Steve Kidd Cycling Trips and Guides

Castleford Whitwood Mere

A microcosm of wasted opportunity. If you watch the film below, you may see exactly what is wrong with cycle provision. Although this merits an 'O.K.', it could easily be made so much better. There is NO recourse to the money argument; less than 200 yards from the Eastern end of it £4 million has been spent on a footbridge (no cycling!) when 200 grand would have done the job. Incidently, the pavement between this footbridge and the track has several kerbs, which made it difficult to push the wheelchair (I just put that in for the sake of emotional blackmail). Let me be quite clear; after a couple of hundred yards from Castleford the reasonable surface seen in the photo's deteriorates into a rough footpath, poor for cycling on, impossible for the wheelchair (like I said, watch the film).

Cycle Tracks A cycle track should be "perfect", that is, it should be metalled, it should be at least six foot wide so two people can cycle side by side, it should be direct, there should be no enforced stops, and there should be no motor traffic with the exception of emergency vehicles on emergency business, and navigation should be unambigous. If motorways were less than this (for cars) they wouldn't be called motorways, would they? So don't call these anything but off-road recreational routes.

Length	1.6 km	Rating	OK
Authority	WMDC	Surface	1
OS Sheet	105	Width	1
Between	Methley Bridge	Traffic	2
OS Ref.	441021 425731	Stops	1
and	A655 A 6032 roundabout	Danger	0
OS Ref.	442605 425899	Navigability	1
Date	24th July 2010	Route	0
Author	Steve Kidd	Score	6
By Rail	Castleford 0.5
How to find	Just on the Castleford side of Methley Bridge, 200 yards from footbridge in Castleford
Connection	0

Short film on The East end of Castleford Whitwood Mere cycle track

£4 million pounds worth of bridge at Castleford