Fed-up residents of Helpston Road in Glinton have called on Peterborough City Council to help tackle the problem of Arthur Mellows pupils cycling on the pavements.
After claims that the school either ignored complaints or replied to say there was nothing they could do about it, local couple Simon and Johanna Potter carried out a survey of people living there.Every person that replied called for children to be banned from cycling on the pavement - more than 85% saying they shouldn’t be allowed to cycle on pavements either side of the road, and the rest saying they should be stopped from cycling on one side.
Many of the respondents said they’d felt in danger and others complained that the grass verges had been completely ruined by children on bikes.
All but one of the people who replied said they thought it had been wrong for AMVC to change the end of the school day so it exactly mirrored the primary school.
“The problem now is that primary school children, invariably on foot, are heading west at the same time that secondary school pupils are heading east and they meet head-on. Any five year-old faced with a whole gang of 15-year-olds cycling straight at him, full pelt, is going to feel terrified,” said Mr Potter. “Do we really have to wait until one is badly hurt by a youth on a bicycle before anything is done?
“It must be pretty intimidating for the elderly and infirm as well.”
However, the police say they are powerless to act as it seems that even though cycling on the pavement is illegal, the children here are not breaking the law by cycling on the pavements.
“The police have told me that Peterborough City Council has designated both pavements as cycle ways,” added Mr. Potter. “To do so without asking the people who live here and without considering the plight of the elderly and the very young is irresponsible.
“A pavement should be for pedestrains and in this case the council clearly hasn’t considered their needs or safety at all.”
Cycle Frustration
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Reading that article annoyed me. Cycling on the road puts us in more danger than we would put pedestrians in. Down Helston Road at the end of school there are many cars, and going on the road puts us in great danger. Many times I’ve nearly been run over by dodgy drivers. I thought the pavements were cycle paths as all the way from Helpston it is. If you’re going to make us use the road you should ban cars from going down there from 3.05 to 3.30.
This is stupid because its a cycle-path anyway, so going on the road is pointless and stupid, as there are mad drivers which go down there.
This is outrageous behaviour!
Pathways are for walking pedestrians! Those that cycle should do so on the road…
When i was a pupil of AMVC college i respect those that liked to walk and cycled on the road!
I am thoroughly disgusted by this unrespectful behaviour. Maybe the villagers should be equipped with stingers as a preventitive measure to those cyclist that choose to use our walk ways!
How dare them!
So, anonymous schoolchildren, you think that because you see the road as being dangerous you consider that you have the right to make the pavements dangerous for the most vulnerable people in society, do you?
No, think again. Show some respect for the elderly and toddlers, who you terrify.
This is from the Cambridgeshire police website, concerning a similar problem in the town of March:
At a recent panel meeting in March residents decided that one of the priorities for police to tackle in the town should be anti-social cycling.
Residents are concerned that people riding bikes on the pavement could result in a collision.
PCSOs and PCs have the power to stop people riding on footpaths and will be issuing fixed penalty notices of £30 to anyone who repeatedly rides a push bike on a footpath.
Guardian awareness letters will be sent home to the families of young people caught riding their bikes on the pavement.
PCSO Ian Moll, from the neighbourhood police team, said: “Riding on the footpath can be dangerous, especially to those who cannot get out of the way easily. If you ride a bike you still must obey the rules of the road.”
This anti-social cycling is getting out of hand! Just yesterday i was walking to the local post office for my morning paper and eggs, I came out the shop and on to the pathway on Helpston road, three school kids, paying no attention at all, knocked all my eggs onto the floor, what did i get? A finger sign, laughter and no apologies what so ever! Disgraceful!
Excuse me,. Do you have nout’ else to do except from complaining about “the youth of today”. It’s now a cycle path as the police have made it so stop complaining. We’re not asleep you know and we’re not gonna crash into you. Man, you’re so stuck in your ways. If you’re so worried about being run over don’t go out when were about . Anyway people have been cycling on the pavement for years so why complain now?
This is stupid. If you think that this is a real danger to you, just don’t come out when we are there… simple! btw, it is a cycle path and we are aloud on the path so we are not breaking any rules.
I see this article has caused a lot of controversy - I attend AMVC and cycle on my bike to and from school, I cycle as carefully as possible on the pavement and try to respect the pedestrians. I don‘t know when this survey was conducted but I wasn’t asked to participate and I understand many others like myself were also not informed about the survey. Consequently it sounds as though the results are rather biased.
