OTT police officer?

OFFS !!!
I've never heard anything so stupid

Where are our boys in blue when you have an adult riding a bike on the pavement (which many cyclists do when and where it suits them)? Nowhere to be seen, of course. They want their * kicking!

Totally OTT and, yes, they should pay more attention to loutish teenagers racing along the pavement on their bikes expecting everyone to move out of their way. Ditto big boys on skateboards.

Is there no actual crime in Lincolnshire? Fancy a Police Officer threatening to take away a four year old's bike. My children and grandchildren rode their bikes on the path and nobody minded.

So he was seriously saying that a four year old on a tiny bicycle with stabilisers should be riding it on the road.....he's made himself look extremely pompous and stupid!
Utterly ridiculous to say the least.
If the child had been in the road I bet the parents would have been prosecuted for bad parenting.

"Bicycles are, in law, carriages (as a consequence of the Taylor v Goodwin judgment in 1879) and should be on the road not footway. (Technically speaking, a ‘road’ is a ‘carriageway’).

The DfT view, from discussions with Home Office, is that the law applies to all but the police can show discretion to younger children cycling on the pavement for whom cycling on the road would not be a safe option.” (See, event the Department for Transport uses the word ‘pavement’).

The age of criminal responsibility is 10 so, technically, only children below this age can cycle on footways without fear of redress."

Of course, over the pond in somewhere like Shapeless, Mass, he'd have just shot her...

The child is very lucky she wasn't tazered

I have no objection to cyclists using the pavements responsibly. We have lots of legally 'shared pavements' where we live. This is patently ridiculous and I hope he was dragged over the coals for his officious behaviour.

However some little kids on scooters are a public menace. I've had to dive out of the way of two of them just this morning when walking the GS to school.

The law should be changed to allow children up to the age of 7 or 8 to ride on the pavement.

Thinking about it a bit more, perhaps 6.

I agree Anya, I have a scar on my ankle from one of the little dears riding straight into me and the mother said I shouldn't be on the pavement!

This makes me really ! Why do they have such idiotic people in the police force? He should be disciplined.

And they want children to exercise more! FFS!

soon 10. And then police should use their discretion. ie how busy the particular road is.

If I was knocked down by a bike, I would get up again, even if slightly damaged. A child cyclist run into by a car most likely wouldn't get up.

And scooters on paths are one of things we need to put up in this day and age. Every kid on a scooter probably means one less car choking up the roads.

Put up with

I've no objections to some kids on scooters it's the little brats loves that are allowed to cleave a trail of destruction through crowded paths, while their mothers have a mobile glued to their ear, that I itch to shove off their scooters.

Small kids on scooters on pavements and paths with parental supervision, I agree, we need to put up with. Not so, careering around supermarkets, unacceptable! Doesn't happen very often, but I'm always amazed at parents who think it OK to let their children do this. Recently in my local Waitrose a manager stepped in and asked child not to ride scooter in store, much to the mother's amazement.

Just read in today's paper that 'parents call in police to control their children'. Apparently parents are demanding that officers come to the house to deal with disruptive behaviour that they cannot, or will not, deal with themselves. One incident cited was a fight between two sisters over a remote control.

Do parents really not know that respect for 'authority' (theirs) starts at an early age or as these the same parents who think it's ok to tear round supermarkets on scooters?

I'm afraid I loathe children on scooters and am always having to move out of the way quickly to avoid my feet being ridden over. I don't see what it achieves, given that their mothers are at walking pace anyway [usually many yards behind them as the little dears career towards main roads etc.].

On what we know so far, this sounds totally OTT. A police spokesman told radio 4 an investigation to identify the officer is under way.

I've no problem with children riding on the pavement. I understand why many adult cyclists don't feel safe on the road but I'm increasingly irritated by cyclists on off road footpaths, for example in our local woods and parks, who cycle at furious speeds, and don't use/or even have, a bell on their bikes. Bikes are not allowed on the footpaths around our reservoirs but use them. I'm live and let live, and don't object to cyclists using the foot paths, providing they show respect and patience around children, people and of course dogs. Dogs are allowed off lead, it's a fantastic walk but becoming unsafe because of cyclists.

hildajenni No, there isn't any crime in Lincs. I used to live there. There is very little ANYTHING.

When we moved there from Kent, I bought a newspaper, the first week. I have never forgotten it. The front page was 'Horncastle school lollipop man may be made redundant'. We almost went into hysterics, we were laughing so much. The local paper we had read the previous week was about a young mum in a park having a needle held to her baby's face, and having to give up her handbag.

Don't most local newspapers have that sort of thing on the front page? I don't think it's that unusual...

Ours has reports about crime etc. on the inner pages.