CHESTERFIELD CYCLE CAMPAIGN

CAMPAIGN NEWSLETTER Published quarterly

Number 92 Winter 2020

www.chesterfeldcc.org.uk

Affliated to Cycling UK and Cyclenation Editorial ______

This is our frst printed newsletter since the ‘lockdown’ in March which produced empty roads and a considerable rise in the number of people cycling. The government then announced lots of initiatives to promote walking and cycling and you will read about the local ones in this newsletter. We are at a time with unprecedented interest in promoting cycling, we can only hope it will produce lasting results!

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 [email protected]

Other local campaigning groups ______Ride Bolsover www.ridebolsover.org.uk

Derwent Valley Cycle Group www.derwentvalleycycleway.org.uk

Ride Shefeld www.rideshefeld.org.uk

Welcome to New Members ______

Joshua Burton Angelina Makaram-Ashby Tim Corby Stephen Prince Andrew Evans Matt & Sue Russ Russel Key Brendan Ryan Gillian Knight Mick Theobold Brian & Jane Lever Ann Walsham Campaign Chat ______

After many months of waiting the and one at the visitors entrance. Local transport note 1/20 was published by DfT in July. This may We are also purchasing some sound rather bland but it is the more equipment for other ‘ofcial’ cycle infrastructure design organisations. guide for the UK. Another public bike pump like the one at the Hollingwood Hub which will be installed near the cafe at Pleasley Pit. Also a Shefeld stand which will be placed near the entrance to Spital Cemetery following a request from the ‘Friends’ group.

Derbyshire County Council have completed the cycle route from It is full of information and Whittington Moor roundabout to diagrams updating the last guide Peak Resort. Unfortunately not as published in 2008. good as we had expected but at least there is a connection now using shared paths and quiet roads. The alignment we hoped for alongside the A61 proved too difcult and expensive due to land ownership (The Borough Council failing to protect from a previous planning application) and because major utilities would have to have been rerouted.

Following discussions at our Work has now started building the monthly meetings and with the shared route between Peak Resort Royal Hospital we have produced and Dronfeld. Incidentally what is a roll up banner showing cycling being built doesn’t comply with routes to the hospital. the latest Cycle Infrastructure When the banner arrived it was Design Guide! found to be damaged so the company responsible sent us The big news of 2020 was the another. They are both OK to be governments ‘Gear Change’ displayed so both will be at the announcement and the hospital, one at the main entrance Emergency Active Travel Fund. Emergency Active Travel Fund Crow Lane closure ______

Following the government the entrance to the golf club. Our announcement of the EATF our suggestions were just one of a Campaign compiled a document number of documents submitted of suggested potential local by environmental groups to DCC. schemes that Derbyshire County Council could implement and A Derbyshire Times photo call was apply for funding for. arranged with staf from the hospital and local MP Toby One of our ideas was to close Perkins turned up too. Crow Lane to through trafc to allow safer cycling and walking Inevitably the backlash started from the town to the Royal fairly quickly with residents of Hospital. Brimington Common starting Facebook pages with some The idea was backed by the vitriolic comments. hospital and once DCC had been allocated funding they very quickly Their county councillor Stuart closed it to through trafc with Brittain (Labour) came out against these large concrete blocks near the closure and Toby Perkins then sided with him! Both claiming Another action in Chesterfeld was there have been very few cyclists the closure of Corporation Street accidents on Crow Lane so it to through trafc. Perhaps less shouldn’t be closed to cars! successful because at times it has just become a taxi (and other Our Campaign started a petition in vehicle) car park. favour of permanent closure but there were some diferent opinions We then had councillor Keith even amongst local cyclists and Falconer (Lib Dem) quoted in environmental activists which was various press articles saying what disappointing. a waste of time the closure of Corporation Street was. The ex leader of Chesterfeld Borough Council John Burrows Perhaps this is political posturing then waded into the fray alleging a against a Conservative led County conspiracy between our Council? Campaign and Derbyshire County Council ofcers. Whatever peoples views the closures have remained in place As time has gone on the tirade has and as you will read later may be died down as expected! incorporated into future plans. Following various meetings with Those of you that live in Borough Council ofcers during Chesterfeld will probably have ‘lockdown’ we have been assured seen the cycling article in the that there is now a more positive Borough Council’s ‘Your approach to cycling. Chesterfeld’ publication.

