Cycling bollards ‘block homeowners from using driveways’

Cycling bollard
Cycling bollards are making the roads more dangerous, some residents have claimed - BNPS

Residents claim they have been blocked from using their driveways after a council installed bollards along a new bike lane outside their homes.

The 1ft tall posts are intended to make riding a bike safer by stopping cars parking on the freshly laid cycle path.

However, those who live along the street said the traffic wands had made pulling into and reversing out of their driveway difficult and left some of them with nowhere to park at all.

The bike lanes, which are located on both sides of Wimborne Road in Poole, were laid as part of a £120 million scheme to build a network of almost 50 miles of cycle lanes in south east Dorset.

Dorset and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council, which have declared “climate emergencies”, said the project would make travel more sustainable and reduce congestion on the roads.

But locals said the scheme was a waste of taxpayers’ money and claimed that the council installed dozens of the cycle bollards without any notice.

They also said they now dreaded having to get in and out of their driveways because the posts, some of which are only 10ft apart, made manoeuvring on to a busy road “dangerous”.

Debbie Woodcocks, 50, a carer, who has two bollards in front of her driveway, said they had made it “a nightmare trying to get out”.

She said: “I’m just infuriated by it. At least before you could reverse out with some more haste but now you’ve got to navigate those things which force you to reverse into the other side of the road.

“It’s made things more dangerous for cyclists and drivers, and I think an accident is more likely now.

“If an ambulance or fire engine is trying to get past now how is that going to work, when they’ve made the road so much narrower.”

Cycle wands
The bollards have been installed on both sides of the street - BNPS

Homeowner Samantha Clarke, 44, said: “My neighbour complained to the council about the wand outside her driveway and they have removed it because it was blocking it.

“But it is so much more difficult now; there’s no turning into the driveway any more. You have to go in a straight line.”

Before the cycle lanes had been installed, residents were invited by the BCP council to submit a £100 application to have a dropped kerb installed along the road to make parking easier.

Ms Clarke said she was promised a dropped kerb outside her home and had applied for the planning permission required.

She said: “Eventually I got a letter from them saying ‘No, you can’t have them any more, we’re putting the cycle lanes there instead.

“I paid £100 for the planning but haven’t got that back a year on. And they took the parking away on the road to put the cycle lanes in.”

A spokesperson for BCP council said they wanted to protect the cycle route from parked cars but would consider “adjusting the positions” of wands that had blocked property access.

‘They must feel confident’

Andy Hadley, responsible for roads and cycle lanes, said: “We are committed to creating safe, sustainable and active ways for people, including schoolchildren, to travel locally to and from Poole town centre along this busy road.

“To encourage people to cycle they must feel confident that they are safe.

“These wands are intended to give them that confidence, by alerting both people cycling and those driving vehicles to the presence of the cycle route, affording a degree of separation from moving traffic and preventing vehicles from blocking the cycle lane.

“The team have attempted to balance maintaining access to driveways with protecting the cycle route, but have listened to feedback from residents and acknowledge that a few traffic wands have been installed in locations that impact informal access to properties.

“In locations where this creates the most difficulty, we are looking at adjusting the positions of the wands to ensure continued property access.”

Mr Hadley also apologised for the “inaccurate” letters sent promising dropped kerbs for residents, adding that they can reclaim their £100.

He said: “We sincerely apologise for sending inaccurate letters to residents on Wimborne Road and for raising expectations.

“The letters lacked clarity on the planning and highways permissions required to support the installation of dropped kerbs.

“Furthermore, these permissions could not be attained in the timeframes outlined in the letter. We understand how frustrating and confusing this must have been.

“The offer to adjust kerbing should only have been offered to a handful of households whose properties were within the planned kerbing alterations being undertaken as part of improvement work.

“We have contacted the residents who had responded to the letter, apologising for our error, and offered a refund to those who wanted to withdraw their application.”