'Potentially lethal abomination' barriers to be reviewed by Telford council
Cycle barriers branded a "potentially lethal abomination" will be reviewed by the council that installed them.
Telford & Wrekin Council has confirmed it is responsible for the barriers located on National Cycle Route 81 at Leegate Avenue, in Hadley.
It is understood that the barriers have been in place for around ten years but their suitability was the subject of an online debate over the Bank Holiday weekend, after a cyclist posted a picture of them on Twitter.
See also:
Phil Jones, 61, spotted them while cycling from his home in Kinver to Shrewsbury Folk Festival.
He had described them as "the worst anti-cycling barrier I’ve ever seen".
His post attracted widespread support, including from presenter and cycling enthusiast Jeremy Vine, who described them as "horrible".
Another poster had warned: "That is weaponry. I'd love to see the risk assessment that passed that potentially lethal abomination."
Now Telford & Wrekin Council has said that even though it had not received complaints about the barriers, it will look at them to see if they can be made more obvious to people using the route.
Responding to Mr Jones the council said: "Thanks for raising this. We have not previously been made aware of any concerns – they are a fairly standard product used when discouraging cyclists/motorcyclists proceeding at speed. However we do plan to review them & at least ensure they are more conspicuous."
Mr Jones replied to the council and said that making the posts more visible would still not make the route more accessible to people using disability cycles.
He also took issue with the prevalence of the barriers, insisting that he had not seen them before.
He said: "I question they are a standard product. I have never seen such a design before. Making them more conspicuous will not enable non-standard cycles/disabled cyclists to negotiate them and there is therefore an apparent conflict with the Public Sector Equality Duty."
