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Tacks strewn across popular Greater Manchester cycle routeFallowfield Loop with Levenshulme South station.jpg

Tacks strewn across popular Greater Manchester cycle route

Campaigners condemn sabotage of Fallowfield Loop, popular among families for traffic-free bike rides with kids
by Simon_MacMichael
Mon, May 06, 2024 20:35
5

Cycling campaigners in Greater Manchester have condemned those responsible for strewing tacks across a cycle route that is popular with families riding with their children.

The tacks were discovered earlier today in two separate locations on the Fallowfield Loop traffic-free cycle path.

The route, which follows that of a disused railway line, was developed and built by Sustrans with the help of local volunteers from the late 1990s onwards and forms part of the National Cycle Network route 60.

Sustrans describes the route, which runs for approximately 4 kilometres in the south of Manchester from Chorlton to Fairfield and links a number of green spaces such as parks, as being “ideal for families and new cyclists who need to build up their confidence away from road traffic.”

Posting images of the tacks to X, formerly Twitter, Peter O’Hare wrote: “Grim. Just picked these up from Fallowfield Loop. Spread all over. Luckily I missed them with the little one. But all ages enjoying this morning. Sad.”

It appears that more than one location was targeted, with another user of the social network replying to the post to say that he too had seen tacks spread across the route, albeit in a different place.

Local active travel campaign group Walk Ride GM, quote tweeting the original post, said: “A cycle route enjoyed by families with kids on a bank holiday Monday What would possess someone to do this?”

According to the Manchester Evening News, no-one is believed to have been hurt as a result of the tacks being strewn over the surface of the route.

Over the years we’ve reported on a number of instances here on road.cc in which tacks and drawing pins have been thrown onto cycle routes, including a protected cycle route in South London that was repeatedly targeted over a period of two years, causing many riders to puncture.

> South London cycleway repeatedly targeted with drawing pins

Fallowfield Loop
tacks
sabotage
Simon MacMichael

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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5 comments

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Disgusted of Tu... | 6 months ago
6 likes

With the increasing daily volume of "anti-cycling" propaganda churned out by the tabloid press to feed the ever-frustrated general public, "cyclists" are, in many ways, one of the last remaining "legitimate targets" who can be vilified as a group without any fear of being accused of some sort of an "anti" or "ism" offence (ULEZ being the other).
The regular demands from public figures and politicians repeatedly jeering "registration plates for cyclists" etc in a desperate attempt to curry favour only adds fuel to this bonfire of hate and ignorance.
With a final grenade thrown in by the balaclava-clad e-motobike drug dealers; who taunt Police and most bizarrely of all, are branded cyclists, and the primary driving force of complaints to Councils, who then deem it appropriate to prohibit cyclists access to public thoroughfares....

A truly Orwellian dystopia!

Avatar
Argos74 | 6 months ago
2 likes

Spotted on the Friends of the Fallowfield Loop Facebook group this morning. Tacks are the least of my worries.

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Pub bike | 6 months ago
1 like

They look just like the galvanised steel nails typically used to attach roofing felt to OSB or other thin wooden board used to form the roof of garden sheds or flat roofs.  That may give a clue to who or where they came from.

Avatar
Born_peddling replied to Pub bike | 6 months ago
0 likes

You very well could be right there, I used to live just off that route, they're some private businesses that back onto it disgruntled local maybe? Yes it goes to Chorlton, going the other way leads up to Ashton/Denton way so wouldn't be surprised if more were found further up.

Avatar
ROOTminus1 replied to Pub bike | 6 months ago
6 likes
Pub bike wrote:

They look just like the galvanised steel nails typically used to attach roofing felt to OSB or other thin wooden board used to form the roof of garden sheds or flat roofs.  That may give a clue to who or where they came from.

Sadly, any malicious arsehole can walk into Screwfix and pick up a kilo of them for £9

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