Serious Stray issues

Of course all Stray land deserves our protection. Of course walkers deserve somewhere to walk in peace and safety. But equally so do cyclists deserve provision of a route they can follow, which the planners can recommend to them as one which will not specifically expose them to conflict and danger.

I wrote to City of York Council before Christmas, asking them to advise the university that an unlit path in the location of Walmgate would not serve their purposes. I have written again, more recently specifying the dangers to all comers, inherent in providing a quick means of getaway from an otherwise dark, open and secluded area.

David Hall of Sustrans may blithely talk of providing ease of access. Can he not accept that the reverse is true? Can he put his hand on his heart and say that he does not know of other instances elsewhere, where once much used rural footpaths, turned into unlit cycle tracks by Sustrans, are now shunned by cyclist and walker alike?

My greatest fear, if they are not heard, is that this will prove to be painfully a case of acting in haste; repenting very much, at leisure!

J M McAndrew,

Heslington Lane,

Fulford,

York.

...your article in last Friday's Evening Press states that we are to have the cycle tracks over Walmgate Stray although we do not want it.

It says that the track is for cyclists and walkers. Walkers can, and do, walk all over Low Moor all the time.

Now, the track is no help to walkers, neither will it be any help to the cattle which enjoy a few weeks of peace there before being slaughtered.

The track, a continuation of New Walk, was built on a council rubbish dump dating from the time when everyone had coal fires and nothing was re-cycled, so it is largely coal ash and old bottles. This makes for excellent drainage.

Also there are gates at the end of Maple Grove to let the heavy machinery in close to the route of the track. Therefore, it did not do much damage to the area.

The proposed track over Walmgate Stray is right in the middle of a large area of ancient pastures, some of which is bog.

The heavy machinery and lorries full of stone will have to go over this land and will turn it into a quagmire, so we shall not only lose the peace of this common land, we shall lose the land itself as it will be fit for nothing but to be kept off.

I sincerely hope the council will change its mind before the damage is done.

Dorothy Coleman,

Grant's Avenue,

York.

...I wish to add my voice to those of other York residents who find the idea of a cycle path on Walmgate Stray abhorrent.

The path is not proposed to be lit, so how can David Hall, spokesman for Sustrans, say: "The council's transport policy is to maximise the number of journeys made by foot and bicycle and this is done by creating convenient and attractive routes."

Convenient and attractive, to whom? Muggers? In winter months the hours of daylight are not long. The newspaper report states that 18 people wrote letters objecting to the cycle path idea and 15 others raised their concerns about the proposed cycle track. One letter supported the project.

H Walker,

Belle Vue Street,

York.

...I heartily endorse the letter from Charmian Ottaway (January 16) to save the stray in its present natural state.

This land is common land - common land being common for all, and has been for many hundreds of years, unaltered, and long before the university was built.

The ever onward creeping of urbanisation must stop. Too much of old York as we know it has been lost already.

Margaret Hall,

Belle Vue Street,

Heslington Road,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.