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news
Snake Pass Trespass (Image credit: Harry Gray/Twitter)Snake Pass trespassers are ‘organised gangs up to no good’, says former councillor
The organiser of the recent Snake Pass trespass events, Harry Gray, has hit back at claims that those cycling on the closed Peak District road are part of an ‘organised gang’ who are ‘up to no good’.
In an interview with Jeremy Vine on the broadcaster’s Radio 2 programme last Thursday, the former Conservative councillor and mayor of Barnet Brian Coleman discussed the trespass events which have been organised in the wake of Derbyshire County Council’s decision to ban cyclists and walkers from Snake Pass due to “concerns over safety”.
The road, which lies within the Peak District National Park and carries the busy A57 between Sheffield and Manchester, became a car-free “cycling utopia” after it was closed to motor vehicles at the end of February while repairs were carried out on a small section in the aftermath of landslides caused by storms Eunice and Franklin.
However, two weeks ago Derbyshire County Council confirmed that the pass, which runs for 12 miles from Ladybower Reservoir to Glossop, would also be closed to cyclists and walkers, except for local access.
The council said that the decision was made due to fears that “there will be an accident involving a vehicle and a cyclist because of the large numbers of cyclists that have taken the opportunity to go out and ride the road.”
> Cycling UK urges council to publish evidence justifying Snake Pass cycling ban
Over the past two weekends, a group of cyclists have taken part in a mass trespass on the closed section of the A57, organised through Twitter, in a bid to show the council that the road is safer now without motorists than it has ever been.
However Coleman, a highly controversial former councillor known for his pro-car views, criticised the trespass and defended the council’s decision to close Snake Pass “because it is dangerous”.
“And we’re not talking about the odd cyclist here,” he continued. “We’re talking about organised gangs – hundreds of cyclists.”
When challenged by Vine on his use of the term ‘gangs’, that it implied that the cyclists “were up to no good”, Coleman replied: “Well they are up to no good in this case, because they are cycling on a road that has been sensibly closed by the highway authority, so it can repaired so all road users can use it again.”
> Snake Pass protest: Cyclists reclaim car-free route
Speaking to Yorkshire Live, the organiser of the trespass Harry Gray said that Coleman’s sentiments formed part of a broader “culture war against cyclists”.
He said: “There has been a coordinated campaign for years from certain media outlets to create a culture war against cyclists.
“I didn't realise how bad it has become until I cycled in Cyprus this winter. I didn't have any issues there with drivers.
“When I came back, I was shouted at by a driver for just cycling down the road safely. It's a really big issue. We are all just people trying to get about at the end of the day.”
Gray also claimed that the two mass group rides on Snake Pass were not strictly ‘protests’.
“We self-identified the ride as a trespass. People who know the local area well will understand the tongue and cheek reference to the famous Kinder Scout trespass,” he said.
“People who don't maybe shouldn't be given a platform to speak on the issue.
“It started as a protest but really it's about each individual's love for the outdoors and cycling, so more of a celebration. I'd describe it tongue and cheek as a trespass, as I said before.
“But really it was just a mass ride and celebration.”
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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24 comments
FFS. The road is closed to traffic. Why can't we all just accept that and stop whinging. All this is doing no good for the case of cycling and cyclists and is doing nothing to help our relationship with other road users.
Not sure if you've missed everything about this case. The road is legally only closed for a short section of around 100m. At that section, other paths allow pedestrians and cyclists to bypass by the Snale Pass road closed section.
The road closure signs are placed at a much earlier point, so they are misleading (and unenforceable).
There is also a legitimate question about whether an effective risk assessment has been made of the damaged section: is it actually necessary to close the road completely? CyclingUK has asked that question... I might have missed something over the weekend, Derbyshire CC has not answered yet. If there is no significnt risk for cyclists and pedestrians, they should not be blocked from using the closed section.
The only thing that is doing relationships harm is when people do not give reasonable consideration towards pedestrians and cyclists and expect us to shut up about it.
I would have thought that cyclists using an otherwise unused road would surely remove congestion elsewhere, so surely it helps to allow cyclists to use roads and paths that cars can't?
