Newsletter Summer 2019
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHESTERFIELD CYCLE CAMPAIGN CAMPAIGN NEWSLETTER Published quarterly Number 87 Summer 2019 www.chesterfieldcc.org.uk Affiliated to Cycling UK and Cyclenation Editorial _______________________________________________ Our cover picture this quarter is of the public bike pump we funded and the Chesterfield Canal Trust installed at the Hollingwood Hub. Since installation I have received several comments saying what a good and useful idea it is. Nigel Vernon who was until recently our vice chair is organising a sponsored ride in memory of his son Ben, who died recently. More detail later in this newsletter but he is especially looking for volunteer marshalls, if you can help please contact Nigel. Alastair Meikle, Secretary Email update _______________________________________________ Our secretary sends out an email update roughly every month, if for some reason you don’t receive this into your ‘inbox’ and would like to please contact the secretary at this address secretary@chesterfieldcc.org.uk Other local campaigning groups _______________________________________________ Cycling 4 Everyone (Dronfield) www.cycling4everyone.org Ride Bolsover www.ridebolsover.org.uk Derwent Valley Cycle Group www.derwentvalleycycleway.org.uk Ride Sheffield www.ridesheffield.org.uk Campaign Chat _________________________________________________ Our complaint to the Local path has started. The path will be Government Ombudsman about widened to 5m and a new 5m Chesterfield Borough Council is wide bridge will replace the focussing minds! We have finally current narrow one. Please be got the gate open allowing cycling aware the route may well be through the Queen’s Park to the impassable for cyclists until the sports centre and there will be work is complete. additional signage shortly. Additionally we shortly hope to have in a place a new consultation ‘protocol’ between the Campaign and CBC planning dept. Further into the future when the new local plan is finally adopted there is the possibility of a ‘Supplementary Planning Document’ relating to cycling for all new developments. Work is also progressing on the We are still waiting for a meeting new Lidl on Chatsworth Road and with DCC to discuss the new we will be keeping a close eye to section of traffic free path between see that the planned cycle Whittington Moor roundabout and infrastructure is installed. Peak Resort. Our vice chair submitted a possible route away We recently received plans for from roads for part of the route but showing the proposed ‘more we have yet to hear if this has welcoming’ arrangements on Elder been considered. Way and its junction with Knifesmithgate. Mainly consisting This route is all part of the ‘A61 of a wider pavement outside the Growth Strategy’ and another new Premier Inn and new surface ongoing project is a treatment it should make the area comprehensive signage solution more visually appealing. We have for routes in and around been consulted to give our views Chesterfield based on the Dutch on new cycle parking. ‘point’ system. This is infinitely expandable so can include routes We continue to lobby for cycle beyond Chesterfield. We await a infrastructure in the Waterside promised meeting about that too! development which is very poor shown on the latest plans. On a more positive note the upgrade of the Rother Washlands Greenways Report _________________________________________________ Many of you will be aware that have been a major blow. But the Derbyshire County Council hold project is still ongoing! regular quarterly ‘Cycle Liaison’ Estates officers are negotiating meetings which members of our terms with landowners and legal committee attend. officers preparing the draft documents. Unfortunately there are rarely four It is nowhere near certain that the per year due to various issues but route will go ahead (and we have they are a good opportunity to been waiting for over 10 years!) hear of county wide news and to but there does seem to be ask officers about local schemes. renewed vigour and recognition that this is a vital route. As part of the meeting there is usually a ‘greenways’ update Avenue site detailing the latest news on longer Although the route through this distance cycle routes. site is open there are many From the meeting a couple of problems - the surfacing is not to weeks ago here is the news of our standard and the K barriers are an local schemes: issue. There has been contact with Archeological Way Network Rail to attempt to Planning permission has been establish a legal through route secured to develop a key part of from Ingleton Road and there is the route between Pleasley Vale still talk of an eventual link via and Shirebrook. External funding McGregors Pond (the more level is being sought from the Rural option. Development Programme for There is the potential of an east - England to fund the work. The west route