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news
Cousin Lane, Calderdale (image: Google Maps)Hundreds sign petition opposing cycle lane to protect trees… and parking space
Hundreds including residents, councillors, and opposition candidates are citing the loss of parking space and trees, among other reasons for opposing a cycling route in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which received positive outcomes from 60 per cent of the respondents.
The Calderdale Council is currently consulting over a scheme to enhance walking and cycling routes in North Halifax, including building a cycle lane in Cousin Lane, Ovenden. However, a petition which has almost 350 signatures has been launched in its objection.
The petition reads: “The Labour-run Calderdale council planned implementation of a cycle lane in North Halifax after none or little consultation with residents and businesses.”
“The planned cycle lane will mean residents with no driveways won't be able to park their cars, businesses will lose trade, trees will be cut down, money NHP has spent on improving the area planting plants etc - ripped up.”
The lane is a residential street with the odd off-license store, a church, a pub and bus stops at both ends. The two-lane road is separated from the pavement by a patch of green grass and a row of tall trees.
The proposed two-way cycle lane would be a part of North Halifax’s Improved Streets for People programme, which had a public consultation in 2021 and received positive responses from 60 per cent people. In contrast, only 22 per cent of the respondents said that they felt negatively about it.
> Campaign stepped up for Queensbury Tunnel bike route in West Yorkshire (+ videos)
However, Halifax Courier reported that Ovenden’s Labour ward councillors have released a joint statement saying that after listening carefully to the views of the residents, they cannot support the scheme unless changes are made.
The councillors said: “We are really concerned about the loss of residents’ parking on Cousin Lane, the loss of the disabled bay and the impact on the supported living house.
“Finally we are concerned about the loss of 20 trees, just one in a series of such losses in the area. We would want to see any lost trees replaced in the immediate area.
“We support the promotion of cycling and the reduction of car journeys but can only support this proposal if these changes are made so the scheme works for everyone.”
Conservative candidate for the ward in May’s local elections, Chris Matejak, said there was a concern the proposals were “a done deal”, and that residents and businesses feel that they have been “erased” from the consultation.
He also added: “While many things in the plan are welcomed, both the residents and I cannot comprehend why they plan to tear down trees, impose a cycle lane upon the community, severely impact residents with no driveways – you can’t park on the cycle lanes – have a negative impact on businesses with no car parks, and have a very negative effect on the church where many residents need to park near the entrance.”
Former Tory councillor Andrew Tagg, who claims to cycle along Cousin Road, said: “The numbers of people using Cousin Lane as a cycle route is minuscule as such the proposal to tear up trees to form a cycle lane and remove parking spaces for existing residents, does not have any cost or environmental benefit.”
Calderdale Council’s Assistant Director for Strategic Infrastructure, Adrian Gill, said the latest proposals have been shared at two recent drop-in events and are also available to view online, which form part of a second round of engagement.
He said: “The plans aim to create places where people choose to make trips on foot, bicycle, scooter and bus, by making it an easier, safer and more pleasant experience.
“The latest proposals have been shaped by feedback to previous consultation exercises. There is still an opportunity to have your say on these plans, and feedback, comments or suggestions from this round of engagement will be used to develop designs for the scheme which will be submitted to the Combined Authority for approvals.”
> Council blames "design error" as new 30m-long cycle lane blocked by lamppost causes ridicule
Last year, the Calderdale Council had a bit of a sticky moment when residents were left baffled with one of its newly built cycle lanes, that was just 30 metres long, abruptly started at a pedestrian crossing and of all things, was blocked by a lamppost.
A council spokesperson at the time had blamed the unfortunate state of the cycling infrastructure on “errors and omissions on the design drawings”.
Liberal Democrat councillor James Baker had expressed disappointment at the safety issues, namely the lamppost and abrupt end at a pedestrian crossing, saying: "There are good examples of cycling infrastructure around the country, sadly this isn't one of them.”
Andrew Tagg, who is currently opposing the Cousin Lane cycle road, had written to Halifax Courier regarding the bizarre cycle lane: “We have got a new 30 metre, yes you read it right 30 metre, cycle lane in King Cross. You can imagine hundreds of people riding up and down this lane getting fit and shedding pounds.
“Seriously what a sad state of affairs for the people of Halifax.”
Adwitiya joined road.cc in 2023 as a news writer after completing his masters in journalism from Cardiff University. His dissertation focused on active travel, which soon threw him into the deep end of covering everything related to the two-wheeled tool, and now cycling is as big a part of his life as guitars and football. He has previously covered local and national politics for Voice Cymru, and also likes to write about science, tech and the environment, if he can find the time. Living right next to the Taff trail in the Welsh capital, you can find him trying to tackle the brutal climbs in the valleys.
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34 comments
Surprised Flint hasn't popped his head up for his standard response.
Everyone now.
Altogether.
After three
1
2
3
LAYYYYYYBBB
You forgot your sentence bollards - have some of mine .........
