Protesters on wheels clash with police

Traffic wardens had to help control a crowd of around 100 people on Saturday as they snaked through the town centre towards the Town Hall.

They were demonstrating because they thought Worthing council was changing the law to ban cycling in all parks in the town when, in fact, bye-laws were being changed to allow it - but only on designated cycle paths.

The changes have been brought about as part of West Sussex County Council's Safer Routes to School scheme.

Clare Mulholland, West Sussex County Council's project officer for school travel, said work would start on a new 50,000 cycle path through Homefield Park in October to make it easier for children to get to school.

"At the moment there is a byelaw in place which prohibits any cycling in any Worthing park. In order for us to develop this cycle path as part of the Safer Routes to School Project we needed to get the byelaw changed, which is what this is about. I think people have got the wrong end of the stick."

Worthing council's Mike Bleakley said cycling through the parks would only be permitted on cycle paths - although there are no others in the town.

"It is down to the council to enforce the byelaws but we are not going to have lots of people in all the parks stopping people from cycling. If we get lots of complaints about a certain place we will seek to address that.

"We are not going to be heavy handed. This is aimed at school children. There is an increasing problem getting kids to school safely and people out of cars and this is what this is about."

A spokeswoman from 23TOPIA, the group which organised the event, said: "It went really well. Quite a few people came down and cycled through the town and along the seafront to the Town Hall.

"There were about 100 people on bikes, skateboards and roller skates as well as some people walking with prams."

The group was criticised by the police for not letting them know about the protest. The spokeswoman said: "We did not know how the protest was going to go. It was quite spontaneous. In the past when we have done protests, they have tried to stop us from going where we wanted to go. We felt we had every right to hold this protest."

They have collected 400 signatures to hand in to the council as part of the protest.

Inspector Brian Bracher said the group should have given the police at least six days' notice of the protest.

He said: "It is never the intention of the police to prevent a procession but to ensure the safety of those taking part, as well as minimising the disruption to the community. On this occasion there were a large number of young children walking on roads, who I considered were not properly supervised, as many happened to join the group as it moved along the roads."

Work is currently being carried out on a new cycle path along the seafront - starting from East Worthing and sweeping westwards to Goring.