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Interesting theme this - as has been said, riding cycles on the footpath, unless it is a dedicated to both cycles and pedestrians, is against the law.
I once spoke with a senior local police officer on this and his reply was surprisingly - 'They are safer there' - my reply was not to elderly and young pedestrians where they came from behind.
Keith, maybe from your experience as a PCSO you would like to enlighten us on whether this could be enforced by PCSO's as the police priority appears to be very low - that is not, can they do it under their present powers, it is could they do it if the Chief Constable were to adopt some of the many other offences that PCSO's could have?
Cycle paths are the way ahead especially with cycling becoming more popular and in urban areas these may need to be partly pedestrian cycle routes due to width restrictions.
When a small group of us, including Kent Highways and Sustrans, walked the route some months ago now, we counted 18 cyclists on or very near to the route - very encouraging to the project we were working on.
Yes, work on the next phase of the River Dour Greenway is scheduled to commence on 4th January and part at Buckland Avenue has already been undertaken. This phase will involve work at the junctions of Buckland Avenue with Lorne Road and Cherry Tree Avenue with new crossing facilities and some restructuring. The Greenway route will be coming from Buckland Bridge/Buckland Avenue, into Brookfield Place, Alfred Road, Lorne Road, Cherry Tree Avenue and onto Barton Path before making its way to Ladywell - the stage from here to the sea front will be following later as funding becomes available.
It has been good productive work between the partners especially Simon at Sustrans who Paul W and I got to know at the Regional Transport Board. As Howard indicates, there was a strong indication at one point that the KCC funding could be lost but through lobbying and drawing their attention to the facts, eventually the funds were in the budget again - easily said in a few words there but is was quite an effort at times but we got there.
Scotchie - there are plans for cycle paths in the Deal area - there is a cycling plan but so far there has been local objections against two schemes so funding has currently been lost from KCC.
As those of you who know me will appreciate, I am very keen on road safety having chaired the Dover Joint Transportation Board during the discussions for improvements to the Dover - Deal road and seen some of the horrific photographs that Kent Police hold. I was therefore appauled to see the headlines in both the Dover Express and the Dover Mercury this week - luckily it seems as if the young lady will be OK and hopefully she will not have the memories for very long - this is appauling behaviour on our roads so, if the 'driver' is reading this, please contact the police and get your guilt off your chest - you will feel a lot better.
Nigel