Council hails "excellent" solution to "long and dangerous" diversion as cyclists can wheel bikes through university land during route closure

I would suggest that, as this is private land, the University can make their own access rules up.

To me the question should really be which do we allow private organisations to own land and restrict access to it. We should follow the Scottish and have a freedom to roam law in England which would do away with such nonsense. 

essexian wrote:

I would suggest that, as this is private land, the University can make their own access rules up.

To me the question should really be which do we allow private organisations to own land and restrict access to it. We should follow the Scottish and have a freedom to roam law in England which would do away with such nonsense. 

I suspect even if we did have such a law (which I agree is long overdue) the University would be able to get away with saying that being walled/railed off and capable of being closed in the evening the Parks are a private garden and so exempt. This is why if we ever do get such a law it should be paired with a law of public right-of-way allowing the public to cross private lands that are otherwise exempt, e.g. some stately homes such as Blenheim Palace and Longleat are paid-entry premises but are obliged to maintain public rights of way across the land.

Rendel Harris wrote:

essexian wrote:

I would suggest that, as this is private land, the University can make their own access rules up.

To me the question should really be which do we allow private organisations to own land and restrict access to it. We should follow the Scottish and have a freedom to roam law in England which would do away with such nonsense. 

I suspect even if we did have such a law (which I agree is long overdue) the University would be able to get away with saying that being walled/railed off and capable of being closed in the evening the Parks are a private garden and so exempt. This is why if we ever do get such a law it should be paired with a law of public right-of-way allowing the public to cross private lands that are otherwise exempt, e.g. some stately homes such as Blenheim Palace and Longleat are paid-entry premises but are obliged to maintain public rights of way across the land.

The walled/railed off excuse wouldn't work on the Scottish law but paid entry for more than 90 days a year would, the other thing that would work is if they are the gardens immediately around a residence.

A few hundred comments. Only a couple I could see blaming the cyclist. Pretty much despair at the police and asking who the driver is related to.

Oxford Dons looking ridiculous over some extremely pedantic argument?  Can this be?

chrisonatrike wrote:

Oxford Dons looking ridiculous over some extremely pedantic argument?  Can this be?

Thalassa or Thalatta, the former or the latter?

I think looking ridiculous is probably in the job contract somewhere. Alongside cycling in subfusc, gown and hood mid summer to get to exams, steering with a mortar board in one hand. Only beaten by the one time I saw our philosophy don pull up on his Dutch classic gowned, but having forgotten the key step of getting out of his paisley pyjamas and into his suit. 

The parks date from the 1880s and have always banned new-fangled bicycles.

The university parks only put in the cycle path to Marston in the 1990s, before that it was a pretty dismal muddy track and mostly flooded in winter (my college squash courts were down there, damp enough the ball would slide along the wall rather than rebound cleanly).

the plain roundabout ice much better since the recent upgrades to infrastructure. The dangerous but now is long walk street where the cycle path disappears just where the constrictions force conflict with drivers, who are therefore always desperate to overtake just before the blind corner at the morris garage. It will be interesting to see if the traffic filters work when they come in once Botley road is reopened.

Carbon cycle wrote:

... Only beaten by the one time I saw our philosophy don pull up on his Dutch classic gowned, but having forgotten the key step of getting out of his paisley pyjamas and into his suit. 

This is the kind of "transport for all" attitude I would like to see more of!

Carbon cycle wrote:

The parks date from the 1880s and have always banned new-fangled bicycles.

I hope you took them at their word and turned up - in keeping - on a dicycle, a tricycle, quadricyle or other "sociable" of the era.  Apparently the Queen had one...

You'd think the university that has educated the last five consecutive prime ministers of this country would be able to trust its current students. Would they expect Sunak, Truss, Johnson, May, or Cameron to be so inept and careless as to lose control when pushing a bicycle, sending it careening across the park lawns, possibly smashing into one of the adjacent laboratories, and starting the Great Fire of Oxford?

Actually, they may have a point.