PEDESTRIANS have to cross the same road in St Ives twice to get to the post-box since Cambridgeshire County Council installed new measures for cyclists. The cycle paths have been installed along Broad Leas/Pig Lane, commandeering a stretch of path on the

PEDESTRIANS have to cross the same road in St Ives twice to get to the post-box since Cambridgeshire County Council installed new measures for cyclists.

The cycle paths have been installed along Broad Leas/Pig Lane, commandeering a stretch of path on the west side of the street just for bikes.

Some pedestrians, who are forced on to the east side of the street, have to criss-cross Broad Leas just to reach the post-box.

It's not much better for cyclists when they near the North Road junction - heading into the town centre they have to cross Broad Leas joining a short cycle path on the east of the street before the lane disappears altogether.

The layout seems to have confused - and angered - residents.

Hunts Post reader Mick Shanley, who lives in Queens Close, of Pig Lane, said: "Following recent road modifications, a long section of footpath on the west side of Pig Lane and Broad Leas has been re-designated as a cycle-only path.

"This means that now I would have to cross Pig Lane twice to walk to my local post box and, more seriously, infant children attending Eastfield School have to run the gauntlet of cyclists heading into town or to the St Ivo and Westfield schools.

"What is the logic of this ludicrous decision?" he asked.

County council highway engineer Emma Murden said the scheme would be better when it was finished, but the need for pedestrian to cross the road had been forced on the highway authority by the geometry of the existing road layout.

"We ran out of highway width overall," she told The Hunts Post. "We have removed some of the parked cars to make it safer, but we shall be meeting with the contractor to make some amendments to the scheme.

"There's more work that needs to be carried out, including re-shaping the southbound cycle lane with a coloured road surface."

The county is also in discussion with district and town councillors over a more ambitious cycle and pedestrian scheme for Needingworth Road between the town centre and St Audrey's Lane.

But there are at present no plans to provide for safe foot and cycle journeys between the St Ives park-and-ride site in Meadow Lane and office and leisure developments off Harrison Way and at Compass Point off the A1123.

BOX: Has the new cycle path layout made life easier for you? Send your views to editor@huntspost.co.uk