Cyclist’s outrage at council’s ‘illiterate’ reply to complaint
ACYCLIST who contacted the council to complain about the provision for cyclists in Cardiff city centre has criticised the response as being “barely literate”.
Liza van Zyl, 44, from Cardiff Bay, wrote to Cardiff council regarding a shortage of secure cycle stands around the main shopping areas in the city.
She told the council that bike stands were “almost always full” and that she found it difficult to lock her bike along the Hayes or the top of Churchill Way.
The Cardiff University lecturer claimed the problem could be helped by the council removing vandalised and broken bikes locked in bike stands, many of which have been there for years.
She also claimed more CCTV was needed near main bike stands in order to tackle bicycle theft.
A member of staff from Cardiff council replied to Dr van Zyl’s letter but she said the response was “dismissive, contemptuous, and barely literate”.
The reply read: “The provision of cycle stands is sufficient for the current usage, the council monitor [sic] the usage and will provide addition [sic] stands. As and when required, with regards to cycles that are damaged/vandalised there is a process in place to remove these items.
“On a regular basis, the process of removal has to follow a route that identifies the abandon [sic] cycles then there is a period of time to arrange removal. CCTV does cover the Hayes in general but there is [sic] no dedicated cameras on cycle stands. CCTV is used to monitor the city centre in a generic way to support security protocols.”
Dr van Zyl said the letter did little to answer her points about cycling provision in the city and clearly had not been proofread before being sent to her.
She said: “For the council to respond like this is an inadequate response. They say they remove broken bicycles when they don’t. The thing about the letter which was really shocking was the lack of any attempt to take the issues seriously, the complete lack of professionalism in the drafting of the letter, to take so little effort.”
Dr van Zyl said she appreciated the council has a difficult task managing financial cuts, but added that it doesn’t cost anything to proofread a letter or to make an effort to “take citizens seriously”.