Cyclists legality

THE Canal & River Trust inherited bye-laws which prohibited vehicles from towpaths, unless their presence was 'lawful' or authorised by the authority. writes Martin Cox.

'Vehicles' are clearly defined in the bye-laws as anything on wheels, powered or otherwise. 'Lawful' would be those (small) sections of towpath that are public rights of way.

Given authority

By abandoning the permit system CaRT has given general authority for cycling use after, one assumes, an appropriate risk assessment. When (not if) the first serious accident occurs from racing I can see a good PI solicitor challenging that 'general authority' in the context of a claim against CaRT.

One of the main campaigning organisation for cyclists, Cycling Touring Club (CTC), also appears to have lost the plot. They have an active campaign for local authorities to include towpaths when the council put together their 'Rights of Way Improvement Plan' (RWIP). All councils have a statutory duty to prepare such a plan. The CTC do not seem to understand the meaning of 'rights of way'. Except for very short lengths, no towpaths are 'rights of way', which has a clear legal meaning, as Warwickshire County Council (for example) point out in its RWIP.

One towpath

The CTC rely a lot on a publication which only includes one towpath (Regents Canal) but makes interesting reading in the context of how 'multiple' use should be handled in the terms of infrastructure.

Strava (the company where time trial times are registered on the towpaths) are a USA firm and very cleverly distance themselves from any users of their site outside USA.