Crackdown on pavement riding cyclists to start in Deeside this week

Operation Gulf swings into operation this week, nope not another coalition force led war in the Middle East but a Deeside Police led war on the pavement cycling ‘chaos’ which has grown to near epidemic proportions in past few months.

Operation Gulf as it has been named by police, will target cyclists putting pedestrians and themselves at risk often riding in the dark with no lights and on pavements at high speeds.

The latest crackdown by police comes at a time when many Deeside pedestrians feel they are being squeezed from the pavements by the large number of cyclists, many of who work on Deeside Industrial Estate, riding in packs through Queensferry towards Connah’s Quay in the evenings.

Outraged walkers have even ‘taken’ to social media sharing experiences and ‘engaging’ with local police officers about the dangers they face daily, indeed even a leading Deeside journalist was “nearly taken out” last month – speaking to twitter he said “following a gruelling four-hour shift i was dead hungry like, so was on my to Wok & Go in Shotton when bosh, out from nowhere came some **** riding a bike on the pavement -he nearly took me out!”

Cyclists can often seen riding along the busy pedestrian pavements of Shotton High Street in daylight hours at high-speed with little regard for those walking along the paths.

The issue around cyclists on pavements is a regular agenda filler for Connah’s Quay Town Council and police launch periodic crackdowns targeting ‘offenders’ with fixed penalty notices, yet no long lasting solution has been found to date.

While there have been reports of ‘near’ misses between cyclists and pedestrians, very few reports emerge of anyone being hit and injured miraculously however, there have been a string of cyclists hit and injured by cars in the last few years.