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Cycling ban poster in Brigg and Scunthorpe (North Lincolnshire Council)Council “escalates war on cycling menaces” with new town centre ban, saying: “We will not stop until we eradicate this behaviour”
A local council says it has “escalated” and “intensified” its “war on cycling menaces” by implementing a complete ban on riding a bike in pedestrianised zones, as part of a wider crackdown on anti-social behaviour.
North Lincolnshire Council announced this week that a new Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) is now in place in Scunthorpe and Brigg, following a public consultation earlier this year, introducing stronger powers and increasing fines for what the local authority describes as the “scourge” of “irresponsible behaviour”.
In Scunthorpe and Brigg town centres, cycling is now completely banned, with anyone caught riding a bike in pedestrianised areas set to be immediately handed a fixed penalty notice of £100. According to the previous PSPO, cyclists could only be fined if they refused to dismount when approached by an officer.
The total cycling ban comes as part of a suite of toughened anti-social measures, which also include the outright ban of drinking in the street and greatly increased fines for littering, fly-tipping, neglecting waste duty of care, and graffiti.
“We will not stop until we eradicate this behaviour,” Rob Waltham, the leader of the Conservative-controlled North Lincolnshire Council said in a statement, issued under the headline “Council triples fines as war on fly-tippers, litter louts, and cycling menaces intensifies”.
“People need to use one of the thousands of bins provided, get off their bikes and push, or dispose of their household waste responsibly – it really is not that difficult.
“We have repeatedly asked people to stop doing these things, we have repeatedly told them how their behaviour impacts on others and, while we are starting to see some changes, it is clearly not enough. Local taxpayers will not pick up the bill for irresponsible behaviour.”
John Davidson, the local authority’s cabinet member for communities and urban added: “We consulted earlier in the year on stronger measures to tackle the scourge of anti-social behaviour and the response from the public was overwhelmingly in support of tougher action.
“The vast majority of people don’t make the area a mess for others or cause problems – but for the few that do we are going to hit them even harder in the pocket, clearly they have not listened to our requests, pleas, and demands.
“The Government provided the opportunity for us to increase the fines for these offences, residents have supported us, and we have done.”
However, when the public consultation was launched earlier this year, the proposed ban was heavily criticised by disabled cycling charity Wheels for Wellbeing, who argued that they had the potential to “deepen discrimination against cycling as a mobility aid”.
Nevertheless, Waltham maintained that the PSPO “has enabled us to protect vulnerable communities by targeting anyone creating a nuisance or putting themselves and others in danger”.
“The new measures will enhance those protections and I make absolutely no apologies for doing so,” he said.
> Cyclists warned city's new e-bike ban will be "clamping down on any cases of reckless behaviour"
The newly implemented cycling ban in Scunthorpe and Brigg is one of many that have come into force in town centres and pedestrianised zones across the UK in recent years.
Earlier this month, a controversial ban on e-bikes in certain pedestrianised parts of Coventry city centre was introduced, with the deputy leader of the council warning that riders can expect strict enforcement.
The new ruling, which prohibits e-bikes and e-scooters being ridden through sections of the city centre, was approved last month, as Coventry City Council passed a PSPO despite protestations from the West Midlands’ walking and cycling commissioner Adam Tranter, who argued such a ban would “discourage cycling and penalise responsible cyclists”.
Last February cyclists in Bedford staged a ride protesting a “discriminatory” town centre bike ban, while this summer Hammersmith and Fulham Council introduced an e-bike and e-scooter ban along part of the Thames Path.
A pensioner in Grimsby also made headlines when he told the council to stick its £100 fine for cycling in the town centre “up your a***”, saying he would “rather go to prison than give them £100”.
That particular town centre ban in Grimsby has attracted quite a bit of attention in recent times, with some locals accusing the council of targeting the “old and slow” and cyclists “they can get away with” for fines.
Wheels for Wellbeing, while criticising a councillor’s “get off and walk” advice to town centre cyclists, also called for clearer signage which specifically states that people who use standard cycles as mobility aids are permitted to ride in pedestrianised zones, which they say will both reassure disabled cyclists and help reduce the risk of confrontation between pedestrians and people on bikes.
