Originally Posted by local

The problem is use.

The call has been made for separate cycle lanes for years but so often they remain little used or empty where they are provided.

The few isolated bits that have been provided, are welcomed by those who use them.....But until there's a joined-up network of safe routes, you'll not tempt others out on bikes in significantly larger numbers.

Policy makers whose job is to devise solutions to current and potential future problems have recognized that automobile usage for local journeys burdens us all with unacceptable levels of various health damaging pollutants. The PM when he was Mayor of London promoted cycling; ministers in his government acknowledge the effective solution is to encourage alternative modes of transportation.
The biggest obstacle is that the Conservative party is dominated by reactionary (mostly old) fogeys:

The excitement of the Conservative Party Conference was too much handle for some guests (Picture: PA/Getty)

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15/01/2021 09:40 AM local says:

The problem is use. | The call has been made for separate cycle lanes for years but so often they remain little used or empty where they are provided. | The people that promote cycling have clearly failed in this town maybe it's time they stood aside.

Originally Posted by salus.populi

Why would it close?
It's not as if everyone who attended parked in Hoghton St
The loss of a couple of dozen parking spaces shouldn't affect a several hundred capacity theatre unduly.

Erm... well actually they did use Hoghton Street, cos I've used it. What about the elderly? Can't even drop them off and they'd have to stand there waiting for their lift in cold weather possibly.

Bloody madness

Originally Posted by roving-eye

Local Campaigners have been ‘disappointed but unsurprised’ by the announcement this week that the cycle lane project introduced down Hoghton Street and Queens Road last summer will now be expanded to include areas of Churchtown, Crossens and Birkdale Village.

As part of this expansion, lanes will also be installed connecting the town centre to Crossens and Churchtown going North and Birkdale Village going South.

The lanes have come under severe criticism from many residents, but perhaps most of all from the local Conservative group who see this scheme as yet another nail in the coffin of Southport’s high- street and small businesses.


Thomas de Freitas, a Conservative Campaigner in Meols Ward had this to say;

‘Many of us in the Conservative group warned as soon as these lanes were introduced that they would be damaging to local businesses and we have been proven right ever since.

‘In areas where parking was already limited and footfall already severely reduced by the pandemic, Labour Councillors have once again voted to reduce this parking availability even further and in the case of Queens Road block traffic from using the road entirely.

‘I will continue to campaign, with my colleagues, to see that members of the Council and our representatives in Meols are held to account for this decision.’


Lee Durkin, who campaigns for the Conservative Party in Birkdale added;

‘I’ve spoken with many residents on this issue and the response is unanimous, they don’t want cycle lanes introduced into the Village.

‘I warned last year that the Liberal Democrats would not stop the introduction of these lanes and our Liberal Democrat Councillors condemned me, but this latest announcement I feel tells residents all they need to know about their ability to stand up for local interests.

‘My colleague Thomas, now faces exactly the same situation in Meols, where there is no support for this decision, the lanes are being introduced and there are three Liberal Councillors who appear happy to stand idly by while these decisions are made for them.’


Sinclair D’Albuquerque, a Conservative Campaigner who has been vocal campaigning to remove these lanes since the Summer;

‘It’s disappointing to see the scrutiny and subsequent review we, and residents in Southport, have campaigned for undermined by further investment into making these lanes more permanent.

‘Sefton Council are sending a clear message that they are determined to ignore the wishes of people in Southport and disregard their best interest. Instead opting to force through this project.

‘Southport residents absolutely see through this and I believe they will express their dissatisfaction at a lack of strong representatives at the local elections when they are held later this year.’

Finally, the Conservative Campaigner for Dukes Ward, Mike Prendergast supported this saying;

‘There is little to no demand for this scheme from residents and businesses in Dukes Ward, I personally delivered 200 surveys on the issue specifically and received exactly 1 back indicating support for these cycle lanes!

The existing cycle lanes were hastily installed and have adversely affected those living and working nearby and were supposed to be subject to review but now it sounds as if the existing lanes will remain and that any proposed review was in name only.

The proposed new lanes in Dukes will simply exacerbate parking issues in Dukes around Smedley Hydro, which I have previously, successfully, campaigned to help alleviate.’


Residents will be able to have their say in the summer over how they feel their local councillors have handled the situation when they go to the Polls currently set to be held in May.

Absolutely wonderful news! and i do hope that the people who are taking down cycle bolards are arrested for there Pure mindless vandalism, also the people who park there cars in the cycle land

Originally Posted by libraryguy

Erm... well actually they did use Hoghton Street, cos I've used it. What about the elderly? Can't even drop them off and they'd have to stand there waiting for their lift in cold weather pobsibly.

