A CYCLE lane ridiculed for forcing riders to weave around several obstacles cost almost £10,000 to install.

The 150-metre segregated path in New Road in Worcester was installed by Worcestershire County Council in June at a cost of £9,195 including almost £5,000 for white lines, signs and bollards.

Closing one lane in New Road for three days for the path to be installed also cost £3,000.

Worcestershire County Council has claimed the path, which is lined with a speed camera, trees, lampposts and a bin, had been a success and resulted in “very little conflict” between cyclists and pedestrians.

But some of the city’s cyclists, who had previously branded the obstacle-filled cycle lane as an ‘embarrassment’ and ‘waste of money’, remain unimpressed almost six months on calling it “expensive performative nonsense.”

Cllr Mike Rouse, cabinet member for highways and transport, said the government needed to provide more funding before it could build “expensive” cycling infrastructure.  

“Cycling infrastructure of any kind, which needs to follow strict government guidelines, is expensive and this is one of the reasons we can’t install as much as we would like as a council,” he said.

“With the New Road, we had a number of complaints about the conflict between pedestrians and cyclists on the combined New Road footway and cycleway.

“Since the scheme was installed, monitoring has revealed that the scheme has been successful and that there is now very little conflict as most pedestrians and cyclists are using the segregated lanes which is really good news for both.

“We need more funding to be able to support more cycle and pedestrian schemes and we are lobbying Active Travel England for more support to enable us to improve more of our network.”

At the time of its installation, the county council said it had made sure there was enough room for cyclists and it was a compromise between ‘improving infrastructure and the multiple demands on the space.’

The county council is having to make up for years of lost ground on active travel having lost out on more than £500,000 after two ‘lacklustre’ bids for extra walking and cycling money fell short and a third was rejected outright.

This is on top of the county council receiving the worst possible ‘zero’ rating from Active Travel England, the new government body responsible for handling walking and cycling money, and told to make improvements before it thinks about bidding for more cash.