Mylander - Issue 88

Council Reports Of further concern was the three roundabouts – North Station, and just outside the parish, Essex Hall and Albert roundabouts. At all three of these highly trafficked junctions the proposals are for the cycle route which will be on the east of each roundabout for cyclists travelling in either direction. This would mean cyclists returning from a trip to town, cycling towards other cyclists as well as buses and other traffic. We consider this option will not be taken up by many cyclists! To further compound the issue, there will be no special cycle lane between Serpentine Walk (just after the Albert roundabout) and Head Street. This means that out intrepid cyclist returning from Head Street (cycle lane on the eastern, right hand side) would have to cross the flow of on-coming traffic in order to come down North Hill. Somewhere before reaching the Albert roundabout the cyclist will again need to cross the lane of on-coming traffic in order to reach the cycle lane on the eastern side. One final comment is that there appears to be no desire to remove existing, (which are against current government guidelines), cycling on pavements. There is no advantage to anyone in just renaming the footway as a cycleway! In summary, whilst we are totally in favour of the objectives of increasing cycling, we consider the published scheme ill-thought out. Robert Johnstone Chair, Planning and Highways Committee 15