Work has started on removing the controversial £1.7m cycle lane, dubbed “Britain’s most-hated” on Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough.
The £2.7 million removal is being funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority. It will include planing of the existing surface, re-laying of the new surface and installation of associated road marking and traffic signals.
The work will take place in phases over the next four weeks, with signed diversions between Borough Road and Ayresome Street.
A spokesman for Middlesbrough Council has said: “These closures are unavoidable to allow us to complete the final elements of these works.
“The work will be undertaken off-peak to minimise disruption, and we are grateful to the public for their patience and understanding.”
The route was installed in 2022, with the aim of being a “quick and safe” corridor into central Middlesbrough. However, it has been heavily criticised after injuries and claims that it is a “clear getaway” for shoplifters and drug dealers.
Not long after the route was opened, a 78-year-old pensioner was left with a broken wrist and a black eye after tripping over an ‘Orca’ cycle lane separator.
A week later, cyclist Paul Harris required stitches after being thrown over his handlebars after colliding with one of the same dividers. He said that cyclists had to cycle over the bumps to pass the bus stop.
He told Teesside Live, “Why should somebody get hurt just for the council to then turn around and say they’ll take it away?
“If people keep getting hurt in all these accidents, then they never should have built it in the first place.”
A Freedom of Information Request by the Local Democracy Service in August 2025 revealed that the authority had paid £85,728 for 15 injury claims linked to the lane’s controversial markers, with a further six claims still being processed at the time.
A 27-year-old woman also 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.
Local business owners and workers also raised concerns that the shortage of parking and drop-off areas was costing them trade. One worker even said it was a “clear getaway for criminals”.
The worker from The Sleep Centre, a bed and mattress shop, told TeessideLive that it was encouraging shoplifters and drug dealers “because of the bollards, no one can stop them and the police will have a field day trying to catch them.”
> Cycle lane will be “clear getaway” for shoplifters and drug dealers, business owners claim
The removal faced months of delays due to a feud between Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen and Labour mayor Chris Cooke over who should fund and carry out the works.
In December 2024, the council finally approved plans for its removal, with TVCA agreeing to cover the full cost.
11 thoughts on “Work begins on £2.17m removal of controversial cycle lane dubbed ‘Britain’s most-hated’”
Shame, I was hoping to steal a mattress from The Sleep Centre and get away with it rapidly on my bike.
The anticyclists are stupid people who make up facts.
We all make up facts, every day – that’s just an inevitable effect of living. What they make up are fantasies.
£1.7 m for construction plus £2.7 for removal plus compensations for injured people, local taxpayers might not be so keen on supporting cycling infrastructure. after this fiasco.
At least the good folk of Clevedon can see that £ 425 k to reverse some painting and chuck away a few bollards was, relatively speaking, a bargain.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9rv0nxv54o
Surely the more logical solution for preventing shoplifters getting away would be to remove the shops.
RE: why not remove the shops.
By providing for mass motoring with free-flowing (well…) motor traffic they’re already indirectly helping remove local shops… 😉
Here’s a thought. We should rip up the M1 and M6 because of their role in road deaths, recent robberies of drivers. Maybe the ferry routes because of the abuse by smugglers. My understanding is that the high streets are dying already – making it easier for people to come into towns on multiple modes would seem to me to be a deterrent to criminality. How many drive by shootings, robbery escapes are committed by people on bicycles? This feels like a few politically motivated individuals recruiting support by “winning” a particular cause.
Well, I once saw someone trip on a kerb and fall over, I think alcohol was involved so best we ban alcohol and rip up all the footpaths, as shoplifters occasionally use them apparently?
This will definitely provide a lot more room for extra cars to park outside of all of the boarded up shops on every high st, so a win+win with no downside at all
Oh, and wider roads are better because 4x4s are just getting wider, and we all need 4x4s because the roads are just so bad these days? ??
😀
To quote Alexi Sayle, “I think it’s so important to have four wheel drive when you’re going down to Sainsburys.”
Other supermarkets are available.
Both mayors need to be held to account for not resurfacing the main bike lanes into town from the south via Ormesby Beck and Middle Beck, which are so bumpy now you need a gravel bike or suspension to ride on them.
The Linthorpe Road lane did not connect to the routes in further south anyway, and the money should have been spent on connecting those better and removing the chicanes that prevent trikes and mobility scooters using them.
They also need to build the Nunthorpe to Pinchinthorpe connector that’s been in the local plan for a decade so cyclists don’t have to ride in the gutters of the A171 to get to Guisborough.
This bike lane was not well thought through, and the orcas were a very stupid choice as they don’t stop cars but trip pedestrians and are dangerous for cyclists.
The landlord who posted the anti-bike signs in my photo above still hasn’t managed to let that cake shop 7 years later though.