Expertly-deployed Ainsley Harriott stickers raise profile of Bournemouth cycle safety campaign

We hadn’t heard about Bournemouth’s latest cycle safety campaign – then someone stuck a load of stickers of Ainsley Harriott’s face on the road signs and we heard about it.

The signs on Talbot Avenue feature a car and a cyclist and instruct drivers to “look out for cyclists,” encouraging them to leave at least 1.5m when overtaking.

The Bournemouth Echo reports that a cut-out of Harriott’s head has been stuck onto the signs, with the TV chef appearing both inside the car and as the cyclist.

Claire Heaton, Bournemouth council’s senior road safety officer, said: “We are aware that the cycle safety signs near the university have been defaced with stickers and they will be removed as soon as possible.”

The Echo also says that a new cycle lane around Bournemouth University that opened in February appeared to take riders straight into a lamp post at one point.

That description brings to mind a lane elsewhere in the city that directs cyclists the wrong way down a one-day street before ending at a row of parked cars.

Cycling UK called the layout “a recipe for disaster”.