Shared cycle route through Hastings park to go ahead

On Monday (March 14), Cllr Claire Dowling, East Sussex County Council’s lead member for transport and environment, heard views from petitioners connected to plans to create a shared pedestrian and cycling path through Alexandra Park.

Two groups of petitioners were present at the meeting, with one group calling on the council to remove part of the proposed route, while the other urged the council to move ahead with the proposals in full. 

Those against the proposals had argued the shared path would result in “inevitable conflict” between cyclists and pedestrians, particularly those with mobility difficulties, while those in favour of the route argued the objections were “based on a campaign of misinformation and scaremongering.”

Speaking on behalf of objecting petitioners,  resident David Taylor said: “I can assure all concerned that my petition was not based on misinformation and scaremongering, but upon the real experiences of pedestrians who have been knocked down and verbally abused by cyclists.”

He added: “If the council’s proposal goes ahead, it will make life immeasurably more difficult and complicated for the vulnerable minority. 

“I believe this proposal to be morally indefensible and, if acted upon, would open a can of worms that will fester for decades to come.”

This view was supported by ward councillor Godfrey Daniel (Lab), who argued the council should have worked out how to put a dedicated cycle lane in St Helens Road, rather than going through the park.  

He said: “This is the wrong proposal, in the wrong place at the wrong time, I am afraid.”

Speaking on the other side was cycling campaigner Ian Sier, who said he was representing a number of groups including: Hastings Urban Bikes; the Hastings Greenway Group; and the Hastings Sustainable Transport Forum.

Mr Sier said: “Shared walking and cycling routes exist around the country, in fact I would say probably 90 per cent of the cycle routes around the country are shared routes. They work. 

“You take the seafront in Hastings, although part of it has a marked cycle route a fair part of it doesn’t. It is quite a lot busier than the park and most of the experience I have had there is people acting responsibly, cyclists and walkers. 

“All of Bexhill seafront is a shared route. The Cuckoo Trail is a shared route. The Cooden Valley Ringway is a shared route. So this idea that shared routes don’t work is contrived, I think.” 

Mr Sier saw support from Ian Hollidge, a Conservative councillor for Bexhill and long time cycling campaigner. Mr Hollidge said: “It is all to do with connectivity. If you take away the weakest link, which this would be, then the whole thing would become irrelevant.”

There was also support from Hastings Green Party councillor Julia Hilton, who declared an interest as a trustee of the Hastings Greenway Group, who said: “In an ideal world, as Cllr Daniel refers to, we would have had dedicated cycle routes. 

“But [government guidance] actually says shared routes are acceptable if other routes have been explored and found not to be suitable. We can see in the report that there were exhaustive efforts to try and find other routes and they are not suitable.” 

A number of other councillors also spoke on the proposals, putting forward views on both sides of the proposals.

Ahead of the meeting, officers had recommended Cllr Dowling inform both petitioners the proposals will likely go ahead as planned.

This, officers said, was because removing the section proposed would “leave a gap” in the town’s cycle network, severing the west of the town Hastings from a number of future cycle routes planned in the east of the town and into the town centre.

Officers had also noted that alternative routes through the park had been considered, but were found not to be as safe as what is proposed. This included a dedicated cycle lane running alongside St Helens Road, which would have involved the loss of a number of parking spaces.

They also noted that other paths in the park would remain as pedestrian only, with this to be enforced by Hastings Borough Council wardens. This enforcement saw particular concerns raised by Cllr Daniel, who argued that the borough council lacked the resources to properly enforce safe cycling in the park. 

He said: “I don’t think the borough have got any capacity whatsoever to do any enforcement or any will to do any enforcement. It is just going to be ‘get on with it, do what you can.’

“I would advise you, if at the end of the day you go along with the recommendations, you might seek to have a legal agreement with the borough council to ensure that enforcement takes place, that they staff it and that they make provision for it in the budget as well. 

“Otherwise, I think we are just going to have words really. There will be no enforcement.” 

After hearing from both sides, Cllr Dowling opted to back the officer’s recommendation, said the issues had been examined in detail over a significant period of time.

She said: “I am well aware of the issues and concerns. I have had many, many emails myself over the past few months.

“I also visited the park. In February I went to the park with officers. We walked the entire park and it is a beautiful park. We walked the proposed route and also the roads, because I wanted to see for myself everything that has been asked in the past, discussed, debated and then discounted or not and the reasons why.

“It has given me a far better understanding as it was too important just to look at a map.”

The final decision on the route is expected to be made later this year, pending the outcome of a Hastings Borough Council consultation on changing the town’s bylaws.

Despite this, council papers show £560,000 has been set aside for the scheme in the coming year’s capital programme. The majority of this (£500,000) is made up of time-limited Local Growth Fund monies which will need to be spent by March 2023.

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