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

Police say that one person on Upper Shoreham Road “narrowly escaped serious injury”

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.

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.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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6 comments

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randonneur | 3 years ago
0 likes

Just have to cycle in the road.
Further out than the cycle lane of course.

Avatar
Jenova20 | 3 years ago
3 likes

I like how they included a photo for those of us who don't know what drawing pins look like.

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mdavidford | 3 years ago
6 likes

Peculiar wording: "items being discarded on the cycle lane"

As if someone might have just happened to be walking next to the lane when they realised their pockets were full of unwanted drawing pins, and just carelessly turned them out.

Avatar
iandusud replied to mdavidford | 3 years ago
3 likes
mdavidford wrote:

Peculiar wording: "items being discarded on the cycle lane"

As if someone might have just happened to be walking next to the lane when they realised their pockets were full of unwanted drawing pins, and just carelessly turned them out.

It's a strange language known as "police speak".

Avatar
sensei | 3 years ago
4 likes

Seems Roger Elkins is the new Johnny Thalassites. I wonder how long it will take for the council committee to overrule and remove him from the consultation process?!

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to sensei | 3 years ago
4 likes
sensei wrote:

Seems Roger Elkins is the new Johnny Thalassites. I wonder how long it will take for the council committee to overrule and remove him from the consultation process?!

Soon, please, soon.

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