Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

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gentlegreen
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by gentlegreen »

I strongly suspect it would not be politically expedient to shut it down.
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breakwellmz
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by breakwellmz »

If the council had got their act together and sorted this out there wouldn`t be this situation.
This guy is providing a realistic, alternative, well organised service and making money in the process-fair play to him and well done.
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gentlegreen
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by gentlegreen »

By all accounts they're up against geology and the remaining water.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by [XAP]Bob »

gentlegreen wrote:I strongly suspect it would not be politically expedient to shut it down.

No - I agree, but the fact remains that planning permission should not be a retrospective process, particularly not for a commercial venture.

By all means have an emergency planning meeting, and push it through quickly - but it should not be allowed to operate without planning permission.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
broadway
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by broadway »

breakwellmz wrote:If the council had got their act together and sorted this out there wouldn`t be this situation.
This guy is providing a realistic, alternative, well organised service and making money in the process-fair play to him and well done.


I doubt the emergency road has considered all the factors that the council would be need to do before building the road which would include planning permission.

How realistic an alternate may depend on the weather, a wet autumn could cause the road problems as it is not surfaced.
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mjr
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by mjr »

I wonder if the operators have factored in the costs of business rates. I think when I was part of a group looking at operating a private toll road in neighbouring North Somerset, we were advised that we would have to pay business rates linked to either the area or rental price of the road - if he owns, rather than rents, then maybe it'll have to be the area.

Anyway, it sounds like cyclists and walkers actually have a better surface as long as the short limestone path diversion is surfaced promptly and not allowed to become the usual porridge in the autumn.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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Redvee
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by Redvee »

A local BBC news report says he's falling short of the break even point, he needs 1000 daily users but only 750 drivers are using it present. Considering he remortgaged his house to fund this he's got a lot to lose.
Postboxer
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by Postboxer »

He could just put the price up a bit. It seems rather expensive to lay a temporary, 365 metre road. I wonder if the council assured him they wouldn't be able to finish the roadworks quicker.
broadway
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by broadway »

Postboxer wrote:He could just put the price up a bit. It seems rather expensive to lay a temporary, 365 metre road. I wonder if the council assured him they wouldn't be able to finish the roadworks quicker.


That would go down well wouldn't it. You can imagine the headlines if the council said yes we have finished the work but we can't open as we promised that it wouldn't be finished yet.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by [XAP]Bob »

It's now low priority - "Big Society" in action
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Postboxer
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by Postboxer »

I was just thinking that the council could take umbridge and get it sorted ASAP just to make a point.
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breakwellmz
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by breakwellmz »

"Local hero" was the headline in this weeks`Chronic`, referring to the chap behind the scheme.
Some background and local opinion-

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/search/s ... oad&where=
Jon Lucas
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by Jon Lucas »

gentlegreen wrote:I strongly suspect it would not be politically expedient to shut it down.


Sadly I suspect gentlegreen is correct, though I think allowing it to stay open throws open a whole host of issues which need resolving. Particularly what happens if the construction of this road affects the landslip below it, and causes the repairs to the landslip to take longer or be more expensive to fix, especially if there is a wet autumn (and in that case, if it doesn't have planning permission can the council close it down on safety grounds?) I cannot understand how what is effectively a public road (even if privately owned, managed and financed) can be allowed to stay open without planning permission, and allowing it to opens up the possibility of anyone with some land opening their own roads over it wherever they feel they could make money from it.
thirdcrank
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by thirdcrank »

Afaik, highway authorities have powers over developments which will tend to increase traffic - and they usually seem to deal with this by extorting money from the developer to use on some quite unconnected traffic scheme. Indeed, this is one of their main sources of income apart from govt grants. OTOH, I wonder where they stand when a development demonstrably reduces traffic levels eg in this case by significantly shortening a large number of journeys.

If there wasn't a suggestion that cyclists were banned, would this have raised much discussion on here?
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661-Pete
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by 661-Pete »

thirdcrank wrote:If there wasn't a suggestion that cyclists were banned, would this have raised much discussion on here?
Well - seeing as I started it - mea culpa. In other words, it was the presence of the 'no cyclists' factor that prompted me to fire off this thread in the first place. Admittedly, it was much more obvious in the paper version of the Grauniad (in which a picture of the sign appeared along with the article) - in the online version you have to run through the video.

But, as I admitted above, I was mistaken :oops: in my initial assumption that cyclists had nowhere to go. Perhaps it was the experiences I've had nearer home that biased me.

Anyway, nothing wrong with the discussion here - raised some useful points.
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