This is my email to Spalding police about the campaign on cyclists:
“I see on a news feed you are starting a campaign to try and sort the problems with cyclists.
“After reading the feed it appears you are concentrating more on schools and children, also the centre of town, and I am sure that needs to be addressed as there are more vehicles and pedestrians about during daylight hours, but the other problem with cyclists is the adults going to and from work in the early hours ie: between 5am and 6am.
“It is a short window of time but as we have many factories you are talking of big numbers of cyclists with no lights. Also bear in mind most wear dark clothing and many live in estates where the street lights are off until 6am. They are virtually impossible to see until they are almost on your bonnet, it’s crazy, but worse still is when I need to pull out of a give way onto the unlit street – you cannot see them at all as the car lights are facing forward and you are looking to the left, it is pitch black.
“The other problem here is cyclists that do make the effort to put a light on their bike only have a back one – it’s really bad.
“I have considered walking to work to get around the problem of possibly hitting a cyclist through their own stupidity, but a work colleague suggested I don’t as he used to walk but got in confrontations every day with them as he could not hear them coming up behind him and they would hit you as they barged past.
“The pavement is still for pedestrians and it is illegal for cyclists to ride on the path as I am sure you are aware of rule 64 – you must not cycle on a pavement.”
I have sent many clips of footage of cyclists to Spalding police and complained many times yet nothing gets done so I can see this campaign running over three months having little or no effect.
In one reply I received from them I was told they are adults and can look after themselves, well let’s see what they have to say when one gets killed or seriously injured because they could not be seen,
I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.
Neil Bingham
Spalding
