The latest chapter in the long-running cycling ban saga in Grimsby has seen another cyclist ordered to pay more than £500 after being caught riding a bicycle through the town centre.

It concerns a controversial Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) enforced by North East Lincolnshire Council as a crackdown on “anti-social behaviour”, with more than 1,000 fines issued since 2019, the majority for cycling on Victoria Street South and walking dogs on the main beach.

Last summer a cyclist was ordered to pay £1,150 after being caught riding through the town centre and failing to pay the £100 fixed penalty notice. Likewise, the council has reported that a cyclist, Adam Wherrett, has recently failed to pay his FPN and has since been ordered to pay £508 in total having been prosecuted at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court.

The council has repeatedly insisted the ban is about ensuring “people can use and enjoy public spaces, living safely from anti-social behaviour”, although some have criticised its enforcement and argue that officers have been targeting the “old and slow” and cyclists “they can get away with”.

Repeating his previous message on the matter, local councillor, Ron Shepherd said: “These PSPOs are there for a reason. Not because we want to put them in place or to cause a nuisance, but to ensure the safety of the borough. These people have not followed the rules and for that they have been rightly punished. Others need to be made aware that we will not simply look the other way, those breaking these PSPOs will face repercussions.”

In July, it was revealed that the council was to play ‘no cycling’ messages on speakers in the town centre every 15 minutes, while Shepherd previously called a case of a cyclist being ordered to pay £500 a “great result for our enforcement teams”.

In 2023, Lauren Cullum was found guilty of breaching the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) after she was spotted riding a bicycle in a pedestrianised zone in the town. She was issued a fine of £660, and also ordered to pay a victim services surcharge of £264 and costs of £226, a total sum of £1,150.

In response to the hefty financial sum for the offence of cycling through a town centre, some pointed out that by contrast in the same week at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court, Paul Berry pleaded guilty to driving at 50mph on a 40mph road. He was disqualified from driving for seven days, fined £60, and ordered to pay a victim services surcharge of £16.

A year earlier, in October 2022, a pensioner made headlines after telling the council to stick its £100 fine “up your arse”, his case also attracting outrage from locals who reported seeing council officers targeting “old and slow” riders while ignoring youths “racing up and down”.

That is, in essence, the major criticism that cycling groups have made about such town centre cycling bans — that they discourage people cycling into the town, while also failing to deter the sort of anti-social behaviour it is believed they’ll combat.

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Active travel charity Cycling UK has long been a prominent critic of PSPOs, which it claims have the effect of criminalising cycling.

“Some councils have used PSPOs as a geographically defined version of an ASBO to restrict the use of public space and criminalise behaviour not normally regarded as illegal,” Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, has previously said.

In March, we reported that elsewhere in England, Worcester City Council opted against extending its city centre cycling ban PSPO, council figures stating that it was “more about culture wars than what we want for the city” and that they were “never convinced dangerous cyclists were the big issue”, with the ban feeling like “political theatre”. Campaigners also argued it acted as a “psychological barrier” to more people using bicycles.