Ex Southport MP Cllr John Pugh has his say on cycle lane fiasco

There is precious little evidence of broad support and much evidence of public anxiety and opposition.

The Council will be loathe to use the generous government funding available in the absence of “broad support”. That is an expected requirement at the moment.

Hopefully there will be some graceful back pedalling from the current Sefton administration and we can all have time to learn the right lessons and perhaps find a way of using the government funding in a way the public can understand and support.

Sadly there has been no evidence that any of Sefton plans so far have emerged from the community, local councillors or even local cyclists and that’s where the Council need to begin.

Instead there is a widespread feeling that the public are being patronised by people who appear to understand the area only in a very superficial way.

The Southport public are not blind to issues of road safety, car dependence or climate change, but they do have a healthy degree of good Lancashire commonsense as well."