Cookson Park open

Cookson Park, at the bottom of Wordsworth Avenue, got a BMX/skate park last year. There's been a lot of work going on since then, and last weekend the cycle speedway track opened.

There had been a very primative track there for many years, but this has been completely rebuilt and landscaped, and looks to be an excellent facility - the BMX park has certainly encouraged the local kids to get on two wheels.

And just in case you were wondering, all this has been funded by Neighbourhood Renewal Fund Grants, not from the council's cycling facility budget.

North Sheffield cycle news - April

Work on the route north of Rutland Road has started in earnest now - there's work on about 150m of path. As you might be able to see from the photos, pedestrians get around one-third of the path, furthest away from the road, cyclists get the rest.

However, at the risk on sounding churlish, you have to ask are FIVE sets of tactile paving really necessary within this distance? I know we complain about cheap and cheerful facilities badly installed (usually outside Sheffield), but is this overengineering?

And what's going to happen at the N end near the Hydra Tools building? There's a useful drop-kerb that presumably would have lined you up nicely with a contra-flow lane outside Hydra Tools itself. Instead it looks like a new drop-kerb is going to be built about a metre away (hopefully a new drop-kerb is going in here !!)

There's no progress further N yet - I was hoping that the route as far as Hillfoot Bridge would be open by the summer, providing an attractive and visible alternative that might just tempt some people from their motorised sofas when the weather finally gets warm.

Apologies for sounding like a grumpy old cyclist ;-)