The Law hasn’t changed Henrietta, you are not allowed to cycle on the pavements - but of course most parents tell their children to do so. It is logical when riding junior cycles but not when you are able to ride an adult cycle, but nowadays many motorists expect cyclists to ride on the pavement and give those on the road very little space.
The problem we have is with Government. They don’t Govern. They provide Guidelines for catering for cyclists but then leave it to the discretion of the Councils to abide by them or ignore them. Stockport’s arrogant Council frequently ignore the Government’s and cyclists’ advice when considering cycling and chooses to follow its own inexperienced opinions.
The opinion of the Head of Highways, Sue Stevenson, is that “The prior proposal for a shared foot and cycleway adjacent to the A6 is not being pursued due to concerns over the safety of equestrians who cannot legally use such a facility”.
She has every right to do this. She will of course propose some devious route that is safe for horse riders but highly inconvenient for cyclists at a time when we are trying to get more people out of their cars and to cycle to work.
It has been shown time and time again that in an urban environment cycling is the quickest, and certainly least polluting, of any form of transport. I don’t see many people riding to work on their horses nowadays, so why are their needs always given precedence over that of cyclists in this Borough.
Stockport Council should be encouraging all those catering for horses to create new Horse Only tracks within the Borough. If taken up nationwide we could have a whole new Horse Tourist Industry with all those villages, that we are told would lose their livelihood if Fox Hunting were banned, providing refreshment and accommodation for both riders and horses, and horses would rarely be in conflict with the rest of society.