As for the cycling case, it clearly demonstrates how flexible and adaptable cycling can be. Or at least it would if authorities didn't just stupidly try to close roads to cyclists for no good reason.
I fundamentally agree with you, although the transfer of commuter/freight traffic to other trans-Pennine routes probably dwarfs the positive or negative consequences of any leisure cycling taking advantage of the closure in regional terms.
Bingo! Alas if only there was an "us"... and if only motorists formed a collective too! Then we could let their manager / fuhrer / shop steward know that them running children over on the pavement, harassing other road users, crashing into infrastructure and killing over a thousand people last year is doing nothing to help their relationship with others.
While the organisers have named it a trespass, it seems unlikely that it is. The enquiries by CUK about the road closure don't seem to have borne fruit about the extent of the closure for bicycles, nor does the council seem to have provided the justification in the form of a risk assessment for the ban on bicycles.
It also seems likely that a prosecution for trespass would fail, from wikipedia:
".......In Hickman v Maisey,[61] it was established that any use of a road that went beyond using it for its normal purpose could constitute a trespass, but this was altered by DPP v Jones.[62] Lord Irvine, giving the leading judgment, said that "the public highway is a public place which the public may enjoy for any reasonable purpose, providing that the activity in question does not amount to a public or private nuisance and does not obstruct the highway by reasonably impeding the primary right of the public to pass and repass; within these qualifications there is a public right of peaceful assembly on the highway".[63]"
I ain't not no lawyer, but it seems to me that the council would be hard pressed to make a case of trespass.
As for the councillor, he's a tory; 'nuff said.
Hooligans! Having knocked over a dustbin in Shaftesbury, they're now riding bicycles up hills in the countryside! HOOOOLIGANS!
The BBC has rather let us down! Vine really shouldn't have contemplated an interview with a deadbeat crooked former councillor like this, whose opinions should be confined to crazed far-right websites, hyper-junk press like the Mail and shock-jock junk radio- what are Vine's researchers doing? The Beeb has made this 'false balance' mistake before over interviewing shyster former Chancellor Lawson to provide 'balance' to the united legitimate climate scientists warning of impending doom.
This is the problem with wanting "balance" (what they really want is an aggressive argument). In this case I'm guessing the only person they could find that actually thinks that cyclists using this road is an issue is this convicted felon.
You make the mistake I made believing that Vine is trying to be a serious journalist. They are not interested in fact finding and resolution, they in fact seem to be on a mission to bring down the NHS through an excess of burst blood vessels, Badmanneritis I think is the medical term.
Organised gangs?! Where the hell does he think he is in an episode of Peaky Blinders? What an absolute moron
Peaky District Blinders
Thinks he's in Harry Potter. These cyclists have obviously got themselves the Marauder's map, they solemnly swear they're up to no good, and he wants the mischief managed. So he's firmly gripping his wand yelling out "expelliarmus" 😂
If it was done properly that road should have reopened within a fortnight at most, they should have had teams works in shifts day and night until work was done but I bet they hummed and hard then decided to work a four day week leaving the weekends free to rest the one and only team of workers.
As far as I'm aware, the ground under the road has not been considered to have stabilised yet, so is only being monitored for now. I don't think they've done anything to rebuild it yet.
Let me guess - graduated from Twitter school of medical pandemics and did your postgraduate studies in civil engineering at the University of Facebook?
Is that what they put in their sandwiches?
Were there actually "hundreds of cyclists" on the Snake Tressspassss or is the ex-councillor exaggerating just a little...?
The ex-councilor, convicted of assualting a female constituant? Who also campaigned to re-open Partingdale Lane to motor traffic despite its danger after it was closed due to several bad accidents! I'm not sure I'll pay any heed to his views.
Ewwwe, he's a wrong 'un
quick link to confirm the assault conviction:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22795698
and he was parking illegally when he attacked the constituent...
a little hypocritical?
Oh he is a lot hypocritical. For someone apparently so concerned with good value for public finances don't check his expenses as a councilor or GLA member, especially his taxi bills!
From that article:
Lovely bloke, clearly...
And WTAF has it got to do with a former councillor from Barnet? Interfering has-been.