Other ‘lockdown’ scenes ______

It took years for Derbyshire County Council to get cars banned from parking in New Square due to several market traders opposing it. As soon as lockdown started the cars came back. The excuse was given that is was to allow social distancing!

However Chatsworth Road became a joy to cycle along! West Bars roundabout without a vehicle in sight!

Another positive was the opening of the old railway bridge at the southern end of the Avenue site. Probably only temporary because nobody wants responsibility when the line is electrifed and potentially the bridge may be demolished. Dr Bike ______

Following guidance from Cycling UK the Dr Bike workshop opened again from June and was inundated with people wanting repairs so subsequent workshops have introduced a booking system in a bid to aid social distancing. Every workshop has been fully booked with all 28 slots taken and others have turned up ‘on spec’ keeping all four mechanics extremely busy!

Ride leafets and Campaign newsletters are displayed using an ‘Elephant Type to enter text Bike’ - refurbished ex post ofce bike by ‘Cycle of Good’.

Dr Bike takes old inner tubes and sends them to Cycle of Good. Active Travel bid tranche 2 ______

Of the several schemes we The trafc lights will have cycle suggested to DCC one was to phases to allow a safe turn into create a cycle route alongside Linden Avenue and access to the Chatsworth Road from the Storrs existing Hipper Valley Trail. Road junction going west. Eventually (probably needed extra funding) this will be widened and The road is very wide with a large resurfaced to Walton Road. hatched area in the middle so space could be reallocated quite Changes will be made on Walton easily. Road and Bobbin Mill Lane to make cycling safer and once onto We were very pleased to receive a Goyt Side there will be a design from DCC with a request to segregated two way cycle path withhold publication until tranche and partial on road path to 2 funding was announced. Boythorpe Road.

However in the meantime The existing path alongside someone in Derbyshire made a Queen’s Park and the station link Freedom of Information request will be used and then see later about what DCC had submitted in article about the railway station their bid and they published the master plan. result on the internet! After the railway station it is Over the next two pages you can intended to use Crow Lane and see the intended route that will then after the Piccadilly turn the hopefully be built. road will only be for access to house and the golf club with Crow The big diference this time is that Lane permanently closed to consultation has to take place through trafc. frst, rather challenging with the Covid restrictions. When this goes out to consultation please consider giving it your full If it all goes ahead it will see a support. Toucan crossing built at the Holymoorside turn of Chatsworth We still consider that the extension Road leading into a segregated of the Hipper Valley Trail across two way cycle path on the north the felds to Holymoorside (so side of Chatsworth Road all the called HV3) should also go ahead way to the Storrs Road junction. to create a safe route to schools.

We will be publishing these plans on the Campaign website when we get the go ahead from Derbyshire County Council but in the meantime please contact the secretary - [email protected] if you would like to receive a pdf fle of the plans. Railway Station Master Plan ______

A while ago we learnt that a There will almost certainly be a masterplan had been created by new through road built from Hollis consultants Whittam Cox. When a Lane to Malkin St. video showing a fy through of the We are pushing for a segregated ‘virtual’ scheme was released it cycle path running from the became apparent that virtually no existing station link to the cycling infrastructure was Waterside development. included. The masterplan includes a wide Our Campaign and Transition pedestrian and cycling link from Chesterfeld made representations the station up to Corporation to Chesterfeld Borough Council Street to create a much better about that and were invited to a entrance to the town. series of meetings so that we could put our point of view Discussions include potentially forward. closing St Mary’s Gate and Crow Lane to through trafc. We now have a fairly regular update ‘virtual’ meeting and we Ideas should be in the public are hopeful that cycling domain early in 2021 for infrastructure won’t just be an consultation. afterthought!