And last month, police in Nuneaton said they had asked the council to introduce a no cycle zone to cut out “really dangerous” cycling and “anti-social behaviour” in the shopping area, saying that “we get a lot of kids wheelie-ing through and it sets the wrong tone”.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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77 comments
Don't discriminate against the young disabled people
The problem, as already pointed out in this comment thread is that the "cyclists" the council want to deal with, the ones causing actual problems, are exactly the ones who will be unaffected by this, as they will not stop when asked, will not hand over their details and will simply ride away when challenged.
So the inevitable result of the policy is that the "cycling menace" continues, and well-behaved cyclists going about their business no longer bother and drive instead.
And it isn't just about being asked to get off and walk for a section. It is about lumping cyclists in with fly-tippers and litter louts with the heavy implication that the council simply views cycling as anti-social in and of itself. Given how dreadful cycling provision is in both Brigg and Scunthorpe, it wouldn't surprise me if that was what they thought.
There's a pedestrian area here in Southampton where cycling is permitted, although I avoid it when it's busy. The alternative route is down a fairly busy road, but thankfully the council has made part of it buses and taxis (and bikes) only to reduce the amount of through traffic.... Unfortunately there's no enforcement so people have continued to drive through it anyway. We all know where the problem with dangerous behaviour lies.
Strongly agree. And reckless cycling done by all demographics and an uncomfortably high proportion of cyclists. Speaking as 50 years bike as main transport up to 100 miles
Why do you think the amount of time you've been riding validates your very extreme anti-cyclist opinions? Cycling has been my main form of transport for more than 40 years, I don't think that particularly makes my opinion more valid than that of somebody who's been cycling for five.
Why is this anti cycling? Its about seeing that the king is in the altogether.
We have some very militant, angry people on here. I wonder do you not think refering to people as " gammon" is not so as one person has on this thread?
If we cannot face up.to simple facts instead of getting angry and abusive if not damn right offensive to one another it doesn't say alot about us, Does it!
E6toSE3, the person whom you are so strongly supporting, is the only one who used the term "gammon". You seem a bit confused, I think you might need coffee and breakfast and then come back when you have a bit of a better grasp of what's actually being said and by whom.
Oh no! The Terrorradfahrer are back
They already had powers to 'ave a go at "cycling menaces", surely?
What this means is making it simpler for their enforcement officers by removing any possible discretion, so a careful eighty year old on a city bike is treated the same as a fourteen year old in a balaclava wheelying along on a BMX.
(I love how they talk as if riding a bike is the same as street drinking or littering…)
Well - and I'd love a local to tell me otherwise - it looks like with the provision for cycling in Scunthorpe only wrong'uns are likely to be cycling there. ("Cyclists" will have already left as quickly as possible.)
The vast majority of the cycling parts marked on Google are ... in parks.
Here's some of the "on road - sometimes" provision (here on Streetview - further back you can see some "spontaneous generation" as cyclists mysteriously emerge like maggots from a kerb. I did find one though here). Looks quite a lot like the US "sharrows" and green death strips to my eye... (There's what looks like a footway you can cycle on (maybe?) on the other side. I think the local authority is yet to reach the height of "paint and sign" provision.)
It's absolute hell to ride around Scunthorpe and the roads are in a terrible state.
They are banning cycling from the town centre but the only people in the centre are drunk, high or just going between bookies and pound shops. Unfortunately the only way through Scunthorpe safely is the centre as the cycling provisions are so bad
It looks like car town to me. Not that anywhere in the UK isn't car town (possible exception the centre of Cambridge? TBH even in NL it's still quite possible to drive most places - just slightly less convenient than cycling or walking...). Even places with "historic streets" are. This place looks "yeeeehaaa!" though.
Yes, like the rest of the UK and not as Chris Boardman describes it, Cambridge is a car town. Massive decades-long battles with Tory/Daily Mail 1970s pitchfork wielding driving voters continue to demand more road space, more parking provision, more pavement use, more, more, more.
In the NL you will also find cycling is banned in pedestrian areas.
And also In NL you'll find many - if not most - people cycle to the shopping.
That's why they also build - and continue to increase - the number of large cycle parking garages in urban centres.
I'd say same idea, coming from a very different attitude. But yes - you will indeed see signs with allowed times for cycling.
Whereas in the UK often where there is indeed a pedestrian area it's surrounded by quite unpleasant roads, because people want to drive to the "nice pedestrianised shopping centre". Which then means people who might consider cycling across town can choose: brave it with the motor vehicles, take a (sometimes massive) detour, go through the banned area. Or ... drive.
Discrimination. Nothing more, nothing less.
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