Anger and disgust as cyclist is caught urinating at memorial gardens

A cyclist has sparked anger after he was caught urinating at a war memorial garden in Rochdale.

The incident occurred at Memorial Garden in Norden around 11.30am on Sunday, May 1. A photo shows the cyclist urinating on the edge of the garden on the main road, while two people wait for him.

It happened at the same time as hundreds of cyclists were passing through the area in the Tour de Manc, an event which saw more than 1,200 riders taking part in a variety of cycling routes across Greater Manchester. However, the culprit was not part of the event, organisers say. Following an investigation, they have since managed to identify the rider and report them to local authorities.

READ MORE: Tour de Manc 2022: In pictures

Eyewitness and Norden resident Elliott Marsland was walking home when he saw the man publicly urinating in the Memorial Garden on Edenfield Road.

Elliott, 45, told the M.E.N.: " I am in training at the moment for the Manchester 10Kand I had just come back from a 10k run. I was walking back through the village ofNorden and I noticed loads of cyclists because it was the Tour de Manc that day.

"As I was walking past the memorial gardens, I saw three guys there, one who was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. I just thought, how horrific and how disrespectful is that?

"Especially to do it in a village, in daylight, in the middle of the day, is one thing, but in a memorial garden to commemorate the war dead? It's awful. So I took a photograph and I shouted across to them, but they just ignored me, which angered me a bit."

Elliott shared how important the memorial gardens are for the community of Norden. He continued: "I t's a very special memorial, we take it very seriously inNorden. A lot of