If you cycle around the Island to travel to work, do your shopping or visit friends, we expect that you’d think it reasonable to be able to chain your bike to a lamp post or similar if there wasn’t a bike rack nearby.
Well not so, as ethical clothing company Rapanui discovered today.
Most use sustainable transport
Being eco-friendly types, four members of staff at the company based on Sandown High Street, regularly cycle to work.
Two of the bikes are parked at the back of the shop, one is chained to a post in the street and the other “locks up round the front of the shop”.
So you can imagine their amazement earlier today when they received a visit from an Isle of Wight council official who told them that the bike chained to the post in the street had to be moved.
Requested that it was removed immediately
They say,
“Today a man from the Isle of Wight Council walked in our shop. It appears he’d been called in to investigate the fact that we had parked a bicycle outside. This, he says, is unacceptable and requested that it was removed immediately.”
What’s the alternative?
Wondering where they might be able to move their bike(s) to, the lads asked the official (a total of five times) if he could suggest an alternative location.
Apparently he was unable to suggest anywhere immediately. They went on to say,
“He also said if we don’t like that, we should take it up with the council and that either way, ‘you can’t park your bikes around here from now on’. As a solution, he suggested that Rapanui ‘advise their staff not to park their bikes near the premises – and leave the problem with them.’
“After about 5 minutes, the best he could offer was leaving them in the motorcycle section of the carpark behind the town centre, or somewhere like that. Then after a few more minutes, we discovered that there was actually a ‘hoop’ in the high street for chaining bikes to, but he advised that we shouldn’t put too many bikes on it.”
Rapanui founder, Rob Drake-Knight, told VB, “We’re keen to encourage people to cycle rather than use cars to get around, so we’re disappointed at the council’s heavy-handed attitude.
“We appreciate there are other bike racks around the area, but we want the local council to increase the number available and provide a covered rack, as has been requested many times.”
He went on to suggest that rather than be reprimanded, it would be good for people to be encouraged to cycle more, especially with Sandown being at the end of the cycle track.
How common is this stance?
This is the first time that we’re heard of something like this.
Often in cities you’ll see signs specifically asking for bikes to not be chained to metal railings at the front of buildings, but we’ve never heard of bikes not being allowed to be chained to posts or street lamps.
Anyone else had a problem either here on the off the Island?
Read their story in full.
Thanks to the many readers who got in touch about this.
Update: Quote from RDK added
