CYCLE campaigners have hit out after discovering a cycle path has been created...with steps in the middle of it.

Residents in Stanway noticed a new shared cycling and walking path near Martin Hunt Drive in Stanway.

Gazette:

But the path has failed to win favour with cyclists not least because it has steps.

Will Bramhill, from the Colchester Cycle Campaign, said it was irrational thinking.

He said: “You can imagine the outcry if the new A120 had steps in the middle of it.

“Councils and developers now have to sit down and work out how this has happened and how to stop it happening again.

“Part of the issue is the lack of Government emphasis on cycling and walking.

“We need high quality cycling infrastructure nationwide and this is why we need national guidance, rather than every council giving their interpretation of what it should be.”

Stanway resident Wolf Simpson said he wondered how it got past planners.

He said: “I’m sick and tired with how our councils feel they can create sub-standard walking and cycling infrastructure.

“How someone can think this was OK is beyond me.

“How can they say this is safe for someone cycling or in a wheelchair?

“It’s bad enough when they label existing paths as shared paths with little thought on usability but this is a new path, it should never have been agreed to.

“As for location it’s on the busy Tollgate Road on a new housing estate where the shared path is put in and is linked to nowhere where it’s safe to cycle.”

Essex Highways said the path was never intended to be a public highway.

A spokesperson for Essex Highways, said: “The cycleway/footway is shown as running parallel to Tollgate Road, not giving access to it, where, in any case, the pavement is too narrow for cycles.

“None of this area, including the actual footway/cycleway, is designated to become highway, so this is a matter for the developer.

“There are other cycle routes in the area with good connections.

“The developer has installed a channel which will make it easier for dismounted riders to use the steps with their bike if they so choose.”

The Gazette contacted developer Persimmon Homes for a comment but it had not responded at the time of going to press.