Gardai in Dundalk, Co Louth, have promised “tough love” and have predicted prosecutions will arise as part of a planned clampdown against cycling on footpaths in the area.
At a meeting of local Joint Policing Committee, a senior
Garda officer told councilors and members of the public present that an
operation to target people cycling on footpaths had been ready for implementation
earlier this year.
However, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, that operation
was put on hold because there were other priorities.
But Chief Supt Christy Mangan said having listened to the
concerns being expressed at the meeting last Tuesday he would now bring forward
the operation and it would begin immediately.
“We are in the middle of a pandemic, but we will bring
the launch of the initiative forward”, he said, according to a report in the
Dundalk Democrat.
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“I have listened to your concerns and I will bring it
forward and get it implemented,” he comment, adding people would be told about
it in advance.
“There will have to be a little bit of tough love with
people and prosecutions will take place”, he added.
The issue of cycling on footpaths in the Garda Louth
policing region was raised at the Joint Policing Committee earlier this year
when concerns were expressed for pedestrians.
There was particular focus placed on elderly people being
at risk in some parts of Dundalk because of people cycling on footpaths.
Cycling on a footpath is not among the
offences in the fixed charge notice system for dealing with cyclists breaching
road traffic rules.
However, it is an offence if
individual gardai form the view that the manner in which a person cycled on a
footpath was done without reasonable consideration. The Roads Act 1993
also specifies that “footpaths are for the use of pedestrians”.
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