AS YOUR article points out, Sustrans and Oxford City Council have been faced with a difficult decision – build an unsafe path that puts cyclists, walkers and wheelchair users in danger, or risk damaging protected local wildlife (Voles scupper plans for towpath revamp, December 11).
As an organisation that’s been pioneering safe cycling for 35 years, the safety of the routes we create for cyclists and everyone who uses our paths is always our top priority and cannot be compromised.
On a standard path for cycling and walking we usually require a minimum of two-and-a-half metres.
For a heavily used route, as this stretch would certainly be, more space is needed.
The presence of water voles in the area means that we’d have had far less space than this on which to build a path. Regrettably this means that the particular scheme is unworkable.
Sustrans remains 100 per cent committed to creating safe routes in the Oxford area and to working to help make sure cycling and walking are safe and pleasant options for people locally.
MALCOLM SHEPHERD, Chief Executive of Sustrans, Cathedral Square, Bristol
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