Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council ripped up a traffic filter at the expense of cyclists. Then the people fought back…
OPINION: THE GOLDEN AGE OF CYCLING?
There’s been so much gloom in the cycling world that a win for everyday riding feels even more significant than usual. Even better is a victory for the people, by the people. Keyhole Bridge is, on the face of it, a small matter, both physically and relatively. Picture a small tunnel beneath a railway bridge, linking two parks in Poole, Dorset. In another circumstance it wouldn’t earn a second look. The space in that tunnel is only just big enough for one vehicle to pass through – and there’s no pavement to speak of – but it was a popular cut-through for drivers in Poole attempting to avoid a one-way system. During the pandemic it was one of countless rat runs closed to through traffic up and down the country to help people on foot and bikes exercise in safety and peace.
Fast-forward a few months and there’s a new council administration: the consultation on the bridge’s future was ended a month early and the traffic filter (one planter and two plastic bollards) was removed. Local people had enjoyed the quiet route between two parks and wanted the filter to stay, so they began the Keyhole Bridge Group (KBG) campaign. They won a legal challenge, and a judge ordered Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP), the local council, to run another consultation and pay KBG’s costs. The council’s decision, a KBG-commissioned report found, was based on flawed analysis, and ignored the health and economic benefits of the safe route.
When the council rejected campaigners’ calls to reinstate the closure in December 2022, Cycling UK got involved. The national cycling charity, with its Cyclists’ Defence Fund, had already won a judicial review against West Sussex Council over removal of a popular pop-up cycle lane on Old Shoreham Road (I covered it in my first column for this magazine). In late November 2023, in a repeat of that victory, a judge ruled that, when it made December’s decision not to reinstate the filter, BCP had ignored national guidance to prioritise cycling. While the two outcomes were similar, the Keyhole ruling would have real-world impacts (West Sussex didn’t have to reinstate the cycle lanes). BCP council, by now under yet another administration, would act to remedy the situation.
While that solution wouldn’t be the same filter under Keyhole Bridge – perhaps too
