Cycleblog

3 Million Cycling Fund Wasted On Goody Bags (from The Argus): my letter to the Argus.

When Brighton and Hove City Council was given £3 million to spend on developing a cycling demonstration town, I prayed it wouldn't all be frittered away on audits, consultants, feasibility studies and fact-finding missions.

However, it has found new and ingenious ways of spending money in the name of improving and encouraging urban cycling in west Brighton and Hove.

Instead of handing out goody bags to the people of Portslade (Council wasting £3m cycle fund', The Argus, December 7), it could have made a start on joining up the existing fragmented cycle routes.

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In contrast, the council has been busy making it even more difficult to get from A to B by bicycle in Brighton, not only closing off the North Street Quadrant to cyclists, a safe and convenient short cut by the Clock Tower, but also installing "tank traps" made from rows of granite cobbles to knobble the unwary cyclist along what is designated a blue "official cycle route" according to the Council's latest cycle map.

Elder Place and Providence Place, parallel to London Road, once a quiet route from Preston Circus to North Laine, has become an obstacle course more suited to mountain bikes.

The council seems more intent on scoring brownie points and winning spurious awards over other demonstration towns than giving ordinary citizens practical help to abandon their gas guzzlers and get on their bikes.

Alan (Fred) Pipes, Gerard Street, Brighton
12:32pm today