Protesters painting d-i-y bike lanes

A group of cyclists, caught painting bicycle lanes on London's roads, have been arrested for obstruction and causing criminal damage to the highway.

Armed with paint pots, stencils, fluorescent jackets and 'slow' signs, the activists covertly drew miles of bike paths throughout the capital before being charged.

Working in groups of four or five and usually at night, the cycle campaigners use a map of proposed bicycle paths, issued by the Government in 1991, to plan their routes.

With one of the group directing traffic - to fool motorists into thinking they are council employees - they use white paint which does not mark car tyres and stencils of legitimate bike-lane markings. They have hit North, West and South London and insist that all their work conforms to council requirements. Lambeth council has erased the illicitly painted lanes.

In 1990 The Department of Transport adopted as policy the London Cycling Campaign's proposal for a 1,000-mile cycle route through the capital. But only 125 miles have been drawn, largely in Wandsworth, Fulham and Hammersmith.

In 1990 a group of pro-cycling campaigners in Fulham 'borrowed' council painting equipment overnight to draw a cycle lane. Returning the paintsprayer by morning they then convinced a council employee to insert a false instruction to paint the track into the local authority's computer system. Unlike many of the group's efforts, the cycle lane still remains there.

Reclaim the Streets and Lambeth Green Party, c/o Shane Collins and co, Lambeth Green Party, 73 Brailsford Road, London SW2 2TB (tel 0181 671 5936).