Banning towpath cyclists will give us a nice, safe park

Published: 17 September, 2010

• IF, as rumour has it, Hanover Primary School children really did design the vanishing arch at the new £200,000-plus Danbury Street bridge canal entrance then my heart goes out to them (British Waterways scheme slammed by angry residents, September 10). But could it be that British Waterways (BW) does not really share their “Walk to School” ideals and just wanted to make them feel good?

Parents campaigned to get cycles off the towpath years ago so children could walk to school safely (and feed the ducks on the way home). What they wanted was a safe place free of speeding adult cyclists, but BW has taken big money from Transport for London (TfL) to make it into a dangerous cycle track instead.

Made the wrong size and installed without planning permission, the innovative arch was taken down within days, leaving guess what? Yes, a very expensive disaster. 

Pedestrians now use the narrower, more dangerous slope designed for cycles and ignore the new steps next to it. 

As a bonus, the entrance is now potentially lethal for cyclists turning left as there are no signs or other warnings to stop them slamming into the end of the railing or the mini-bollard so thoughtfully placed right at the top middle of the slope. 

There are no signs to help stop them riding over the pavement or to warn anyone on the pavement about the cycles. 

Please, could Islington Council take control of the towpath from BW? 

Then would it please ban adult cyclists, plant it up and make it into a nice, safe park, naturally linking Duncan Terrace and City Road Basin as it does? How about a Basin View Café?

Will someone please dissolve BW, with its expensive Paddington Palace, and give its paths and dry land back for use by local, democratically elected councils. 
Howard Piper
Address supplied