Cycling News

Arsenal FC told bikes are not a bomb risk

The football club wanted to site cycle parking stands away from its new Emirates Stadium but Islington Council has told Arsenal it should be encouraging cycling to home games not discouraging it. Of interest only to cycling Arsenal fans? No, if Arsenal had successfully argued that cycles were a security risk and so cycle parking should be downgraded, other businesses and organisations could have argued likewise, cutting the number of cycle parking facilities across the UK.

Arsenal had argued that bikes placed close to the ground could pose a security risk. Bomb-makers in the world's terrorist hot-spots sometimes use bicycles packed with explosives.

Scotland Yard's chief terrorism adviser said the original plan for cycle parking by the Stadium's South Bridge walkway posed a "significant" terrorism threat, said the Islington Gazette.

However, cars and lorries - which can be packed with lots of explosives and are the terrorists' favoured choice of transport 'weapon' - are not deemed a high threat by Arsenal's advisors.

Clearly, the football club's stance is daft and Arsenal have been told so by Islington Council. The club has been told it must provide cycle parking within the new Emirates Stadium in Ashburton Grove, Holloway, rather than nearby.

Arsenal's plan had been for smaller racks at nine locations around the stadium but cycling campaign groups condemned the scheme because it could mean other public buildings using the terrorism threat to avoid providing cycle racks.

Alison Dines, co-ordinator at Islington Cyclists Action Group, said: : "Arsenal's cycle parking proposals were disappointing. They should be wholeheartedly encouraging cycling to the matches, not trying to stamp it out."

Published Thursday 20 July 2006