Observer Comment: Youngsters win prom cycling concession

A working group with the difficult task of bringing local legislation up-to-date and making penalties more meaningful had decided that cyclists and seafront still had no business mixing, even in the 21st century.

Monday’s meeting of Rother District Council’s services overview and scrutiny committee was recommended to uphold the ban when starting the process of formally putting draft byelaws out for public consultation.

But that was before three young members of Bexhill Youth Council literally put a spoke in proceedings.

Following representations from local cycling groups, the trio took full advantage of a 10-minute time slot to tell the committee that it should wise up and think again.

In a word, they were brilliant.

Well-researched arguments highlighting safety, recreational advantages and helping the environment were put across politely but with a passion that deservedly won the youngsters a round of applause.

The upshot was that draft byelaws will now lean in favour of riding bikes on the prom where this can be achieved without undue risk to pedestrians, and be made binding if local people agree.

Congratulations to the youth council in playing its part, but also to the Rother councillors who invited its representatives to speak and then clearly listened to what they had to say. Democracy in action.