Ideas are also being discussed to build a cycle hub at the railway station with better, more secure cycle parking and an information centre.

Station link cycle path usage March - May 2020 (blue line) compared to 2019.

1st 3 weeks include ‘normal’ times and Beat The Street. 3rd week onwards ‘lockdown’. Air Quality Action Plan ______

The usual combination of our ‘promote cycling’ but no ideas of Campaign and Transition how to do that despite our Chesterfeld have been involved suggestions for routes which were with the Borough Councils ideas dismissed. for the plan to mitigate the declared Air Quality Management It is unclear how this will be taken Area in Brimington. forward other than as a reason to build the Staveley Regeneration The plan is years late and contains Route (or Brimington By-pass). some inefective text such as

Climate Emergency Working Group ______

Regular readers may remember but in reality little seems to have that several members of our happened other than appointing a Campaign sat on this group about climate change ofcer. a year ago. His name is Will Rolls and can be We are told that recommendations contacted by email; from the group are being incorporated in the Councils work [email protected]

Members of our Campaign at a town hall climate protest those Myths about cycle lanes! ______

1. Cycle lanes increase 2. Hardly anyone uses them congestion (and thus pollution) It seems that on Twitter you’re This is perhaps the most common never more than 10 minutes away myth, possibly because critics from seeing a bike lane critic post a confuse what feels like it’s true with photo of an empty cycle route with what actually is true: the the triumphant message: “See?!” assumption that if you take some Often this is just a cunningly timed road space from motor vehicles, picture, but other factors are at you get more traffc jams – as with play, not least the effciency of (a commonly used parallel) forcing cycle lanes, which means any water down a smaller pipe. “traffc” tends to rapidly bunch up at But fuid and traffc are not the red lights. same thing, as shown by 60 years of governments trying and failing to 3. They’re only used by white, road-buildPre order their at way lower out prices of before 3rdmiddle-class December men/commuters on our website congestion. The idea of induced The myth-busting here comes in demand – more road space brings two parts: frst, it’s not as true as more cars – has been known for some argue, and second, where it decades, and it also works in is an issue, this is a sign that you reverse. This is especially so with need more safe cycling routes, not bike lanes, which are such an fewer. effcient use of the same space that Without proper infrastructure, they can often mean the same cycling becomes something of a amount of space carrying more specialist pursuit, mainly restricted people overall. to what you might call the Yes, traffc jams have worsened in hobbyists – people with the more some cities where bike lanes have expensive bike, the greater been built, but studies show this is confdence and the willingness to largely down to other factors, for mix it with motor traffc. example the growth in the number The converse is seen in places of Uber-type private hire vehicles such as the Netherlands and and Amazon delivery vans. Denmark: while “cyclists” – people Most compelling of all, of course, is who have a drawerful of Lycra and the fact that motor vehicles cause an interest in gear ratios – do exist, the congestion in the frst place, they’re a different breed from the and the only real way to reduce mass of everyday transport riders, traffc congestion is to have fewer who in socioeconomic terms of them on the roads. encompass more or less everyone from royalty downwards. A series of barely connected bike for example, “foating” bus stops lanes, such as in London, might be where passengers cross a cycle fne for commuters but people who lane to reach them – but when make more varied journeys – for they’re designed well there is no example those (disproportionately evidence they cause danger. women) who need to go to work via Motor vehicles are much, much, a school and back via a shop – much more dangerous. On average require a coherent network, each year in the UK between zero including the other half of the safe- and two pedestrians die after being cycling equation, tamed hit by bikes. About 400 a year die backstreets, where cars are after being hit by motor vehicles, reduced in number and travel at including