Civic Society Voice Concerns Over Proposed Cycle Path

A row is brewing over plans to create a new cycle route on Beverley Westwood.

East Riding Council plans to widen an existing pathway across the Westwood to create a shared cycle-footpath, running from Walkington alongside the B1230.

But and the Open Spaces Society claim the two-metre wide route will “encroach on to the common”.

Civic Society member Professor Barbara English warned: “The Civic Society have objected for several reasons, really because it is an encroachment onto the common.

“It is going to be 2m wide and run all the way from the Whiting Works at Walkington all the way down to Cartwright Lane.

“I am sure the council will say it is to make it safer, especially for the grammar school boys will go down that way, but no one has proved that the road has been dangerous.”

She believes ERYC are trying to turn the Westwood into a park, complete with toilets and picnic area, and insists its wildness should be retained.
But supporters of the plan say it will improve cycle and pedestrian access and will be safer and decrease car useage.

ERYC strategic transport planning manager Ian Burnett said: “I don’t believe widening an existing footpath by half a metre which is adjacent to an existing pathway is urbanising the Westwood.

“Hopefully by providing this safe offroad cycle route we can encourage more people to cycle between Walkington to Beverley and you will reduce the amount of vehicular traffic on the Westwood, creating an even more pleasant environment.

“The bigger picture is that we have actually provided now through council funding offroad cycle routes from all the surrounding villages, from Tickton, Leconfield and Cherry Burton. This is the final link we are trying to provide.

“As a result of investment and together with the provision of a map and secure council parking we have been able to increase cycling by over 45 per cent in the last five years.”

It is proposed that the scheme will be funded by the council from its local transport plan and will cost around £120,000. A final decision will be made by the for Transport Justine Greening.



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This article has 6 Comments

  1. I wonder what the people of Beverley think about the Westwood. I remember as a child having picnics with my family and people playing football there. It seems now no one maintains it and the benches are just left to rot.
    Where did the goal posts go and does everyone think the Westwood should just be a wilderness?
    Oh and it seems strange to talk about the cycle path intruding when it would be next to the golf clubhouse,
    I suppose the golf course and racecourse aren’t urbanisation?

  2. I’ve just read the article and I have to say some people’s stupidity really boils my blood.

    Without any campaigning, ERYC are offering to pay for a cycle path to link up the path that already runs up to the top of the Westwood to the town itself and some bloody do-gooders are against it … typical!

    Ok so it’s a 40mph limit on the Westwood, so if I hit a drain cover on my push bike or a pothole or even a section of rough road (what? bad roads in the east riding !) and I career into the path of a 7.5 ton truck I’m going to be ok then ???

    Yea right!

    Or are we waiting for one of the many school kids that choose bike from Walkington and Broadgates to Beverley (because of all the political and media messages about global warming, or the fact were in a financial crises / and that were told over and over that childhood obesity is a growing problem) to be killed or injured before something will be done about it??????

    I’d love to invite Barbara English to ride her bike up and down the road during peak times and see how she gets on.
    Maybe her death would be the catalyst to get this cycle path the go ahead?

    As for the “wilderness” of Beverley Westwood
    The Collins English Dictionary: Wilderness

    Definitions: noun

    1. a wild, uninhabited, and uncultivated region
    2. any desolate tract or area
    3. a confused mass or collection

    Would that be the same place that was once a wood to the west of Beverley that was more than probably used for timber in the building of Beverley (MKM wasn’t open back then) which once cleared used for quarrying and subsequently at least 3 mills where erected, the most obvious one still standing still has traces of a road leading down to the town.

    The same place where for over 300 years they have been racing horses on there, and then as far back as 1889 there was a golf course built on it.

    And for well over half the year farmers put their cattle on the Westwood to graze?
    I must say it’s a lovely picture you paint Mrs. English but I feel this Wilderness Westwood may have only ever existed in your small mind.

    As for these plans I take my cycle helmet off to ERYC, the Westwood is a superb place for everyone to enjoy (and not for the BCS to dictate what goes and what doesn’t)
    l
    ets not only encourage more people to bike to the Westwood and leave there cars at home, but to provide a safe and reliable route on which to commute from the surrounding villages and into the towns and if that means losing a 16inch strip of grass then so be it.

    Maybe the members of the Beverley civic society and the Open spaces society would like the removed turf laying in their gardens so anybody who feels there going to miss said grass can still pay it a visit?!?!?!
    I think the answer to that will be “Not in my back yard”

    Paul is there anybody involved in the promotion of this matter? As I would like to offer my support

    -All Stupidity needs to succeed is for common sense to do nothing

    Ben.

  3. Ben,

    If you look closely at Beverley as a town and the development / evolution as a place you will see it is the same social groups and people who object to any form of change.

    The cycle path is a great idea, in fact not to do it would be a grave mistake by the council as already so many people cycle there so it makes perfect sense to make it safer.

    Lets start a campaign to build the cycle path, not only will it be good for us though also be very good for visitors to the town. We could contact Graham Stuart our MP who is a keen cyclist so he should understand the benefits of such scheme.

    Over to you Ben,

  4. I’m In Paul. let me know what you need me to do.

    I mean come on the second photo above of the current footpath is a joke. Or do the Beverley Civic Society like the 3rd world look ?!?!?!?

    I actually wonder how many times the BCS and the OSS walk up that side of the westwood? once every blue moon ?
    How many kids / adults bike up and down that road every day?

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