We don’t purposely try to intimidate you and the majority of us do respect your usage of the pavements too, but I feel that you have to realise how dangerous it can be for us using the roads. I frequently witness unnecessary and reckless speeding from drivers, and I believe that the amount of accidents would probably increase if more teenagers cycled on the road.
It has been a cycle path for many years and I thought this was well known. Pupils have been cycling on the pavement for numerous years, and there have never been many complaints about it before now. If the city council have assigned this as a cycle path and the police agreed with the suggestion, then there must be a competent reason for it.
Greg I am disappointed to hear about the incident concerning the eggs and the some children that attend AMVC, I can assure you they are in the minority and that most of us that attend the college would be sorry and apologise in that given situation.
I do feel that something should be done to help please people on both sides of the argument, however banning us from using the pavements if cycling, is not a suitable option!
Just today I was biking home on the road due peoples’ complaints. A man in a car shouts at us “get
off the road you •••••”. I stopped at crossing and he got out of his car and came and had a go at us and threatened that he will run us over next time! If he does this again, we are going to report him to the police as I took a picture of him.
The pupil concerned is not aware that the cycle-way is on the other side of the road and it is not the pavement they are riding on it is the grass. I will not be reponsible for hitting a cyclist when I come out of my drive.
From reading all the comments about this problem there is a serious problem which must be addressed. Yesterday afternoon I saw a cyclist come off his cycle ouside one of the bungalows, fortunately he didn’t appear badly hurt. A few minutes later another cyclist came from behind a group of walkers and ran into my wife, again fortunatly neither was hurt but both were badly shaken by the incident. I accept it is impossible to put cyclists onto the road with the amount of motor traffic at that time. But we cannot continue to have cyclists and pedestrians in the same space with the volume of both that are currently going to and from the college. It is a good college and in the main, the pupils are helpful and well behaved. Therefore wouldn,t it make sense to move access to the college for cyclists across the playing field from Lincoln road. It helps no one to create animosity between pupils and residents - cannot we all work together to solve the problem?
I totally agree with C.A.Wootton that alternative access for school cyclists should be provided, especially if it means that I will be able to walk up and down Foxcovert Road again at whatever time I please. I do not have a car and travel around frequently on foot. I have had some mild verbal abuse in the past from AMVC pupils using Foxcovert Road in the mornings, but about 3 years ago a youth, who was in the company of a group of other AMVC cyclists deliberately tried to run me down with his bicycle while I was walking one morning on that road. I had to jump out of the way, as the demonic grin on his face showed me he clearly meant business. There are no pavements on Foxcovert Road, of course and one is at the mercy of traffic generally in that location. And a woman can feel quite vulnerable there as it is sparsely populated.
I was so shaken by this incident that I have altered my entire working day so that I do not use Foxcovert Road when the children are going to or from school. This has restricted my life considerably and I have lost work as a result. I can’t wait for the school holidays when I can come and go as I please. That an adult could feel so intimidated by children could be considered feeble, but some of them do seem to have carte blanche these days to behave as they wish, regardless of the effect it may have on others. Reading the various comments and letters in the Tribune this year, I am relieved to see that I am not alone in being concerned about this problem.
CA Wootton writes: “I accept it is impossible to put cyclists onto the road with the amount of motor traffic at that time.”
Why?
Cycling on the footpath is illegal and the fact the road is busy should not be an excuse the break the law. You wouldn’t put up with cars or motorbikes on a pavement just because the road is busy so why accept cyclists, especially those who are determined to ride at full speed with no consideration for pedestrians?
I have biked to AMVC and back and to the primary school and back pretty much every day of my school life, and have mainly biked on the road but there does come a point in my journey that you have to go on the path to cross the road safely without being hit by a car or risking other life’s trying to cross, as the law states it is a cycle path and therefore can be used for cycles, I have experienced walkers talking up pretty much all of the path and forcing me off my bike a few times, so it works both ways and should be shared properly, biking on the road is very dangerous as you can properly see with the speeding cars that do not stick to the speed limit and the careless driving from people, who over take you with cms to spare from you and their car. also I would like to add a cyclists was killed on that ROAD, so I’m not surprised if people do feel that they have to cycle on the path, however I’m sure a lot of people would come to agree meant if there was a measure in place that was fair to both sides unlike a ban, this is just stupid and shows that you do not care about how others travel around you and that you just care for your self.