Stephen Coates' Homepage

Cycle Parking in Rotherham

Parking your bicycle securely and conveniently can be difficult. One day there are some perfectly good lockers or stands. Next day they are all used up, vandalised, or have been mysteriously removed. There is a lack of quality information about cycle parking on the internet. This page is intended to provide information about the available cycle parking facilities in Rotherham, along with the struggles I have had getting the council to maintain them.

Unlike a lot of towns, Rotherham has a lot of 'lockers'. With these, you can secure your entire bicycle inside, along with any accessories (helmet, bags etc). You can lock it with your own padlock. They are reasonably secure and VERY convenient. They are quite expensive to purchase and install, but can be quite prone to vandalism.

Morpeth Street

The largest collection of cycle lockers in Rotherham are those located on Morpeth Street. Morpeth Street is located in between the Eastwood and Clifton Buildings of Rotherham College of Arts and Technology. Despite their close proximity to the college, they are in fact provided by the council. There are 25 lockers here. At the time of writing (June 2019), one has the door broken off. Others are in various states of repair, although they are generally useable.

These particular lockers are very prone to attracting litter. Until recently many of the lockers on Morpeth Street were unusable because of this. After a lot of effort, I finally managed to get the council to clean it up, but the litter has started to return.

Percy Street (Clifton Hall) Car Park

Just up the road from the previous lockers, there are 3 lockers adjacent to Percy Street in the Clifton Hall Car Park.

These three lockers were brand new in about 2011 ish. For the last four years, they have all had the doors broken off, and are completely unusable.

The council told me (in early 2018) that they are going to be removed due to vandalism, but nothing has happened yet.

Scala Car Park (Corporation Street)

This car park at the bottom of Corporation Street (near the bus and railway station) was recently done up. There used to be six cycle lockers here, but they have been replaced with 3 brand new ones.

These new lockers look quite impressive from a security point of view. Unfortunately they are too small for some bikes. Tall people, beware!

These new lockers seem quite popular, although some people do seem to be reserving them by leaving padlocks on them over night, thus denying them to other members of the public.

Nottingham Street Car Park

There are two very old lockers in this car park (near Tesco). They have been damaged for a long time and are not usable. The council told me they may be replaced or repaired, but no guarantees.

The Crofts (near the Blue Coat pub and the Town Hall)

There are three lockers hidden away at The Crofts. These lockers were brand new recently - I actually wrote on this page that the old ones were knackered, and when I got around to visiting to take a photograph, I was impressed to see that they have been replaced.

They are a similar design to the new ones at the Scala Car Park but are black in colour.

Clifton Park

Clifton Park has three lockers in the Museum car park (adjacent to Clifton Lane), and another three on the path around the back of the Museum. There used to be some more near the paddling pool, but these have mysteriously dissappeared.

I don't know whether these are provided by the council or not. One would assume that they are, but there was no mention of them when they sent me a list of their lockers.

The lockers in the museum car park look tatty but appear to be in reasonably good condition. Although two of them have very stiff hinges.

Complaints

Despite the expense of installing lockers in the first place, Rotherham Council seem to have no intention of maintaining them.

Broken lockers do not get repaired or replaced (in good time). Litter is not cleaned up. Padlocks which are put on lockers and then abandoned don't get removed. For many months last year, I tried to get the council to do something about this, particularly cleaning the litter up. In some cases, the same litter had been there for over a year. I managed to get some responses out of the council, but nothing was done until I contacted the Rotherham Advertiser. Within a few days of the Advertiser contacting the council, I witnessed some council workers cleaning up. A couple of months later, they managed to remove some abandoned padlocks. Here is the article.

If you are dissatisfied with the state of the cycle parking facilities in Rotherham, I suggest you make a formal complaint. Write to:

Matthew Reynolds, Transportation Manager
Transport and Highways Design Service
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Riverside House
Main Street
Rotherham
S66 1AE

Or alternatively write to the dedicated 'Complaints Team' at the same address.

Also feel free to contact me through the Contact Me page.