Ten years ago, Railtrack (as they were then) dug up the tatty forecourt outside Hitchin Station and re-laid it. CTC were involved in the “consultation” process but it was a token gesture – our views were ignored and the result is unusable. A recent survey by Transport 2000 named and shamed Hitchin as one of the country’s worst stations to reach by bike. Now we are planning to do it all again. But has anybody learned by the past mistakes ? Sadly not.

It is unclear who is driving the new proposals. We were passed a copy of the plans in April by NHDC and gave detailed comments on them. We even submitted plans of our own showing a much more pedestrian and cyclist friendly environment.

Plans exhibited at the station this week reflect none of those comments. We have, it seems, been ignored once again. The current proposals are little different to the wholly unsatisfactory proposals that we battled against a decade ago. Regrettably, this is a proposal that is aimed at encouraging people to drive to the station, and as is so often the case, cyclists will be marginalised even further in order to make space. As if Hitchin didn’t already have enough traffic on its roads.

What can you do ?

Write to you Councillor (District and County). Bang on the table and demand to know why public money is being squandered on another pointless and counter-productive re-shuffle. Improving conditions for cycling was the second most popular measure in the 1998 Hitchin Transport Plan, it is about time something constructive was done about it.

regards

Alasdair DV Massie

CTC Right to Ride Representative, North Herts

CTC is Britain’s largest cycling organisation with 70,000 members. Formed in 1878 we have actively campaigned for better, safer roads, locally and nationally since our inception.

We have a large and active section for Stevenage and North Herts.