The long, chaotic, and at times strangely theatrical saga of the Linthorpe Road cycle lane — a project that has sparked years of local controversy, cross-party finger-pointing, injury reports, and baffling criminal speculation — appears to finally be drawing to a close, after Middlesbrough’s Labour mayor Chris Cooke confirmed that work to remove the much-criticised infrastructure will begin on 26 August.
Funded by £2.17 million from the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), the removal will come almost three years after the lane’s installation, which itself was backed by £1.7 million in government active travel funding and approved by former independent mayor Andy Preston.
The road will be reinstated to its previous layout, with some safety-related closures at Victoria Road and King Edward’s Square left in place.
Labelled “disastrous” by councillors, “a bad example” by the council, and “an absolute disaster” by local traders, the cycle lane has become a uniquely enduring flashpoint in Britain’s ongoing struggle to implement meaningful active travel infrastructure.
While many UK bike lanes have provoked local pushback, Linthorpe Road stood out for the breadth of criticism — not just from motorists and shopkeepers, but also from cyclists and pedestrians, many of whom suffered injuries navigating the poorly segregated design.
Within months of its 2022 installation, the route, designed to provide a “quick and safe” corridor into central Middlesbrough, had become a local punchline. A 78-year-old woman was hospitalised with a broken wrist, black eye and concussion after tripping on one of the orca separators that had been installed as light segregation.
Weeks later, cyclist Paul Harris was thrown over his handlebars and required stitches after hitting one of the same dividers, describing the layout as forcing riders to “constantly” dodge parked cars, buses, and pedestrians. A 27-year-old woman later fractured her elbow on a night out crossing the lane.
The orcas were later replaced with plastic wands, and the proposed extension of the scheme was shelved, but the project never recovered.
Shopkeepers on Linthorpe Road blamed the infrastructure for reduced footfall and the loss of customer parking, with one local business branding the lane a “clear getaway” for shoplifters and drug dealers. And while cycling rates reportedly increased by 70 per cent, the route also became a de facto parking strip for cars and vans, with illegal driving and loading remaining rampant throughout.
Teesside Live reports that, with a contractor now appointed and the final funding confirmed, construction work to remove the lane will begin late next month. Residents and businesses affected by the works are due to be contacted in the coming weeks.
Mayor Cooke, who campaigned on a pledge to scrap the scheme, said this week: “After listening to businesses and residents, I pledged the cycle lane would go. The work will start next month, and TVCA will pay for every penny. That is absolutely the right end result. We do want to encourage more people to cycle and walk, but future schemes have to be in the right place and learn the lessons from this saga.”
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, who also committed to removing the infrastructure in his re-election campaign, welcomed the update: “Good, it is about time, and we can finally turn the page on this sorry chapter for Middlesbrough. I said I’d sort it for the council, and it is going. Let’s get it ripped out, and let local businesses get back to their lives.”
The lane’s removal has long been mired in delays and blame-shifting, with Houchen and Cooke publicly accusing each other of obstruction, and disagreement over who should pay the bill dominating public statements well into 2024.
A war of words over Twitter/X was punctuated by an open letter from Cooke earlier this year, in which he accused the Conservative TVCA mayor of deliberately stalling works to prevent a Labour win.
“In 2022, the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), which is chaired by Mayor Ben Houchen, spent £1.7 million on installing the disastrous cycle lane. This was then approved by Andy Preston,” Cooke wrote. “They created it — they should fund its removal… After continuously putting pressure on Mayor Ben Houchen, he has finally agreed to my request to uninstall the cycle lane.”
Although a brief détente appeared to be reached last summer, with the two mayors jointly agreeing the lane was “unpopular” and had “simply not worked”, the subsequent months brought further delays and political clashes.
By late 2024, the council executive had voted unanimously to approve its removal, but spades did not hit the ground. A formal consultation, design revisions, a second funding approval process, and ongoing executive meetings followed.
Despite the drawn-out process, Middlesbrough Council and TVCA now appear fully aligned. “We’ve had assurances there will be no impact on Middlesbrough Council’s finances,” Cooke said in a previous statement. “That is massively important given our wider responsibilities to the town.”
While former mayor Andy Preston, who approved the scheme, has since backed its removal, and MPs including Labour’s Andy McDonald have welcomed its departure, it remains unclear whether Linthorpe Road will serve as a warning, a case study, or simply a cautionary footnote in Britain’s inconsistent embrace of active travel.
As Cooke put it last December: “It’s incredibly important that we respect communities and areas, and this feels like we did something to a community, by the previous administration and TVCA. This is us starting to undo that.”
5 thoughts on “End of a “sorry chapter”: Britain’s most controversial cycle lane finally confirmed for removal in project worth over £2 million”
At least the shops business
At least the shops business will boom and shoplifting plummet now 🤔
Cycling rates up 70%?So isn’t
Cycling rates up 70%?So isn’t that a success? Looking at the map it was a nice direct route into the town centre. It would be interesting to know what the mayors will propose in it’s place. Or will they just do nothing?
Bookie, 100 pounds on
Bookie, 100 pounds on “nothing – return to road / parking”!
Or … if Private Eye is to be believed perhaps a certain northern mayor has already sold off the space via a complex scheme to a handful of local businessmen for 50p!
Who paid for the banner? Tax
Who paid for the banner? Tax payer?
I rode down Linthorpe Road
I rode down Linthorpe Road last week, and because the bike lane is mostly gone and the big kerbs are still there, I had to take primary position. Which is fine for me as a middle aged man on an ebike, but as ever it will be the children and mobility scooter users who get left out.
The route never really made sense anyway, as it didn’t join up to other cycleways at either end.
For the cost of the posturing by both branches of local government they could have resurfaced the Ormesby Beck and Marton West Beck cycleways that do connect to the south of the town and out to Redcar and Cleveland.
Maybe they could even upgrade the Marton road cycleway so it’s no longer full of mature trees to slalom around.
Nice to see my photo used. That devine desserts shop is still empty and to let, 5 years on.