Lib-Dem campaigner for St Clement’s ward, GRAHAM JONES, got the East Area Parliament to agree a site meeting of City and County officials and elected members to investigate the quality of, and break in, the cycleway network at the complicated junction at the foot of Headington Hill.

A number of residents of Bath Street in particular who have young families told Graham of their concern about two aspects of the cycleway as it continues from St Clement’s/London Road into Marston Road.

One is the break of more than half a mile in the cycleway between the traffic lights on the City side of London Road and the point where the cycleway resumes in a northerly direction towards Marston, all within St Clement’s ward. The families concerned have young children attending St Michael’s or other schools in that direction, want to encourage their children to cycle, but are frieghtened by the prospect of their children being involved in an accident on the main highway.

One mother says that she tells her children to cycle on the footpath – which is, of course, both illegal and at the very least inconvenient to pedestrians.

The other problem is the quality of the cycle-lane in the opposite direction for the last two or three hundred yards before the traffic lights, travelling towards the City. For much of this stretch there is no pavement and the cycle-way is slumped and uneven on the near-side. This is difficult to negotiate, and results in frequent flooded patches which cyclists swerve into the main traffic lane to avoid. Moreover there is a wall immediately fronting the roadway which is clearly in serious need of repair and at risk of collapse as stones towards the base get washed out. One resident who has a cycle but no car told Graham: ‘I’m waiting for a cyclist to be injured – perhaps even crushed against the wall by a lorry.’

Graham told the East Area Parliament of these fears and pressed the existing Green Party councillors to recognise the problem. He said: ‘It needs a quick survey of the network at this point and an assessment of the remedial work needed on the south-bound cycle-lane, and a scheme to provide a continuous lane going north, perhaps by taking some of the pavement. Would the councillors and officers please ask their county colleagues to put this on their ‘to do’ list at the earliest possible date.’