Restore safe cycle parking to public spaces

It also ain’t much good cycling into the centre if once you’ve got there there’s nowhere safe to park! There’s clearly not enough cycle parking throughout York and particularly in the city centre, which has seen an absolute decline in cycle parking spaces in recent years with Parliament Street being the worst hit. City of York council has been saying for decades that it wants to increase cycling, but if you judge it by its actions, you would form the opposite conclusion. So why are they doing this?

The simple answer is that the powers that be, who control the city centre, seek to make money out of what they see as commercial space and cycle parking is seen as a nuisance. York needs to decide what its priorities are: the long-term health and well-being of the entire community which cycling underpins, or the revenue potential of temporary events? This problem is only going to get worse over time as the amount of cycling increases. It’s time to relocate events such as the money-spinning Christmas market to a more appropriate location and restore a significant level of cycle parking where it’s desperately needed.