A cash-strapped council’s £500,000 cycle lane has been branded dangerous by families as it makes less space for road users.
Norfolk County Council’s flagship scheme has come under fire from motorists, pedestrians and even cyclists.
The expensive project, funded by the government’s Active Travel Fund, has seen the creation of a new cycle lane that is less than a mile long on each side of the road.
New zebra crossings have been introduced, while new reflective wands have been added to separate the road from the cycle lanes.
But families complain the scheme has made the street narrower and more hazardous, while retailers say the loss of parking spaces has harmed trade.
Adding to the chaos, mobility scooters have been spotted riding along the cycle lanes, while delivery drivers regularly block them and cyclists say they are now forced onto the pavement to stay safe.
Resident Les West, 83, who lives on Middleton Road where the lanes have been installed, said: ‘It is a disgusting, horrendous waste of money. They have made a busy road into a dangerous one. I can’t see the point in it at all.’
Sue Bowman, 53 and who works at the Rose Garden florist shop on Middleton Road, said: ‘It has gone from a safe road to a very unsafe, dangerous road. It is awful.
Cash-strapped Norfolk County Council’s £500,000 cycle lane has been branded dangerous by families as it makes less space for road users
Adding to the chaos, mobility scooters have been spotted riding along the cycle lanes which are less than a mile long
‘I don’t like driving on it now. The lanes you drive on are too narrow and the road is so narrow because the cycle lanes have been put in.
‘We are still getting people parking in the cycle lanes and people don’t know where to park.’
Liz Spires, 66, who had come to the florist with her family, said: ‘We think it is bloody stupid.
‘Now you are lucky if you can get two cars parked.
‘We are coming to arrange funeral flowers for my late husband and it has been a real pain.’
Since work has been completed, new issues have emerged with cars stopping in the cycle lanes and vehicles blocking them off while making deliveries.
Julie Hall, 64, who lives on Middleton Road and uses her bicycle, said: ‘If someone is parked on the cycle lane you have to ride on the pavement.
‘I cycle to the James Paget to get to work and binmen getting the waste bins are parked in the cycle lanes.’
Another cyclist, Anthony Hollis, 64, said: ‘I think it is a lot of money for what it is.
‘If they had widened the pavement they wouldn’t have had to do any of this. They could have just made the pavement wider.
‘Riding on the pavement is safer than riding on the road.’
Dawn Howell, owner of The Rose Garden (left), and Sue Bowman, who works at the florist say the road has become unsafe
Delivery drivers regularly block the lanes as well, and cyclists say they are now forced onto the pavement to stay safe
Another man living on the road, who did not want to be named, said: ‘It is a wide road that has now been narrowed.
‘When you have two cars it is not too bad but with a lorry it is a nightmare.
‘Most people cycle on the footpath. The only thing I agree with is the crossings.’
Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Local taxpayers are right to be outraged by this half-million-pound white elephant.
‘Norfolk County Council has managed the rare feat of spending a fortune to make a road less functional for drivers, less profitable for shopkeepers, and even less safe for the very cyclists they claim to be helping.
‘Local authorities need to stop prioritising flagship vanity projects over the common-sense concerns of the people who actually live and work on these streets.’
Norfolk County Council has been contacted for comment.