Bloody madness

Well, I've never known taxis to pay much attention to yellow lines or cycle-lanes....they park all over the one on London St by the Station!

Originally Posted by libraryguy

Erm... well actually they did use Hoghton Street, cos I've used it. What about the elderly? Can't even drop them off and they'd have to stand there waiting for their lift in cold weather possibly.

Bloody madness

I'm not doubting that some Little Theatre goers parked in Hoghton St, I'm saying it would be impossible for all of them to have parked in Hoghton St.
No reason why those who can't walk round the corner couldn't be dropped off at the door just as they've always had to do if the parking spaces outside were already occupied.

Originally Posted by salus.populi

I'm not doubting that some Little Theatre goers parked in Hoghton St, I'm saying it would be impossible for all of them to have parked in Hoghton St.
No reason why those who can't walk round the corner couldn't be dropped off at the door just as they've always had to do if the parking spaces outside were already occupied.

But isn't it illegal to park on a cycles lane with a continuous white line?

Rule 140 of the Highway Code clearly states: Cycle lanes. These are shown by road markings and signs. You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line during its times of operation. Do not drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a broken white line unless it is unavoidable.

Or are you advocating vehicles stop in the middle of the road and stop the traffic behind them?

Cyclists and their enablers on Sefton Council will be the death of this town.

Originally Posted by The PNP

A) What else can you call people who repeatedly call for removal of cycle-lanes and calling themselves 'campaigners'....?

B) Well, thousands did switch back to bikes, digging out and dusting off their old ones from sheds and garages. Meanwhile, those who had no bikes, were cleaning out every bike shop in the area. Btw, removing the new bike-lanes would cost even more money.

No, I'm not a Councillor and I don't manufacture bikes. We were (our cycling group) outside the Town Hall waving banners, supporting a vote on 20mph limits and attended the Area Committee meeting being held that night.

A. Realists
B. These words paint a rosy picture but thousands no maybe a handful and them bikes are safely locked away back in sheds now gathering cobwebs until summer, what with this ice weather .
Removing the mistake that is bike lanes now before they make more would reassure the 199 people out of 200 that expressed that they didn’t want this that the majority were being listened to or even given the chance to comment the remaining 1 is you I bet.
Yea the whole thing is an expensive nonesense that will kill the town and as much as you like riding your bike you know this as much as anyone else but your hobby to you overrides realism.

libraryguy says:

What is needed is a joined up approach where

1. all forms of transport use the road network.
2. NOT demonising motor vehicles and eradicating them from the town centre.
3. Make Lord Street one-way and …the town centre …a ghost town.

The supposition that vehicles are to be eliminated from the town centre to make way for "the cycling uneducated who want clear roads " is gross hyperbole; far from it.

The objective is to make town centres more attractive for everyone.

Originally Posted by libraryguy

But isn't it illegal to park on a cycles lane with a continuous white line?

Rule 140 of the Highway Code clearly states: Cycle lanes. These are shown by road markings and signs. You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line during its times of operation. Do not drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a broken white line unless it is unavoidable.

Or are you advocating vehicles stop in the middle of the road and stop the traffic behind them?

Cyclists and their enablers on Sefton Council will be the death of this town.

I didn't say park. I said pick up and drop off which is perfectly legal.
Failing that use the "in" and "out" slip road that serves the theatre behind Victoria House to drop them off.

Originally Posted by libraryguy

Well, ramp it up. Go ahead! Southport will just be a ghost town you pass through on the way to other locations. People will just move away to where they can use their cars. Just so you can have empty street for your minority cycling idiots.

Still, it'll give you the joy of ignoring as many red lights as you like and cycling the wrong way along one-way streets.

You're all MAD

You make it sound like it's only Southport that is getting the cycle lanes. It's not, it's a national thing, funded by Central Government.

As for 'the joy of ignoring red lights', you'll find that it's such a prevalent offence amongst motorists that there's a lot of junctions that actually have cameras there!

Always such frantic dissent, whenever cycling infrastructure comes up. E.g. a cycle-route across the dunes was stopped by a petition against it, even though it used no roadspace at all. Why should that be?

Perhaps, far from believing cycle-routes will be unused, it's actually fear of the 'London effect'. Where, thanks to introducing cycle-superhighways, numbers of riders have shot up.......In the case of the dune path cycle scheme, objectors cited cost, unsuitability of proposed surfacing, that path would be too wide, etc. However, a dog walker I encountered on the route told me the true reason: 'we don't want them here'.

Now, motorists aren't best known for their love of cyclists. Indeed, most of them consider bikes to be a nuisance. Imo it's not the cost of paint and a few bollards, or loss of a small number of parking spaces that's behind these vehement objections. But a general reluctance of the motoring fraternity, to encourage more bikes onto the roads.