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Cycling on the seafront upsets Eastbourne’s retirees

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Eastbourne has this image of being quite a sleepy seaside resort with quite an elderly population, but don’t believe this one bit, a current cycling issue in the town has got many of those residents waving their walking sticks in anger.

Local residents are up in arms over proposals to introduce cycling on the town’s famous promenade. The town’s current by-laws don’t allow cycling on the promenade, which splits in various sections to three levels on the seafront.

One group of residents in the town, the Meads Community Association, has asked local people living near the seafront to protest against the promenade being shared with cyclists.

A swarm of cyclists

A newsletter sent out by the Meads Community Association shows a picture of the lower promenade with the comment: “Now imagine a mass of 80 or so cyclists vigorously pedalling through the centre of the picture, in and out of the pedestrians and pets. Doesn’t really fit does it? Imagine the impact this will have on your safety.”

The newsletter later states in the same article that cycling “is largely a leisure activity heavily promoted by a tiny minority.”

Scaremongering

Local cycling campaign group Bespoke has accused the residents of scaremongering the town’s elderly population and repeated the stance that its own members rejected using the lower beachside promenade in favour of campaigning for the middle promenade to be opened up for cyclists to use.

“They have built up Bespoke as men, women and children on bikes who want to wreak havoc on the seafront promenade,” Felicity Goodson of Bespoke told the Eastbourne Herald.

Bespoke is campaigning for Eastbourne Council to rescind the bye-law that does not allow cycling on the promenade.

Click here to reveal which towns permit seafront cycling in England.

See also

New cycle lane routes open up in Blackpool
Is Brighton & Hove Council anti-cycling?

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