CYCLEWAY PETITION DRAWS GOOD RESPONSE

Spokes Canterbury, the local cycling advocacy group, is overwhelmed by the response already to its petition calling for the Christchurch City Council to rescind it cycleway moratorium.

Last month the Council voted to halt tendering of all projects involving cycleways, pending the outcome of a seminar to review the cycle strategy and its implementation.
An online petition released on Tuesday night attracted more than 300 responses to the Council within 24 hours. By the end of the week, that number was closing in on 700.
Spokes Chair Glen Koorey says that the group felt it necessary to indicate to Council the level of public concern with the cycleway moratorium.
"While accepting the rationale for undertaking a review of cycling progress in the city, we strongly condemn the interim moratorium as an unnecessary response that sends a bad message to cyclists and the general public", says Mr Koorey.
"A key concern of ours is that a decision may not immediately follow the seminar. Potentially it could take months to resolve Councillor issues and in the meantime, nothing gets done for cyclists while the moratorium stays in place."
As well as the online petition, Spokes is also arranging for the distribution of paper petition forms around the city.
Information about the online petition can be found at www.can.org.nz/old/spokes_chch/moratorium.index.htm
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For further information, contact Glen Koorey
Chairperson, SPOKES Canterbury
Email: spokes_chch [at] can [dot] org [dot] nz
Phone: (03) 331-7504 (hm) 364-2951 (wk)