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Northamptonshire Police under fire for ‘educational’ leaflet aimed at cyclistsOperation Push leaflet (Northants Police).jpg

Northamptonshire Police under fire for ‘educational’ leaflet aimed at cyclists

Leaflets are seemingly being attached to bikes at random
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Mar 25, 2017 11:42
39

Northamptonshire Police has come in for criticism for Operation Push, an initiative where leaflets will be placed on bikes “to highlight basic rules of the road and consequences.” The leaflets inform cyclists they could face a £50 fine for a series of offences, several of which have been questioned.

The force says that PCSOs in St James, Northampton, will be attaching the leaflets to bikes.

PCSO Andy Emberton said: “Our aim is to inform the riders of their responsibilities when riding their cycles. This action forms part of our education process and is intended to inform riders of some common offences.”

The leaflet has been translated into four languages on the reverse side. 

“If a leaflet has been attached to your pedal cycle, don’t assume that you have done anything wrong but please take time to read it and note its content,” said Emberton.

“We recognise that cycling is a healthy pursuit but riders must realise that they have a responsibility to obey the rules of the road. Further cycling operations will be carried in the St James and Spencer areas throughout the coming weeks.”

Cyclists were quick to point out that if it were an offence to carry more than one person on a pedal cycle, that would be bad news for anyone who owned a tandem, such as Alexander Dutton and his wife who were recently told by the force that ‘cycling isn’t a priority’ after they were forced off the road by a bus.

It was also pointed out that while cycling on the footway is an offence under section 72 of the Highways Act, Home Office guidance is that police officers should use their discretion.

West Midlands Police, the originators of the pioneering close pass initiative that is now being rolled out by several other forces, were unimpressed with the measure.

The operation was also promoted by local councillor Rufia Ashraf, who went further and emphasised the enforcement aspect over the educational one.

Last month, Hampshire Police were forced to apologise for a leaflet sent out by one of its neighbourhood policing teams as it featured an inaccurate list of ‘endorsable’ cycling offences, including “cycle helmets used correctly.”

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Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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39 comments

Avatar
spen replied to kevinmorice | 7 years ago
4 likes
kevinmorice wrote:

As always the road.cc crowd rush to be offended and blame cars. 

 

Cars do get similar leaflets. They also gets MOTs to enforce that they have lights and that they work,  occassionally pulled over for failing lights. 

 

They also get immediate prosecution without anything like as much discretion. 

 

Rather than be upset about cars, try being upset at the bad cyclists who have made this move reasonable in the eyes of the police and council. 

 

I can't remember ever hearing of a car killing anyone, idiot drivers drunk, drugged, on phones, not looking etc etc etc have killed more than enough.

 

Blame where its due please

Avatar
FluffyKittenofT... replied to kevinmorice | 7 years ago
7 likes
kevinmorice wrote:

As always the road.cc crowd rush to be offended and blame cars. 

 

Cars do get similar leaflets. They also gets MOTs to enforce that they have lights and that they work,  occassionally pulled over for failing lights. 

 

They also get immediate prosecution without anything like as much discretion. 

 

Rather than be upset about cars, try being upset at the bad cyclists who have made this move reasonable in the eyes of the police and council. 

All cars, indiscriminately, get such leaflets attached to them? Really? Can you prove that, because I've never seen it happen. Even cars dumped with no insurance (and no wheels!) can sit there for months with nothing happening. I've never seen legal, taxed, intact cars get leaflets stuck on them warning the drivers that they might be _thinking_ of driving without lights or tax.

Avatar
HV3 replied to kevinmorice | 7 years ago
0 likes

This is not about bad driving. It's about morons on bikes who give all cyclists a bad name. Try living in west London and cyclists who ride on footpaths with bags of shopping on the bars while on their mobile. Or who ride at night with a red light on the bars and a white light on the back. Orwho ride diagonally across a road against traffic flow or along a cycle path into the traffic I.e. the wrong way down the side of the road. All this and a lot, lot more I've seen. If you live in a part of the world where everyone is obeying the Highway Code, I envy you. Around here, I'd applaud such action by the police. Some of the punks on 2 wheels I see could definitely do with a damn sight more

kevinmorice wrote:

As always the road.cc crowd rush to be offended and blame cars. 

 

Cars do get similar leaflets. They also gets MOTs to enforce that they have lights and that they work,  occassionally pulled over for failing lights. 

 

They also get immediate prosecution without anything like as much discretion. 

 

Rather than be upset about cars, try being upset at the bad cyclists who have made this move reasonable in the eyes of the police and council. 

Avatar
davel replied to HV3 | 7 years ago
7 likes
HV3 wrote:

It's about morons on bikes who give all cyclists a bad name...
...
If you live in a part of the world where everyone is obeying the Highway Code, I envy you. Around here, I'd applaud such action by the police. Some of the punks on 2 wheels I see could definitely do with a damn sight more

Do fuck off with your simplistic bullshit.

How many KSIs do those 'punks' cause?

How many KSIs in your neck of the woods do distracted, antisocial and incompetent drivers cause?

Do you think bad drivers or bad pedestrians give all drivers or pedestrians a bad name?

Do you see the argument about policing priorities or the problem with boiling everything down to a binary yet?

Avatar
Forzamark | 7 years ago
13 likes

Wouldn't it be nice if they did this with cars to make sure they know the highway code about 2 abreast, overtaking and cycling lane use etc.

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet replied to Forzamark | 7 years ago
14 likes
Forzamark wrote:

Wouldn't it be nice if they did this with cars to make sure they know the highway code about 2 abreast, overtaking and cycling lane use etc.

Rather than this nonsense can't they do something useful like doing the rounds in chav estates and removing all the untaxed and uninsured cars? Easy to do with plate recognition. Won't be done though.

Avatar
Gourmet Shot replied to Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
12 likes
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Forzamark wrote:

Wouldn't it be nice if they did this with cars to make sure they know the highway code about 2 abreast, overtaking and cycling lane use etc.

Rather than this nonsense can't they do something useful like doing the rounds in chav estates and removing all the untaxed and uninsured cars? Easy to do with plate recognition. Won't be done though.

Well no....i've reported 11 vehicles (yes 11) driven by an idiot in my estate, all with either no tax, no MOT and no insurance or combinations of....the police have done fck all.  Maybe they're too busy wanking about handing out cycling leaflets.

 

     

Avatar
ashliejay | 7 years ago
4 likes

someone quick, grab a mud covered bike and give someone a backie while on the path.

Avatar
ktache | 7 years ago
29 likes

I am seething.

I'm wondering how long the leaflet they are going to start putting on motor vehicles are going to be?

You know, the real killers on the road.

Can I start giving leaflets to police officers telling them not to be racist and corrupt, which could result in time spent in prison, on the nonce wing, as convicted police officers do not fare well in the prison general population.

And at that I shall end my thoughts on this, I have stuff to do and cannot be wasting my time writing a ranty essay on the lawbreaking I have been seeing just over the past couple of days.

 

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