12:00pm Sunday 7th February 2010
By Mark Stead
FRESH calls have been made for a controversial cycling scheme on a York road to be ditched.
Plans to extend a joint path for cyclists and pedestrians along a stretch of Beckfield Lane in Acomb are now on hold after residents and groups representing elderly people and those with sight problems claimed it was unnecessary and dangerous.
York’s slice of Cycling City funding would pay for the £285,000 scheme, but now an Acomb councillor has demanded “serious consideration” is given to the idea of abandoning the project.
Coun David Horton’s motion opposing the segregated cycle path along the route between the junctions with Wetherby Road and Ostman Road was passed at last Thursday’s full meeting of City of York Council, where representatives from York Blind and Partially Sighted Society and York Older People’s Assembly outlined how they feared it could threaten pedestrians.
Coun Horton said: “My concern is that it has been developed as a first resort rather than a last resort.
“In engineering terms, it is fairly straightforward, so maybe it has been suggested because York needs to spend its Cycling City money by next April, but I don’t believe the risk to pedestrians has been properly assessed.
“There has only been one minor accident in this area in the last three-and-a-half years and that is not a good enough reason for spending this money – if it was council money, the scheme would never have seen the light of day.”
At the meeting, Coun Steve Galloway, the council’s executive member for city strategy, said: “At least 25 per cent of cyclists are already using the footpath to avoid what they judge to be a dangerous road – many are children.
“The footpath is currently too narrow for this relationship between cyclists and pedestrians to be comfortable or safe. I would expect that the realities of the new cycle path will be less challenging than some fear.”
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