EDIT apologies - didn't spot this is not news!
GOOD.
Cyclists need to wake up we can't change the world because they want to cycle to work and back 5 days a week on their own private bit of asphalt.
Past your bedtime. Now be a dear and be quiet; grown ups are talking.
Why not? That's what we did for car users.
Imagine signing up to a cycle website and thinking you could change opinions by posting absolute fucking bullshit. Imagine being so stupid.
In other news, motorists are utterly convinced that the world owes them free storage space for their four-wheeled possessions.
Your comment makes no sense.
Residential roads are for this purpose otherwise they would be a single vehicle width wide with no parking allowed ever.
Many residential roads established prior to the advent of the motor car were built with the purpose of allowing two horsedrawn vehicles to pass at a reasonable distance, said vehicles and livestock being kept in stables when not in use so no parking necessary. This is why so many roads in such areas are made dangerous by mass parking, often leaving hardly enough space down the middle for a single car of today's obscenely gargantuan proportions to pass down, let alone pass an oncoming cyclist safely.
Anyway, who do we reckon Broken_Chain is? I'm thinking 8/1 new troll, 3/1 Martin73 and evens Nigel.
They both had better command of the written word.
This is true but Nigel does have form in terms of "cleverly" disguising his return, remember when he came back from one ban as an Eastern European ("Rakia") with pidgin English which gradually disappeared over time?
Either way, this one has "ignore me" written all over them...
No. Residential streets before the onslaught vehicle ownership you would have had children playing on them without fear. Now you can't get them out of the house. The streets were the equivalent of two lanes simply to reduce overcrowding (I'm talking terraced houses built before the ICE here) and to allow various delivery vehicles pass each other while one was parked up -milk, bread, coal and all that. The modern estates have only replicated that spacing but have ended up as car parks.
Incorrect.
Until politicians are challenged to think beyond transport policy being entirely based around motor vehicles we will continue to have a system that takes 1 step forward, only to be followed by 1 step back.
Getting people out of cars and engaged in active travel has so many benefits (see Bike Nation or The Miracle Pill both by Peter Walker), but without a long term view we will barely notice any progress.
Green activists have had some success in the courts challenging the government to explain how net zero policies will reach targets (https://tinyurl.com/228j6kvw), I think a similar method maybe necessary to encourage councils to commit to active travel / green travel policy.
Just seen Bristol's funding for electric buses and bike hangar schemes has been scrapped: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/funding-scrapped-plans-paused-electric-8337406
Our government makes noises about net zero, but any commitment they make is half-hearted and inconsistent. It very much seems as though they are more interested in chasing money from oil/motor companies than trying to serve the interests of the people.
Massively selfish.
The carriageway is 9m wide, and half of it has a service road.
So take out parking on one side for the service road section, and manage the other half very carefully.
You can't blame the locals for wanting to protect the natural beauty around them like trees and parking spaces.
Trees can be replanted quite easily.
Mature trees can't be replaced simply by planting saplings. Although quite why they'd be felling trees is something of a mystery.
I agree with you the mature trees should be kept. With the excessive width of that carriageway and parking the scheme could probably be modified to avoid impact on them altogether!
But why do we value the trees so much? Could it be that *once* we've cut down all the others to build *our* roads, houses and amenities - or moved somewhere there are all these and a few remaining trees - those left are then hugely valued?
I'm all for keeping the trees but also noting human nature means that's only a priority once we can drive to the shops. Councils may not be good stewards of them either.
Perhaps this is a good argument for changing planning rules so we create some "almost car-free" places in future? Keep your usual street dimensions but have no parking and make the street one way. Or have a cycle street. Hey presto! Our streets aren't too narrow for trees any more!
https://robertweetman.wordpress.com/2019/03/19/i-want-my-street-to-be-li...
Or a UK example (thanks rich_cb) in Cardiff - the Taff Embankment eg. near Aber Street. Still room for cars there also! Where did all that space come from?
Of course if we succeed we've got a new problem - where to park all the cycles?
https://twitter.com/modacitylife/status/1563491105512890368?lang=en
How do you replant a 60-70 year old tree?
Labour councillors always support active travel in theory but not in practice.
At least Tory councillors are honest about their vehement hatred of it.
"Ovenden’s Labour ward councillors have released a joint statement saying that..." there are elections next month and we're not taking any chances.
It's almost as if there is no real difference between the two . . . . .
Our Labour council put in some nice new cycle lanes that the Lib Dems are now planning to remove.
Don't think any major party can claim the high ground on this one.
The sad thing about these sorts of debates is that this is a patch of pavement that would appear to work well for multi-use by both MVs and cycles with a 20 mph speed limit and responsible drivers, but the problem is that no one can count on drivers to drive responsibly.
And given that law enforcement doesn't seem to care to encourage responsible driving, shared-use pavement becomes dangerous pavement. It's all just sad.
And we can all count on cyclists to act responsibly
We can count on cyclists to:
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