protest at Hackney Town Hall over plans for “floating bus stops” on Queensbridge Road, warning the designs could put visually impaired bus passengers in danger.
The campaigners gathered outside the town hall on Wednesday 16 September to oppose bus stop bypasses proposed as part of a traffic scheme for the east London road. Under the plans, new cycle lanes would run between the pavement and the bus stops, meaning passengers would have to cross an active cycle lane to board or alight.
John Thornton, a wheelchair user from Dalston who is visually impaired, told the protest the design could put people like him in mortal danger. “Two and a half metres from the bus is a fast-moving cycle lane,” he said, adding that riders on e-bikes and scooters do not stop. He told the council he would go on hunger strike until it changed course.
Sarah Leadbetter, who is also visually impaired, said she cannot see or hear bikes as they ride through a stop, “so there is no way to know when it is safe to cross”. Sarah Gayton, of the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, described the bypasses as “Russian Roulette” and said disabled people were being “designed out” of London. Some blind people, she said, now rely on taxis or have stopped going to pubs and social events.
Row over consultation
Mr Thornton criticised the way the council has consulted on the scheme. He said that, unlike on past projects, the council held no accessible consultation event for blind and partially sighted residents or other disabled people, and claimed 70 per cent of disabled people had rejected the overall plans for the road last year.
He also accused Zoë Garbett, the Mayor of Hackney, of going back on two pledges — on putting disabled access first and on better council consultations.
Hackney Council’s first consultation on Queensbridge Road ran from 27 October to 30 November 2025, covering new cycle lanes, traffic-calming measures and the removal of 33 car parking spaces. A later version of the scheme added the bus stop bypasses, and was signed off in July 2026 — a step campaigners say went beyond what was originally consulted on.
Council: “no decision has been made”
The council insists the scheme is not a done deal. Cllr Jacob Cable, its cabinet member for transport, said the changes were still at proposal stage and that no decision had been made. A 21-day statutory consultation opened on Friday 18 September, he said, and the council has a legal duty to consider formal objections and respond to them. He said he had met Mr Thornton and would arrange a meeting between him and council officers while the consultation runs.
To help blind and disabled people cross, the updated designs rely on warning signs triggered by cycle speed, distinctive paving at each bypass, raised kerb edges and tactile strips set into the footway. The council’s consultation report says the stops fall within Department for Transport volume guidelines for traffic on the road.
Floating bus stops have become one of the most contested issues in London street design. The government has issued updated statutory guidance on their use, including schemes already in place, amid accessibility concerns — but disability groups say only designs where buses pull up directly to the kerb are safe.
Residents can still formally object to the Queensbridge Road plans through the council’s statutory consultation.
Reporting based on coverage by How2London and the East London Times, and Hackney Council’s Queensbridge Road consultation records.
