Colchester Civic Society Highways Group are attempting to persuade Essex County Council to review the design for the East Hill Cycle Lanes before the scheme is given the go ahead. There are very serious concerns over this scheme, which will divert cyclist from the downhill cycle onto the footpath right outside the front door of the GP Surgeries.
A form of this letter has gone to Pam Cox MP, to David King (leader of Colchester City Council), Kevin Bentley (as leader of Essex County Council), County Councillors Simon Crow and Lee Scordis and ward Councillors Mark Goacher, Amy Kirby Taylor, Kemal Cufoglu.
Dear…
I am enclosing a copy of the letter I am about to send to Tom Cunningham on behalf of the Colchester Civic Society Highways group. We are requesting a review of the current design for the East Hill cycle lanes before final approval is given. Will you please consider supporting this request?
We have very serious concerns over the current scheme. This was substituted for the original floating bus stops design when a temporary pause was imposed on ‘Bus Boarder ‘ and ‘Floating Bus Stops’ last year during the passage of the 2025 Bus Services Bill no.2. The ban on floating bus stops has now been lifted, but the East Hill Design Team are continuing to plan for the implementation of this ‘shared use scheme’, which we consider to be seriously flawed.
Colchester Civic Society Highways Group has been set up to look closely at proposals such as the ‘Walking and Cycling Improvements for East Hill with a view to helping to produce the best possible design without passing judgement on the overall merits of the scheme under consideration. Our members include people with special interests in cycling, walking and public transport and we have worked directly with the Essex Highways Colchester Design team to assist with their development of plans for both St. Botolph’s Circus and East Hill.
Our aim is to assist in the delivery of the best possible scheme for East Hill and we are convinced that this current scheme is not good enough. The following letter to Tom Cunningham provides a full account of our reasoning. Please give it serious consideration.
Best regards
John Salmon
Ps. The attached drawing is a detail of the shared use scheme. It focuses on the design for the Surgeries Bus Stop.
This letter was sent to Tom Cunningham as portfolio holder for Highways. However there has been a change of roles on the Essex County Council Cabinet. A copy has therefore also been sent to the new portfolio holder Mark Platt, along with an explanation similar to the one sent to our councillors and MP.
Dear Mr. Cunningham,
I wrote to you in September last year regarding the current proposals for the East Hill Cycle Lanes in Colchester, requesting that the scheme be reviewed once formal guidance has been issued regarding the use of bus bypasses. This guidance has now been issued and does allow for the use of bus bypasses once more, but does not allow the use of the bus boarder type stops, where people getting on and off buses have to step into an active cycle lane.
The East Hill Design Team tell me that they will be continuing with the current shared use scheme, rather than reverting to the original plan for fully segregated cycle lanes. I recognise that the uphill bus stop at the bottom of East Hill must remain as a shared use area in order to be seen to be in compliance with the guidance. I also accept that given this bus stop does not see a lot of use and cyclist will be beginning their ascent of the hill, this compromise arrangement (and circumvention of the rules) might be seen to present an acceptable level of risk.
However the risk of conflict and injury to both cyclists and pedestrians is of very a different order at the other east Hill bus stops.
Of greatest concern is the conflictual situation the redesignation to ‘shared use’ will introduce at the pedestrian footway in front of the East Hill Pharmacy and the main entrance to both the East Hill and Castle Gardens GP surgeries. This is an area of ‘active frontage’ throughout the day from Monday to Friday; where a significant proportion of pedestrians will be elderly, disabled, or parents with young children..
The introduction of shared use sections on the footway here will involve a dramatic loss of safe space, and a significant deterioration in the quality of conditions for pedestrians. The East Hill footway is currently just that, a footway, a safe space for people walking or riding in pushchairs, wheelchairs, or walking their dogs etc. Some will be blind or partially sighted, others frail and with hearing or mobility disabilities. But if this scheme is introduced it will no longer be a safe space. Stepping out the front door of the GP surgeries, or simply walking up or down the hill, people will find that suddenly they have been joined by cyclists who have just been diverted from a steep downhill cycle lane, where they would naturally be travelling at high speed. This is inevitably going to be a confusing and shocking experience for many pedestrians as they encounter cyclists flashing past. This combination of vulnerable pedestrian and speeding cyclists merging at this point must carry with it a significant risk of collision and injury.
I hope you will agree that this is an arrangement that is inherently dangerous and unacceptable and cannot be allowed to go ahead, regardless of being compliant with the regulations regarding the width of the footways and the numbers of pedestrians and cyclist currently using East Hill.
On behalf of Colchester Civic Society Highways Group I ask therefore that the East Hill scheme be fully reviewed and ‘shared use’ pathways be abandoned, (with the possible exception of the west bound stop at the bottom of the hill)
Yours sincerely
John Salmon
- attached below are further points which I hope you will find relevant and useful in gaining a balanced perspective on this issue.
The East Hill Design Team have told us that “the updated final design ensures passengers are not required to enter a cycling-only area, and has been through the appropriate road safety audit process. Given this, ECC have reviewed the new guidance in consultation with Active Travel England to confirm that the current proposals remain compliant.” What this indicates to us is that the current proposals were introduced in order to avoid the scheme being held up by Amendment 327 to the Bus Services No.2 Bill which went through Parliament last year. An amendment which was inserted in order to try to offer some mitigation to blind and partially sighted people who are significantly impacted by the development of floating bus stops and bus boarder stops.
The adoption of shared use pathways is a retrograde step which makes conditions significantly worse for all pedestrians and especially blind people, because it becomes impossible to know where the cyclists are. They can be approaching from in front, from behind and coming in from the side all at once.
Where cycles are contained to a dedicated lane, then as long as a safe crossing system is available, the situation is much more manageable for all concerned. However the use of zebra type crossing marks at the floating bus stops is clearly inadequate, especially in situations such as East Hill. There is much video evidence currently available which shows that cyclists ignore these crossings and do not stop, even when there are pedestrians on the crossing. Some form of controlled crossing is clearly needed if these crossings are to be viable. Preferably including automated stop lights on the cycle track which operate when a bus is at the bus stop.
This link is for a video made by The National Federation for the Blind which illustrate clearly the inadequacy of the standard zebra type crossing used at floating bus stops.
https://youtu.be/TU0ggTmh45I?si=HqJ8MyVvXueQh5-w
This second video provides personal accounts from blind people on how they are impacted by floating bus stops. This also serves to make it clear that the provision of safe crossings is what is needed here.
https://youtu.be/pIVcXQuAjD8?si=FcyRXhJ3Z8Uz2rak