Campaigners have welcomed a council U-turn over plans to deploy barriers on walking and cycling routes blighted by the anti-social use of mopeds and off-road motorbikes. Earlier this year, Stockport council - under the previous Labour administration - began consulting on a ‘on a draft ‘access control’ policy following new government guidance on designing ‘high quality, safe cycle infrastructure’.
This included using measures such as chicanes, bollards and barriers to combat anti-social behaviour on some routes - particularly from those using trials bikes or mopeds. But there was a backlash from campaigners who said this would discriminate against disabled people who use non-standard cycles, wheelchairs and mobility aids by effectively barring them from spaces they have a right to use.
The council initially highlighted the need to ‘balance’ the rights of disabled cyclists with protecting residents from ‘the negative impact of anti-social behaviour, including illegitimate usage of route’. But the policy - signed off at a cabinet meeting this week - has now been redrawn by the Lib Dems so that ‘there will be a general presumption against the use of access controls on new or upgraded routes’.
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