In the Spring of 2021 BicesterBUG made a video demonstrating the problems that barriers on cycle paths create for people trying to cycle in Bicester. That was followed up by a crowd sourced data gathering exercise to photograph and map all the barriers in the town, which BicesterBUG wrapped up into a report and passed onto Oxfordshire County Council. Add to that the council’s own Active Travel Strategy from 2022 which states on page 17…

"Consequently, and in line with our commitment to build an inclusive network, we will design all new and review all cycle routes to be accessible to most types of cycles. In particular, all barriers on cycle routes should leave a clear 1.5 m width between bollards and not introduce lateral diversions unsuitable for longer bikes. We will ensure that the needs of disabled cyclists are recognised in design, including on access to cycle parking."

You’d think that as we approach 2025 we would be well on the way to resolving this problem, but the Council appears to have made no progress at all. Well, not of its own volition.

Taking legal action

I’m a Disabled person who finds cycling easier than walking or driving, but it means I often run into problems with poor design like barriers on cycle paths. The Equality Act 2010 gives people with a ‘protected characteristic’ like a disability the means to challenge such problems and get a ‘reasonable adjustment’.

I moved to Bicester about 3 years ago and one of the cycles I brought with me is an electric cargo trike. I use it for shopping and doing a weekly school run with my granddaughter. After school or at the weekends we like to explore the parks in Bicester. One of them, Play Area 51 in Langford Village, was off limits to us because the bike path leading to it was bookended by chicane style barriers. So began our first legal action to have a barrier removed.

It took a surprisingly long time for the County Council to agree to remove the barrier between Gavray Drive and the play area, but once it had it was gone within days. Completely removed, as per its Active Travel Policy above, we were finally able to get to the Town Council’s colourful climbing frame there.

One of the cycle routes that takes you from the play area back towards the town centre includes a section from Jubilee Lake on Wretchwick Way through to the linear park. However, the route has five sets of chicane barriers and so began our second legal action.

Again it took a long time for the County Council to agree to take action but once it did the route was made accessible very quickly. This time the outcome didn’t comply with its Active Travel Policy but with one side of each set of barriers removed we could get through.

Settlement Agreement and Release

In order to reach a settlement I had to sign an agreement not to take any further action on these modified barriers, and for their part, the County Council had to release to me £1,200. (I hope it’s some consolation to the Council that all the money went to good causes, including Wheels for Wellbeing who campaign to remove barriers to Disabled people cycling.)

Taking legal action isn’t without risk, so before embarking on another one we’re pausing to review where we are and how we might avoid that risk, while saving the County Council another £1,200 in the process.

What have we learnt so far?

• As well as being divided by type of service, the County Council is divided into a part that sets policy and a part that puts that policy into practice. Judging by our correspondence it would appear that the operational part disagrees with the policy setting part. If that’s really the case then the Council might do well to resolve the issue and save its legal part from wasting any more time and money on it.
• The Council only took action to remove or modify the barriers when we informed it that we were preparing to go to court. On the one hand that’s a good result, but the downside of that outcome generally is that a ruling is never made to inform future cases, referred to as ‘precedent’, which would make it easier for people to challenge these types of barrier in the future. And ultimately, to prevent any new ones from being installed.
• To begin with the agreement also included a clause about confidentiality which seems to be standard practice. As part of the settlement we had that clause taken out, which is why I can talk about it here. ‘Gagging’ clauses generally make the work of organisations like Wheels for Wellbeing more difficult by preventing people who have been successful in challenging discriminatory practice from openly sharing their experience. So best avoided if possible.

Where do we go from here?

Rather than continuing with this piecemeal approach, BicesterBUG would like to see a timely, planned approach to creating an inclusive cycling network in and around the town. That will depend on the County Council putting its policy into practice.