Cycle lanes were an abject failure

After the removal of the failed pop-up cycle lanes in Horsham, councillor Roger Elkins declared, to the County Times, that they had ‘fulfilled their main objective and the extraordinary environment that led to the installation now no longer exists’.

I’m not quite sure what he means by this. If he means he thinks the pandemic is over, then he is deluded.

So what is the extraordinary environment that no longer exists. Presumably the extraordinary environment in which central government throws money at local councils to fritter away on vanity projects. If that is the case, it’s a terrible use of public money.

I have been past it, and sat in a car next to it, many times, and never seen a single cyclist use it. Almost no cyclists using it, so it has been as good as useless for them.

There have been huge traffic jams causing additional pollution, and excessive use

of petrol/diesel resources. In addition, cars have been diverting through Carfax to avoid the congestion, and who can blame them?

Ring roads were built to avoid cars going through town centres! So that by snarling up the ring road and causing traffic chaos, the environmental impact will have been the precise opposite of what was intended.

I’d have more respect if the councillors just admitted it was a mistake, despite good intentions. But they appear to lack the humility to acknowledge it was a mistake, and have stubbornly kept it there, despite the adverse reaction.

It has been an abject failure. And I would very much like the group who championed this to come forward and explain what they were thinking. It seems to me that it ticked a box, for central Government funding, and got the nod merely on that basis.

I suspect the majority of people, including most cyclists, and environmental campaigners, are delighted to see the back of it. Please don’t even think about doing it again, WSCC. CHRISSIMMONS MonkmeadLane, WestChiltington