From R Prince

Saturday, 2 August 2014

I'm quite surprised that no-one has brought up the issue of the bikes used in the skate park in Hebden. I've had my dogs clipped a couple of times by kids on BMX bikes with no brakes. Apparently these bikes are stopped by careful application of a foot to the top of the back tyre!

It's happened once on the canal towpath and once on Market Street on the footpath - both times with the dogs on the lead and no warning from the cyclist that he was about to try and pass. Sooner or later this is going to result in someone getting badly hurt and if the incident that I witnessed in Calder Holmes Park the other day is anything to go by, it won't necessarily be the dog/walker: two kids on the aforementioned death-trap bikes decided to take a break from the skate-park and have a race round the football pitch. As they came down the river side of the park, one of them hit a push chair (thankfully the kid was out of it and toddling with mum), and over-turned it.

The parents were naturally pretty upset and remonstrated with the kids on the bikes - as you can imagine the response was not exactly apologetic! At this point the aggrieved dad lost it and threatened to through the cyclist and his bike into the river.... and I think if the cyclist had not make a quick getaway, that is exactly where he would have ended up.

Now, this is an issue that CMBC and the police surely do have the power to tackle. Bikes are required by law to have two brakes (one if it's a fixed wheel) if they are used on the public highway (including bridleways and cyclepaths). All it would take would be a police officer stationed on the bridge across the canal issuing tickets (better still, confiscating bikes!) and the kids and their parents might get the message.