Misinformation and Machinations

The recent visit of Robert Goodwill MP (Conservative Under-Secretary of State for Transport) to the site of the proposed ‘new’ all singing and all dancing cycle path across Westwood does seem to have been used as a photo opportunity by Cllr Aird (Con) and Graham Stuart MP (Con) or should we just say The Conservative Party. Mr Goodwill was obviously begged to come all the way from…Scarborough for the photo opportunity but does he really know about the back story here? For that matter are Elaine Aird and Graham Stuart aware? Probably not: if they were, they would be well advised to keep their distance.

In brief these are the facts about the plan they are supporting:

• The ERYC plan involves widening of an existing dual use (pedestrian and cycle) path so it is 2m wide to comply with Sustrans guidelines;
• Other brand new dual use cycle paths for which grants were obtained are an average of 1.65m wide (Molescroft to Leconfield route);
• Sustrans are making no financial contribution to the scheme, which will cost ERYC council taxpayers £200k;
• Sustrans would prefer the scheme on the opposite (South) side of the road so there will be no road crossings where cyclists must dismount – there are two crossings in the ERYC plan;
• The plans will require the swapping of land at Fishwick’s Mill which is already part of the common – in other words the area of common land will be reduced;
• This is the third attempt by ERYC to get this scheme passed at an unknown cost: ERYC do not use time-sheets so the council’s lawyers, engineers and highways staff input to this scheme cannot be accounted for;
• Beverley Civic Society are in favour of a dual use path that is 1.6m  wide on the South side of the Keldgate Road with no road crossings but they oppose the land swap;
• The Planning Inspector was not satisfied a ‘need’ has been demonstrated for the widened dual use path;
• ERYC say this cycle path is the final piece in the cycle path network around Beverley;
• There is no cycle path to Bishop Burton and the existing footway here is 0.15m (6 inches) wide in places, yet there is a college in this village and the York Road is the busiest of the roads on the West side of Beverley;
• The existing cycle path to Hull is potholed, covered with silage effluent during the winter months and is not maintained.

These are the facts of this case: the rest is misinformation and spin. ERYC is a machine that is determined to set a land-swap precedent in relation to Beverley’s Common Lands: nothing else makes any sense. When a point ERYC makes is challenged, they just repeat it to a different audience in the hope that someone will listen to them. It appears that this time they have! If they really wanted a dual-use cycle way, they would have consulted properly in 2012 and the existing path could have been improved in less than 12 months. However, this is not their real aim: their aim is long term and unwritten – it is to set a precedent to allow development on the East side of Westwood – nothing more, nothing less.

If you don’t believe us: just look at the pictures on the HU17 article: the speakers all want a ‘new cycle route’ but over their heads there is are two signs saying it already is a cycle route! It just needs resurfacing, that’s all!