Council facing £82m cuts to spend £1.4m removing cycle path (three years after they spent £800,000 installing it)

Published 22nd Feb 2011

A council facing £82million cuts plans to spend up to £1.4million scrapping a cycle path - just three years after it was installed at a cost of £800,000.

Critics accused Brighton & Hove City Council of scandalous waste as it prepares to axe 250 jobs.

They described as 'utter madness' the decision to spent almost twice as much ripping up the facility as it cost to build.

Tony Green, of cycling campaign group Bricycles, said: 'When it put in the lane less than three years ago, the city council described this scheme as a state of the art cycling freeway, but now they think it is a blot on the landscape. The administration seems to have lost the plot.'

The Conservative-led council said most users of the two roads in Hove which would be affected did not like the lanes and their removal would 'improve the visual impact and traffic flow.'

Council leader Mary Mears said: 'By putting forward this proposal to remove it we are responding to residents concerns. In addition, unlike some other cycle lanes in the city, it is not well used.

'We want to facilitate sensible car use in the City, not try and prevent it for dogmatic ideological reasons.'

Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Elgood said: 'I agree that the cycle path isn't as safe as it could be, but relatively minor changes could have fixed it years ago at a fraction of the cost.

'The Tories should have done their homework before trying to spend this massive sum of money to undermine cycling in the city.'

The council estimates the cost of removing the lanes would cost up to £1.1million.

Critics claim Brighton and Hove would also then be liable to pay back a £300,000 grant from Cycling England, taking the total cost to £1.4 million.

However Mrs Mears said: 'We are not anticipating having to pay back the money to Cycling England as they are one of the quangos that the Government is abolishing.'

Simon Pratt, regional director of the charity Sustrans, which campaigns for all non-car users, said: 'It seems utter madness to remove routes at such a huge cost especially when they are well used by local people.'

Bike-related accidents on The Drove, in Hove, have fallen by 20 per cent since the cycle lane, separated from the road by kerbs, was installed.

An online petition against the costly back pedalling has so far attracted more than 1,300 signatures and campaigners are planning protests ahead of the March 3 full council meeting, when it is likely to be rubber stamped.

Since 2005, the council has spent B£1 million a year improving cycling facilities, with the cost shared equally between local taxpayers and the Department of Transport.

But cycling accidents across the city have risen almost 30 per cent since the investment scheme started, from 131 in 2005 to 168 in 2009.

Green councillor Ian Davey said: 'The Tories clearly do not have a coherent vision for transport in this city.

'They say they have no money for cycle lane improvements, yet they find a sum to remove one. They are shifting transport policy firmly into reverse.'

Last year, Brighton and Hove was slammed for spending £25,000 on two bike counters.

The dot matrix displays which show the daily tally of passing bicycles, was still not working two months after it was installed with much fanfare.

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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