from near the Hunloke stage two application will be Arms to Furnace Hillock Way. submitted in September aiming to At the southern end work is still improve 5.7km of trail. needed to bring the old railway bridge into use to avoid the dark Hipper Valley 3 underpass and there is talk of an This is the long awaited extension alternative route direct to Tupton to Holymoorside. At the previous rather than to the bottom of Hagg meeting we were told that so Hill. much officer time has been spent trying to secure the route that Clowne Branchline DCC were considering stopping See the separate article in this the whole project which would newsletter. Bicycles and thefts from sheds _________________________________________________ Following a recent spate of •Always lock up your bike. thefts from sheds in Use two different good Chesterfield already this year quality locks, with at least there are some simple steps one being a high-quality D- (www.derbyshire.police.uk) that lock. Thieves can cut could prevent you losing your through poor quality locks in bike to shed thieves. seconds (cables locks are particularly vulnerable to •Fit good quality, substantial being cut). Make it as difficult locks to your shed door and for thieves as possible any gates to your garden. •Lock the frame and both •Secure any hasps and wheels to the cycle parking hinges with coach bolts and stand. security screws. •Lock your bike as close to •Fit window locks and the stand as possible – try protective grills. Use curtains and ensure there is no slack or netting to hide what’s on in any lock chains where view. thieves can get tools into to •Chain bikes together and go to work on the lock ideally secure them also to •Lock your bike at the floor or something heavy. recognised secure cycle •Make a note of your bikes parking if you can. If it you frame number (usually found can’t then it should be underneath the bike locked up in a well-lit, busy between the pedals or where area, and ideally covered by the back-wheel slots in) – CCTV to deter any would be and take photographs of cycle thieves. your bike to assist the Police Inevitably if there was no in tracing stolen items. market for stolen bikes it would When out and about with your not be worth stealing them. bike So, don't buy a stolen second- •Never leave your bike hand bike in error. Insist on unlocked – even if you just proof of ownership and nip into a shop. check the bike frame number ever recovered and research at BikeRegister (for more by University College details see https:// London in 2012 shows many www.bikeregister.com). people just give Unfortunately, a lot of stolen up cycling when their bike is bikes get broken up, stripped taken which is a shame and down, and sold as parts on something that can hopefully the internet. So again, be be avoided via the actions inquisitive when buying above. spares as to their history and Jason Dent. about who is selling them. The sad thing about bike theft is that stolen cycles are hardly Waltham Forest ‘mini Holland’ _________________________________________________ We’re sure many of you will have particularly successful and heard of the measures being put in recently produced this graphic to place in London for cycling. Apart show how the scheme has from the cycle superhighways transformed their area. various boroughs were offered funding to create ‘mini Hollands’. Waltham Forest has been Derbyshire: Time to Call a Climate Emergency _________________________________________________ Many will have been aware of Sweden who has inspired the massive climate protests students worldwide. in London in April, led by the Here in Derbyshire there are group Extinction Rebellion. calls for the county and With over 700 arrested over a district councils to declare a two week period and roads climate emergency. Over 70 and bridges blocked, this was councils have already an uprising of young and old declared climate emergencies alike, frustrated by continued and over 2,000 people have government inaction to signed an online petition, set address the existential threat up by the Derbyshire Climate of climate change. And as Coalition, calling on our the ultimate low emission councils to do the same. In transport, cyclists have Derbyshire Wirksworth and featured prominently in New Mills Town Councils have climate protests across already declared emergencies Britain, such as the critical and now it’s the County mass bike ride in Cambridge Council’s turn. On 15 May below. there will be a motion debate at County Hall to propose that Derbyshire County Council: 1.Declares a climate emergency 2.Commits to becoming a net zero carbon local © Keith Heppell, Cambridge Independent authority by 2030 Many people will have seen 3.Develops a clear plan the shocking documentary within 6 months for a route presented by David towards being net zero Attenborough, the BBC’s first carbon primetime film about climate 4.Calls on the UK change in 12 years.