Cllr John Pugh Challenges 'Alice in Wonderland' Defence of Controversial Cycle Route

Last night Cllr John Pugh, opposition leader on Sefton met a brick wall when trying to persuade Sefton’s Council’s  Overview and Scrutiny Committee to take a second look at the decision to keep the controversial cycle lane installed under Covid regulations.

 The route which runs through town through Hoghton and Chapel St has not been an obvious success and had by law to be reviewed. The Labour majority on the Committee rejected Cllr.Pugh's arguments with the Liberal Democrats and Conservative members supporting him.

Afterwards Cllr Pugh described the defence of the existing route as 'an Alice in Wonderland departure from commonsense.'

“ Officers argued that the existing scheme was all part of the regeneration of Southport despite the evidence that that it had adversely affected business and finding 85% of businesses surveyed hostile.

They claimed it reduced emissions, but failed to monitor whether vehicles were now taking longer journeys into town and polluted more.

 They claimed it was all about safety, but if it had actually massively increased cycle use and been a huge success, failed to explain how that would not inevitably lead to increased cycle/ pedestrian collisions on Chapel St."

Bizarrely, in recent Council publicity , shoppers on Chapel St were lumped in as cycle lane users to demonstrate the route’s popularity and absolutely no measure of increased cycling or declining car use was presented. 

"I have had to conclude”, says Cllr Pugh, " that Sefton has abandoned logic and some strange Alice in Wonderland insanity has set in. If a scheme that has contributed to the closure of established businesses, reduced theatre attendances and made you look over your shoulder while shopping is part of a regeneration plan, madness reigns.”

The real worry long term is that a bad scheme like this undermines support for good green initiatives that work and stubbornly sticking to it breeds public cynicism .”