Paths aren’t just for cyclists. They’re a lifeline for disabled buggies and wheelchairs, baby buggies, children on scooters, and even skaters – and pedestrians too, of course!
But where Hayling needs them most, on Havant Road to the bridge, they’ve become almost unusable. In some places, the vegetation reaches out over the kerb into the main road. I saw one near accident, and as a Councillor, I’ve had reports of people having to step out into the road and being nearly run over. Some hedges have had a recent haircut, but it was barely a light trim, still leaving less than 2 feet of pavement in some places, narrower than a wheelchair, disabled buggy or pushchair.
So anyone living in south-east Hayling without a car has no independent means of getting off the island. And 50% of households don’t have a car. There’s no easy alternative to go north or to Havant. West Lane has no footpaths at all for most of its length, and no effective speed limit. And the Billy Trail is a 2 or 3 mile detour for the bulk of Hayling’s residents.
Cycling the main road between north and south of the island is like a war zone. Our hyper-busy main road isn’t the place for cyclists, or for disabled buggies that offer the freedom of a car. Motorists don’t want cyclists there either. So in the absence of a proper, safe path, the footpath is the only safe place to cycle. When my kids cycled to school, I told them to use it.
When the council installed the low energy street lamps 20 or 30 years ago, we all complained that they were in the middle of the path and blocking it. Well now the hedges have grown out so much they’re buried in hedge so deep you can’t even see them. And it’s not just hedges – half the path is now solid turf. If we left them, they’d take the whole road over, like a disaster movie.
Our PathWatch campaign There’s no campaign group that represents pedestrians, kids and disabled users, so Cycle Hayling will take it on, with a to monitor paths, and get minimum useable path widths. Not just for kids to cycle to school – for child buggies, the disabled, for everyone who doesn’t have a car. And yes, adults, too – where’s there no safe cycle path, like Havant Rd, we think all footpaths should be shared unless there’s some really strong over-riding safety issue.
Cutting back hedges is generally the responsibility of the landowner, but Hampshire County Council, as the Transport Authority, is responsible for ensuring they do it, with the power to take over and bill them if it’s not done within 14 days.
To be fair, on a busy main road like ours, it’s a difficult and dangerous job, and cutting it back to 1990 path width will be even more, so it would actually be better delegated to professionals. There are many individual landowners, and we need the whole path done to the right uniform standard, not a postcode lottery. Yes, bird nesting season does restrict cutting, but there are exemptions like public safety.
If you know any of the landowners next to the main road, please ask them to trim back their hedges, and support the Cycle Hayling PathWatch campaign. And ask your Hampshire County Councillor, Lance Quantrill to support it too! And if you know of paths that aren’t useable, tell Cycle Hayling!.
