Furious locals have blasted a council after a section of its flagship £13.4m cycle route was left looking “wonky”. Residents in the trendy Manchester suburb of Chorlton-Cum-Hardy have been driven mad by the ‘dangerous’ crooked 0.7mile stretch of the cycle lane – that took a year to build.
And a bizarre-looking ‘cyclops’ (Cycle Optimised Protected Signals) junction further down the road has also left motorists scratching their heads.
The path – which alone cost £2.3m – looks almost nothing like the glossy ‘Dutch style’ plans laid out roughly six years ago when the route was first unveiled by council chiefs.
And locals now fear the bike path on Barlow Moor Road, where cyclists are separated from cars by a series of raised blocks, will cause mayhem for road users.
One cyclist fumed on Facebook: “If you raise the curbs and put objects in the way of cycle[s] it’s more dangerous as we have no way to get out the way if there is a car coming for you.”
Another resident added: “The public have been messed around for nearly four years it’s taken to put these in place.
“The wonkyness is representative of the ‘love’ (not) gone into them – the lack of education around people using bikes and the road.”
A third resident commented: “Those blocks in the road look very dangerous to me. It won’t be long before cars are crashing there.”
And another chimed in: “Dreadful workmanship, proper boneshaker path that, no wonder some cyclists use roads instead.”
The £13.4m project to install new cycle lanes in the leafy Chorlton neighbourhood began four years ago – as part of a £1.5bn investment project named ‘Beelines’.
Manchester City Council had said at the time it would make “walking and cycling safer” and “reduce the number of short journeys by car” for residents.
But local businesses claim the years of traffic disruptions required to install the new bike routes have severely hit their profits.
Besmira Myrtaj, 38, the co-owner of Greek restaurant Sali’s Souvlaki, said she was losing £10,000 a month due to constant road works and feared going under.
She said: “We have lost a lot of money. We have been losing like £10,000 per month. I have to pay the loan tomorrow – I cannot pay. I can’t pay anything. We have a lot of problems.
“A lot of places have closed. People cannot come to us, and we have to pay the rent, the electricity, the business loan. It’s a very, very bad situation. A lot of businesses aren’t working because they don’t have customers. People do not come this way. They go around because they can’t stop here.”
Matty Shirtcliff, 24, an assistant manager at the bistro Mary & Archie, said ongoing bike lane construction outside his premises was also turning away customers.
He said: “We did have some days that were very quiet, and because of the fences and access we didn’t get as much traffic through.
“It has been a big old nuisance, and it just looks a mess outside. I agree with them putting in cycle lanes but they shouldn’t take this long.
“I often think if this was Germany or the Netherlands, that stuff would have been done in like a month or two. I feel like the Manchester winter can be grey and grim enough without it kind of causing bedlam.
“They’re just slowly but surely building pavements and then tarmacking it and doing little bits here and there, but it’s still very much under construction.”
Matty also agreed that the section of bike lane that had been “completed” on Barlow Moor Road looked disappointingly crooked.
He added: “It does look quite higgledy-piggledy – even bits that I think they have finished are not very level.
“It doesn’t look very polished. I think, ‘Is it quite done?’ It just does not look very good.”
A Manchester Council spokesperson said they “sympathised” with local residents while adding that a range of “unavoidable delays” had put back the project.
They said: “The Manchester to Chorlton Cycleway is a key piece of infrastructure which is intended to make it cleaner, greener and most importantly, safer for people to travel to the centre of Manchester through more sustainable means.
“We of course sympathise with residents and businesses who have been affected throughout the construction.
“While work has taken place as fast as safely possible, there were a range of urgent and unavoidable delays which took place during the course of the project which has set its completion back slightly.
“We would reassure locals that progress is being made, and we anticipate the end of the project in the near future.
“As with all major infrastructure projects there will be a period where snagging works are carried out, and any elements which do not meet our standards are rectified by the contractor.
“We would like to reassure people that this will be taking place, and the issues which have caused the most recent complaints will be addressed.”
