18 fines in first week of cycling crackdown

Council leader defends action taken on Bridge Street

READER OFFER Enforcement officers handed out 18 fines for illegal Bridge Street cycling in the first week of a promised crackdown.

Monday last week was the start of a new approach pushed through by Peterborough City Council leader Cllr John Holdich who declared that he wanted fixed penalty notices handed out to all cyclists flouting the ban.

However, the Peterborough Telegraph counted 45 cyclists pedalling down Bridge Street in just one hour last week, none of whom were fined, prompting the council leader to defend the work by the city’s Prevention and Enforcement Service (PES).

Now, writing in his Peterborough Telegraph column this week, Cllr Holdich said he has received a surprising number of positive messages, and that illegal cycling will begin to decrease once the news spreads of cyclists being fined.

He wrote: “For a long time now relatively few inconsiderate cyclists have endangered pedestrians along our busy Bridge Street shopping area.

“I myself have had several narrowescapesfromspeeding two-wheelers as I’ve walked to and from the Town Hall.

“The front page of last week’s PT was somewhat less positive and our actions were criticised as ineffec- tive, counting 45 cyclists in an hour.

“Well we have to start somewhere folks, and experi- ence tells me word soon gets Two cyclists obeying the Bridge Street rules around.

“I expect the amount of illegal, often dangerous, cycling along Bridge Street to steadily decrease over the coming months. I don’t suppose we’ll eradicate it completely, but we now have the tools to be able to reduce it considerably and prevent potentially serious incidents happening.”

The ability of PES officers to begin fining Bridge Street cyclists was introduced through a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO).

The PT reported last week that five fixed penalty notices had been handed out in the first two days of the PSPO being enforced. The PSPO also makes begging in the city centre illegal, and allows enforcement officers to hand out tickets for littering, spitting, public urination and defecation.

However, no fines were handed out for these offences last week.