It’s lovely to see some sunshine after the rain in Manchester today. The snow and ice seems so long ago, even though it’s only a couple of weeks since people found themselves housebound.

It’s important to think about what lessons we can learn from the weather conditions so we can avoid them in future. One thing that local residents mentioned to me was the Fallowfield Loop, the cycle path on the old railway line which runs between Fallowfield and Old Moat, from Chorlton all the way round to Openshaw. This path was completely frozen over in many places during the ice. Now, cars might have trouble on ice but at least you can’t fall off a car while driving (unless you’re Brian Harvey). An icy cycle path is completely unusable to cyclists, as well as the pedestrians who use it for recreation, dog walking and so on.

We’re being told that we need to cycle more. Cycling is a great way to commute, when the roads aren’t perilous - even in the rain, you tend to get less wet (or at least feel less wet) than waiting for a bus. It’s cheaper than a car, and quicker to get into town in rush hour. It’s better exercise than a bus, and gives you the freedom to go exactly where you want to go, which is very handy if you’re off the main bus routes or travelling on a Sunday. I’m looking at ways to make cheap refurbished bikes available to people in Fallowfield, like the “Ride Manchester” scheme formerly based in Levenshulme.

However, if Manchester City Council want us to cycle, they need to support the infrastructure that allows us to cycle, and that includes off-road cycle paths. We know that not every road can be gritted in extreme weather conditions, but since a frozen cycle path is even more perilous to its users than a frozen road, and there are not too many of them, then they should be afforded the same priority as other commuter routes. Of course, keeping the gritting up on roads is also important - though road gritting rarely covers the width of the road, meaning that cyclists either have to cycle in the snow and ice towards the side of the road, or try to share the narrow cleared strip of tarmac with cars - this too needs to be addressed.

Local residents have told me that they want to see action on the cyclepaths issue. Having clear cyclepaths all year round means more people getting more exercise, less congestion and more money in people’s pockets, and I think it’s a great idea. Fellow Lib Dems Victor Chamberlain and Cllr. Paul Ankers have also covered this issue. What do you think?