A council in Devon has been criticised for spending almost £4m on a bicycle lane that is less than 200m long. The 197m-long route in Plymstock, a suburb of Plymouth, has been branded a “waste of money” by residents who are demanding the approximately £20,000-per-metre scheme be scrapped.
Neighbours said they were suffering from health problems because of the stress caused by the £3.8m project, which has forced motorists to take a 10-minute diversion after a main road was closed to traffic for the works. It is scheduled to remain shut until April next year, says the Daily Telegraph.
Plymouth City Council plans to bore through a disused railway tunnel to create the lane, which will link two existing bicycle routes. However, critics have branded the scheme a “vanity project” and predict it will not be widely used.
An average of only 11 cyclists a day use the current route, according to data disclosed by the council under Freedom of Information laws.
Mike Selby, 73, said: “It cannot offer value for money, I believe, because it’s costing too much for too little. We’re not trying to be Nimbys.”
Andy Lugger, the leader of the opposition at the council, said:
“It’s a vanity project, as far as I can tell. There’s hundreds of things we need to spend money on. The roads are atrocious. Whether it’s government funding or not, it’s taxpayers’ money.”
Residents are particularly aggrieved by the 14-month closure of Colesdown Hill and say the council only gave them three weeks’ notice before it shut on Feb 9.
The closure forces car drivers to take a 2.5-mile diversion, which takes 10 minutes. The drive between the two points previously took just 60 seconds.
Contractors working on the project have also not been seen working on evenings or weekends, which residents claim will extend the project’s length.
A spokesman for the authority said:
“We completely understand and empathise with the residents of Colesdown Hill. We know that these works will cause disruption, and for that we again apologise.
“The 14-month closure for traffic is required due to the limited space to work in and the number of pipes and cables in the road, and the need to keep Colesdown Hill open for pedestrians, and we are doing everything we can to minimise the duration of the closure.”
They added that the council did not consult specifically on the traffic closure “because there were no other options to put to residents” and that the broader scheme was open to consultation through the usual planning process.
“We have been talking to people with a high level of dependency on care and deliveries and will continue these conversations
(Picture: Chris Snape)
