Spalding police crack down on pavement cycling... at 5am

When all's said and done pavement cycling is for children, not adults. I cant believe traffic in spalding is so bad at 5am that people are forced to ride on the pavement?? serves the abnti social B*******s right

Fines dont go to the force who issue them, it goes straight to the govt.

Since cameron and his cronies brought in crime commissioners you will find that these sort of operations will become more and more frequent. The commissioners have sent leaflets out asking what are the main problems the public face and the replies received relate to the policies they adopt for a force.

Rightly or wrongly the hands of the Police are tied. In the end though at 5am catching over 100 people riding on the pavement is obscene and any cyclist on this forum who thinks its ok is just as bad.

Cycling on footpaths not next to roads is not a criminal act. These footpaths need to have By-laws to prevent cycling (i.e pedestrian town centers). Had a lovely debate with a community support officer as i was cycling down an ally way.

The sign may say no cycling but is totally unenforceable without a by-law. These will never give blanket bans on cycling but will have time restrictions. Amazing how many police officers are not aware of the laws they are trying to enforce.

In my area a police priority against anti-social cycling was overturned because cyclists attended the relevant meeting. The areas the police were targeting was genuinely badly signed (cycle routes that stop and start unclearly) on a dangerous road, and stats on the actual danger posed were presented. Helped that one of the local county councillors was also a cyclist.

Did the police do anything about the local resident who thought that it was acceptable to shout "Bravo" at 5 in the morning?

Creating a racket at the time of the morning should be punishable by death.

I was born, and grew up in Spalding, i still work their a couple of days a week.

There is a high migrant work force there, and you would well imagine that would bring a large ignorance of the law (let's face it, when you move to a new country you're unlikely to check if you can ride on the footpath)

Drinking in public is a vary visible problem there, and probably stands out more than the cycling on footpaths, but the thing that stands out about this is that many were caught on Pinchbeck road.

Most of pinchbeck road has a cycle path on it, has done for at least 20 years, it's connected to the sports complex which you can cycle through, which connects to the river on albion st, which i *think* has a cycle path, so there are many cycle friendly options, without ridding on the roads.

An operation like this i would imagine will have a massive educational benefit, if the migrant population were unaware that cycling on a foot path was against the law, there's a good chance they all are now.

Shock and awe.

I also agree that it may also possible to catch other criminals in the process. Spalding police (many years ago) caught a burglar carrying some of my Dad's tools, riding my bike, because it didn't seem right at the time of the morning he was doing it.

I see it a positive operation, and i'm sure my parents, who still live there, would agree.

Cycling on the pavement and parking on the pavement are the same offence, 1835 Highway Act.

http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/pavementparking/

I should imagine there were plenty of cars parked on the pavement in the same area the police were targeting but, oddly, police rarely seem to "clamp down on" or even seem terribly fussed about parking on the pavement.

I disagree with the notion that police priorities should be based on who complains the loudest. Policing priority should be based on which 'crimes' cause the most damage to society (which can be empirically measured, e.g., http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1083212.stm).

I also don't think NHS treatments should be prioritised to those who shout the loudest. Some people will demand that their doctor gives them antibiotics when they have a virus - they are wrong.

Despite what was said by the minister at the time it has become entrenched that cyclists shouldn't be on the pavement, however responsible they are.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were riding with our 10 year old daughter along a footpath through a Common. It was not only the most direct route to a cycle path but also avoided a narrow road with a nasty pinch point.

As we cycled slowly in single file to one side of the path - my wife in front, then our daughter, then me - a jogger coming the other way felt entitled to shout No Cycling at each of us as he passed. I imagine Sgt Brotherton would have had us fined as well to add to his statistics.

I'm so sick of cyclists being the whipping boys. I suspect much of the hatred which used to be formerly directed at immigrants, gays etc is now transferred to cyclists as an unprotected target.

5am in Lincolnshire - an area with food processing factories and seasonal agricultural work with non local labour that works long shifts and doesn't earn much doing it - suspect police are picking a very easy target and probably some of the poorest people around - not sure if this was the target consultations suggested but I guess a lot of people are happy

Ah yes, but where I live in Manchester all parking issues have been passed to the council and are therefore not a police issue any more.

How is this relevant? Because when cyclists are on the pavement, rightly or wrongly - see the home office guidance in the article - the police will prosecute them. But all drivers on the pavement are considered to be parking, so the police want nothing to do with it. And the council don't give a toss either.

