Drawing pins strewn on West Sussex emergency bike lane that is currently being ripped up by council

Police in West Sussex have said that a person using an emergency cycle lane in Shoreham-by-Sea “narrowly escaped injury” due to drawing pins being strewn across it.

In a post on Twitter, Adur & Worthing Police urged anyone with information to get in touch with them.

Are you aware of items being discarded on the cycle lane on Upper Shoreham Road, Shoreham?

In one incident the person narrowly escaped serious injury.

If you've any information relating to this, please call 101 and quote reference 794 of 9th Jan 2021.#Shoreham #39078 #Adur pic.twitter.com/18j6bQYQQO

— Adur&Worthing Police (@AdurWorthingPol) January 19, 2021

The lane was installed last September using emergency active travel funding from the Department for Transport (DfT), with levels of cycling there rising three-fold.

However, in November, West Sussex County Council announced that it would be removing the lane, along with others installed across the county to encourage active travel during the coronavirus crisis.

The council’s cabinet member for highways, Councillor Roger Elkins, voted on two occasions during November to remove the lane even before it was completed or the route had been finished – overriding a council scrutiny committee that had called for it to remain in place.

As we reported earlier this month, a Freedom of Information request subsequently discovered that the councillor, despite his role overseeing the county’s highways, had never officially visited the cycle lane to see it for himself.

> “Appalling”: Councillor who made decision to remove popular pop-up cycle lane had never officially seen it for himself

Adam Bronkhorst, of campaign group Shoreham-by-cycle, which made the Freedom of Information request, said: "For the people in Shoreham-by-Sea who have really made the most of safer cycling on Upper Shoreham Road – particularly children, parents and people new to cycling – the fact that Cllr Elkins made the decision (twice) to remove the pop-up cycle lanes without even coming to see the project is particularly appalling."

Work to remove the lane is currently taking place and is expected to last two to three weeks, although the charity Cycling UK is seeking a judicial review of the council’s decision.