THE Millennium Park, cycle/walkway is nearing completion. On the surface an extremely good asset for Lancaster.

Apparently healthy and safe walking/cycling along the side of the Lune away from that nasty, unsafe and polluting traffic on Caton Road. Yet if we walk 50 yards from the direction of Skerton Bridge, there's an awful stench.

It comes from the back of the old weighbridge by the Kingsway overspill car park. There the council's cleansing dept empty rubbish picked up from around Lancaster (you can imagine what) store it in skips until full and then take them away.

Skips and the small vehicles are washed and the black stinky residue drains into a grid at the side of the pavement where people and their children walk along at the side of Caton Road. I have also seen very big rats in the area.

Walk past the rear of Lappets Dyehouse and a fine spray from one of its chimneys greets you. I don't know what harm, if any, this could do but all summer the nearest tree had no leaves on one side.

Walk along to the back to the former Courtaulds factory (Accordis) - recently cited by some as one of country's top ten toxic producing factories. Oh what a blissful playground!

Car owning fishermen have found the delights of the newly resurfaced cycle/walkway. One morning 7 cars were lined up at the side of the weir, their owners happily fishing in the Lune, oblivious to the churning up of the grass and turning it into a morass of mud. No doubt this will continue until the bollards are replaced at the entrance by the hire shop and the gates are kept locked at the back of the industrial estate that backs onto the weir.

Then we have the saga of the lamp-posts that have been installed along the 'way'. Holes were dug and posts sunk. Then someone found that if you pushed and pulled the posts - they moved. One was taken out and thrown into the river. Others were far from upright. Most of the posts were dug up, replaced and reconcreted in. The old concrete was left at the side of the posts: it was about a foot in depth and if you stood on it, it just crumbled away.This was before the lamps were connected to an electricity supply. Good job we have vandals to look after the public good, otherwise we would not have known.

A J de Wolf Newton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.