Campaigners have welcomed a council U-turn over plans to deploy barriers on walking and cycling routes blighted by the anti-social use of mopeds and off-road motorbikes. Earlier this year, Stockport council - under the previous Labour administration - began consulting on a ‘on a draft ‘access control’ policy following new government guidance on designing ‘high quality, safe cycle infrastructure’.
This included using measures such as chicanes, bollards and barriers to combat anti-social behaviour on some routes - particularly from those using trials bikes or mopeds. But there was a backlash from campaigners who said this would discriminate against disabled people who use non-standard cycles, wheelchairs and mobility aids by effectively barring them from spaces they have a right to use.
The council initially highlighted the need to ‘balance’ the rights of disabled cyclists with protecting residents from ‘the negative impact of anti-social behaviour, including illegitimate usage of route’. But the policy - signed off at a cabinet meeting this week - has now been redrawn by the Lib Dems so that ‘there will be a general presumption against the use of access controls on new or upgraded routes’.
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Coun Colin MacAlister, cabinet member for economy and regeneration, told the meeting that ensuring disabled people could use ‘those very important routes’ was at the ‘foremost’ of the council’s thinking. He said: “There was a tendency to block a route to solve a problem and now we are not doing that. We are trying to keep the accessibility open while still trying to address the problems that could have been associated with nuisance and people abusing a particular pathway and route.”
Coun Mark Roberts also recognised that the council’s previous approach had disadvantaged disabled people while often being ineffective at deterring anti-social behaviour.
He had previously raised concerns around the legality of allowing restrictions that only affected 'people with a disability to stop anti-social behaviour’.
The new policy has been welcomed by Walk Ride Stockport, which says it is ‘a welcome improvement on the original proposal’. A spokesperson said: “We’re especially pleased to see that the default position will be for new or upgraded routes to be barrier-free, and that councillors acknowledge that measures against antisocial behaviour should not impede legitimate users.”
“Currently, barriers on Stockport’s walking and cycling network make it impossible for many users to travel in the borough. We look forward to working with the council in the coming months to identify the barriers most urgently in need of removal.”
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Those comments were echoed by Harrie Larrington-Spencer, a disabled trike-user, who had previously accused the council of trying to ‘worm their way out’ of meeting its legal requirements. She said: “I think that it's great that SMBC have recognised that their original access control policy was discriminatory towards disabled people who use mobility aids and non-standard cycles.
“This will be really positive moving forwards in ensuring that walking, wheeling, and cycling infrastructure in the borough is inclusive of diverse needs”
However, Harrie - a researcher in Healthy Active Cities, at the University of Salford - harbours some concerns over the council’s initial approach. “I still think it's problematic that they invested time and resources in producing a discriminatory policy for consultation in the first place and I hope that they are reviewing the processes that resulted in that situation,” she said.
Stockport council’s cabinet met at the town hall on Tuesday night (December 6).
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