THE boss of Adventure Island has joined calls for a review of cycling on Southend seafront after a rider broke a tourist’s hip.

Philip Miller, executive chairman of the Stockvale Group, which runs seafront businesses including Adventure Island and Sealife Adventure, called for a speed limit for cyclists, or a partial ban, during peak season.

Some Independent councillors, including Paul Van Looy, have already called for cycling on the pavement outside the pier to be banned during the summer after 56-year-old Bernadette Lay Flurrie, from Dunstable, was hit by a cyclist there.

Mr Miller said: “Like Mr Van Looy, I am also concerned about pedestrian safety on the stretch of the seafront outside Adventure Island under the pier bridge on Western Esplanade where there is currently no formal cycle lane.

“Perhaps consideration could be given to a speed limit and/or a partial ban during peak season.”

Cyclists are allowed to cycle on the pavement between the “shared space” in Marine Parade – where cars, pedestrians and cyclists are supposed to mingle – and the cycle lane that starts in Western Esplanade outside the Three Shells cafe.

But the area there is awash with tourists from Adventure Island and the pier in the summer and many are unaware cyclists will be on the pavement.

Police are investigating the accident, in which a woman on a white bicycle hit the side of Mrs Lay-Flurrie as she walked with her husband and parents on Sunday, June 9.

The visitor required an operation on her hip after the crash.

Mr Van Looy said: “There are signs up saying pedestrians and cyclists share the pavement, but they are very small.

“When you have hundreds of people mingling there, cycling should be banned outside the pier entrance during the summer.I have no problem with the rest of the seafront.”