Cyclists must be protected by road repairs too, says councillor

A councillor wants cyclists to be taken into consideration when road repairs are made after a survey found many were put off by poor surface conditions.

Jonny Tepp was responding to research, conducted by Tom Durham, owner of Collective Trax, for Cycle North Fife, which highlighted potholes as a major complaint for local riders.

Almost 40% of respondents said the condition of roads or cycle paths prevented them from riding more often and 75% said improvements should be a high priority.

In August, elite cyclist Jamie Penny was injured when he hit a pothole in Newport and was thrown from his bike.

Tay Bridgehead councillor Mr Tepp said the majority of road patching work did not take cyclists into account.

Following Jamie’s accident he was told by a transportation officer that the road was maintained for motor vehicles only, so potholes that might be hazardous to cyclists only were not recorded or filled.

He commented: “The benefits of cycling to health and wellbeing are increasingly acknowledged.

“If we want to be responsible to the growing number of people responding to this message we must start addressing anomalies that on the one hand promote national cycle routes whilst on the other fail to maintain them in a manner that is fit for purpose.

“At the moment we don’t know what the extent of this problem is because the recording system simply doesn’t recognise the problem, and I will be raising this with the council administration.

“I would like to see a cost put on this for north Fife and to determine whether this is a local or a national funding issue.”