Green mayoral candidate suggests cycle-only Southwark Bridge

Jenny Jones, who has been a member of the London Assembly since the Greater London Authority was created 11 years ago, has also served a four-year term as a Southwark councillor.

She has taken an outspoken view on many SE1 matters, including the Founder's Place development in Waterloo, the Potters Fields coach park scheme next to City Hall and the regeneration of Elephant & Castle.

Most recently she has suggested that Southwark Bridge be designated as a cycle-only bridge, and has tabled an official question to Boris Johnson asking him to consider the idea.

"Next to the pedestrian Millennium Bridge, it would symbolise London as being a genuinely cycle-friendly city," she said.

The current mayor's written response to the suggestion will be published by City Hall early next week.

Jones won two-thirds of the vote in a ballot of Green Party members in London to choose a mayoral candidate.

"At this time of savage cuts to essential services, London needs a mayor who will create a fairer city and reduce the gap between rich and poor," said Jenny Jones on Sunday.

"These are hard times for people who care about quality services, local businesses, and protecting the most vulnerable members of our communities. I promise to make fighting cuts to housing benefit, the NHS and youth services a key part of my campaign to be mayor.

"I want to thank Shahrar Ali and Farid Bahkt for making the selection of the Green Party's mayoral candidate a genuine contest, which I feel fortunate to have won."

Last autumn Labour Party members chose Ken Livingstone as their candidate to challenge Boris Johnson in 2012, leaving the Liberal Democrats as the only one of the four main parties at City Hall that is yet to choose its candidate.

Lembit Opik is the most prominent Lib Dem politician to express an interest in the role.