The system is broken.

+1 Argos 74 and wobblerthe1st.

Police safer neighbourhood teams or the like run priority setting meetings every couple of months in pretty much every district in England & Wales. The usual composition is
various council/police/residents representatives.

The usual turn out is one old doris complaining about dog poo, 3 slummy mummies complaining about school parking and the parish clerk complaining about speeding on their road. If a club load of cyclists turn up to make representations about this, that or the other, they are quite likely to get on the agenda as a priority, be that for the police or council. That's how come the poor sods in Spalding ended up being ticketed and doing the ticketing.

Don't have much of a problem with this. Police are reacting to understandable local concerns. After policing costs, the revenue effect will be broadly neutral, so bringing in the moolah wouldn't have been even a tertiary consideration.

At 5am in the morning, heavy road traffic shouldn't be an issue. So there's really no excuse. We (cyclists) are road users. We use the road. Not the pavement. Riding on the pavement is illegal and scares the living daylights out of pedestrians, of which I'm one occasionally.

Just a thought. Is the traffic flow at 5 am in Spalding so heavy that some people feel the need to ride on pavements for their own safety? If not, why are they doing it? There's probably more to this than is obvious, so over reacting without actually knowing all the facts is a bit daft, and just another polarising problem. There are not "cyclists" and "motorists", and "public" and "pedestrians" and "police". There are humans wanting to stay safe, do their jobs, be treated with fairness and consideration. Amongst the humans are some nitwits who consider they are entitled to do what they like and don't care about anyone else. Unfortunately some of the "militant" cyclists in this group give us all a bad name, and might even be the cause of someone getting badly hurt due to irritated and unattentive road users who have just encountered one of these "militants". Message to the militants, you are not helping, pack it in, we justall want to survive and enjoy life. Message to stupid drivers, pedestrians (of which we are almost all at some time), be kinder and more considerate. Then the world is a less polarised and happier place.

And just why is there a problem.
Riders were caught breaking the law and thus showing the world what twats they are. The fact that so many were caught shows that at this place there was an issue. It might not be where you are but there is obviously was.

You cannot say that the police should be out "doing something more useful" . They have to do a little bit of everything even if you don't like that.
The local resident's are presumably happy and their vies has value whereas those of you who live elsewhere have no say in the matter.
Grow up Citizen.

'Operation Oatmeal'? That is creative genius right there!

Reminiscent of the crackdown / blitz / whatever on anti-social cycling in Manchester reported two days ago:

http://road.cc/content/news/86258-hundreds-fined-police-clamp-down-anti-...

If only they took dangerous and illegal driving half as seriously. Greater Manchester crime stats for April 2013 from http://www.ukcrimestats.com/Police_Force/Greater_Manchester_Police

Anti-Social 10,892
Burglary 2,391
Robbery 295
Vehicle Crime 1,697
Violent Crime 2,384
Other Crime 8,266

“The facts don’t lie – it was a shocking result. Cycling on the pavements is the second biggest concern in Spalding after street drinking."

LOL - I bet driving is more of a concern but the nimby's who are probably drivers whinge about the problem they seemingly cause.

On average 0.3 pedestrians per year killed by cyclists while on the pavement. Compare that to the over 50 per year who will die as a result of being struck by motorised vehicles while on the pavement. Not condoning antisocial or illegal behaviour, merely pointing out that the police's insistence that pavement cycling is a major concern may be slightly misguided

Not sure why it highlighted that part, my reply was the last sentence...?

You hardly ever see cyclists on the pavement so if these are hotspots where this regularly occurs then it is probably for a reason - i.e the roads are either unsafe or extremely inefficient for cyclists.

How about a bit of common sense and working with cyclists to improve these junctions rather than persecuting them. This smacks of tacit discrimination towards cyclists.

Quote:

“It is a serious crime. As soon as a rider takes to the footpath they are putting pedestrians at risk...."

Seriously, at 5.00am. How long did the exercise last for?
And since when was riding on the pavement a crime? I thought it was public order offence.

I'm truly astonished - your police are up at 5am to deliberately target something SO HARMLESS that's it is no longer an offence in Scotland?

Bravo indeed!

I'm so glad in a time of public sector cuts, crimes that cause the most damage to society are being prioritised by the police.