The leader of Peterborough council has said that his discovery that council workers were not able to issue fines to illegal cyclists has left him “disappointed” and “frustrated”.
Council workers have for the first time been given the power to fine various behaviour, but at the last minute council leader Councillor John Holdich discovered this would not include cycling on pedestrianised Bridge Street.
Last week we reported how a council spokesman said: “Initially, only warranted police officers within the PES [Prevention and Enforcement Service] will have the power to fine cyclists on Bridge Street and will work alongside council officers.
“This is because cycling on Bridge Street is currently classified as a road traffic offence. The process is well underway to change this order to allow any PES officer to enforce the cycling ban on Bridge Street.”
Cllr Holdich now believes there will be a wait of up to another two months until the rules are changed so council staff can ticket Bridge Street cyclists.
He told the Peterborough Telegraph: “I’ve made no secret with officers that I’m very disappointed that we are not in a position for the council staff to affect the cycling in Bridge Street, but police still have those powers and will be working with our folks to issue tickets.
“I believe that our new approach will play a part in tackling concerns like fly-tipping and littering as well as working to prevent issues such as drug dealing and child sexual exploitation.”
13 thoughts on “Peterborough councillors will be able to fine illegal cyclists by Christmas”
He [Cllr Holdich] told the Peterborough Telegraph: “I’ve made no secret with officers that I’m very disappointed that we are not in a position for the council staff to affect the cycling in Bridge Street, but police still have those powers and will be working with our folks to issue tickets.
“I believe that our new approach will play a part in tackling concerns like fly-tipping and littering as well as working to prevent issues such as drug dealing and child sexual exploitation.”
Is Cllr Holdich really linking cycling in Bridge Street with fly-tipping and child sexual exploitation?
Quote:
So remember: if you give government or council officials powers to deal with something dangerous/nasty, you have to assume that they’ll use that power for every little thing. Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile; that sort of thing.
Lol, Bridge Street must be a
Lol, Bridge Street must be a hot bed of criminal activity all brought on by people cycling.
Why not install a sign saying
Why not install a sign saying ‘cyclists, pedestrian area, ride a walking speed’? Works well in DE
Inthe Viz map of the British
Inthe Viz map of the British Isles Peterbrough is illustrated with a picture of a man sitting in an armchair wearing carpet slippers and blowing his brains out with a revolver.
What is with megalomaniac
What is with megalomaniac council leaders? Mentioning cycling in the same breath as drug abuse and sex offences as well…and there will be idiots buying into it
I’m gobsmacked, and it takes
I’m gobsmacked, and it takes quite a bit to get me to ‘gobsmacked’.
What the council *seem* to be doing, ie. combining agency efforts against anti-social behaviour, *seems* to be perfectly logical – a good move.
The article headline focusing on the cycling fine delay – WTF?!?! There’s next to nothing about cycling in the actual body.
This isn’t a story about cycling – where does the Peterborough Telegraph and other media get off in turning it into one? This is insidious baiting of an outgroup that it is fashionable to kick, and hugely irresponsible.
Just looked at that road on
Just looked at that road on Google Streetview, the gap betweeen the buildings would be wide enough for 2 lanes each way, + a cyccle lane either side and a “normal” sized pavement too.
If cycling in this pedestrianised “highway” is such an issue (recent reports stated 4 cyclists spotted in a 2 hr period)why not actually create a segregated cycle route through the area, and make it clear that cycling elsewhere will attract fines. Also fines for pedestrians wandering blindly in the cycle lane.
StuInNorway wrote:
In all fairness most councils aren’t very good at this whole segregated thing, and require some serious arrse kicking to even get started, let alone to then do it properly.
. eg. Bristol are in the middle of some serious redesign in the centre of the city. The plans all showed that one road (Colston Street) would be no entry to motor traffic, with the pedestrian pavement built out across it. But there would be a dropped kerb and a segregated cycle path through the middle of it to allow cyclists to carry on as before. Now it’s built, the segregated lane is actually just a lane marked out in different paving stones, on the same level as the pedestrian paving, with no actual boundary, so not segregated at all. So that’s going to be little better than if they’d just declared it all to be shared space, isn’t it?
But it won’t be an offence to
But it won’t be an offence to ignore them, will it? What can they do if you just keep on riding and don’t stop?
Great to see a progressive
Great to see a progressive council that includes cycling in amongst such activities as “fly-tipping and littering and … issues such as drug dealing and child sexual exploitation”.
Can people try to read the
Can people try to read the article?
My interpretation: this isn’t the council conflating cycling with kiddie fiddling. This isn’t the council singling out cycling as the hobby of Satan.
This is the council barely mentioning cycling, and joining agencies against a whole spectrum of anti-social behaviour. They’ve lumped cycling down a pedestrianised street in somewhere in that spectrum, but this is pretty uncontroversial, no?
So why is the headline in the Peterborough Telegraph about cycling and cyclists? It’s trashy clickbait – incitement, at worst. That’s the sinister aspect of this story.
One of many reasons to avoid
One of many reasons to avoid Peterborough.