more than 60 struck while slow speeds. on the pavement. As cannot be repeated enough, this 4. They’re bad for business is not about cyclists being somehow Some of the noisiest opponents of morally pure. It’s just physics. It’s recent London bike lanes have possible to kill or maim someone if been individual business owners, you are a 100kg-ish bike-and- who argue that a separated bike human combination travelling at lane and any loss of parking will be 12mph, but is extremely unlikely. In fatal to their enterprise. a 2 tonne SUV at 35mph, it is In broad terms, however, this is hideously easy. completely wrong. Towns, cities and individual high streets are changing 6. Cyclists just break laws, so in how they compete. The growth of they shouldn’t get lanes internet shopping means they must This is such a silly idea it’s baffing appeal more as destinations, which that it still needs regular debunking. is hard to do amid wall-to-wall People break road laws, on all traffc. forms of road transport, and if Studies have shown that shop anything they do so more often on owners tend to overestimate the average in motor vehicles. proportion of customers who arrive Government data from actual by car, and that consumers on bikes recorded speeds shows 52% of often purchase more in the long drivers break the speed limit in term. 30mph zones. In 20mph zones the fgure is 86% – or 92% in the early 5. They’re dangerous for hours of the day. Millions of drivers pedestrians admit to using phones at the wheel. A surprisingly common charge – All this, it’s worth stressing, is surprising in that it has absolutely behaviour that can and does no basis in logic, let alone reality. frequently end or permanently Sure, some elements of cycle lane change lives. the same. As ever, design might seem new to Britons – this is all about the physics. 7. How do I carry work tools/a 40-plus years of building safe fridge on a bike? infrastructure. Ultimately, it’s about No one has suggested that if you political will. build safe cycling routes, that will be the only form of transport on 9. They cost too much offer, let alone compulsory. And Amazingly, this does get said, often while there’s a wider case for accompanied by the curiously removing private cars from urban enduring myth that cyclists “don’t areas, even if you build cycling pay for the roads”. infrastructure then roads and cars As Chris Boardman, the cycle – as well as buses – will still exist. campaigner turned cycle tsar for They will also move more freely for Greater Manchester noted, his those who really need them. planned revamp of the region Regarding heavy loads: again, no would cost £1.5bn and would one says all road freight must deliver 1,800 miles of safer cycling. vanish. But it’s also worth noting That might sound a lot, he said, that cargo bikes or trailers, until you remember that the especially with electric-assist, can government has agreed to spend carry heavy loads – even that £1.4bn improving a single hypothetical fridge. Some roundabout in Bedfordshire. By tradespeople, even supermarkets, transport standards, cycling is an already use cargo bikes, absolute bargain. particularly in big cities where distances are shorter and parking 10. There’s no need scarce. More widely there is huge It’s always worth stressing this potential scope for “last mile” point to the cycling naysayers: OK, deliveries, especially of Amazon- what’s your solution to gridlock, size packages, to be moved from pollution, a climate emergency; to vans to cargo bikes. cities that are noisy, dangerous and unjust? They will not respond, 8. We’re not the Netherlands/ because there is no answer. Denmark The slightly trite riposte is that at one point even the Netherlands was not the Netherlands. In the Don’t forget the old chestnut ‘Road early 1970s the Dutch had some of Tax’. There is no such thing, it is the worst cycling casualty rates in Vehicle Excise Duty - a tax on the world, as roads used for owning a vehicle now based on decades by cyclists were flled with emissions. more and more cars. This Remember electric cars are zero prompted a mass protest rated at present and don’t pay any movement, the result of which was VED. Regular Local Cycling Events ______

Dr Bike 1st Saturday of the month March to October 9.30am until 1.00pm. Queen’s Park north car park (look for the gazebo near the miniature railway crossing). Checks, adjustments and repairs. No labour charge, just pay for any parts used or bring your own to ft!

Friday Night Ride Hoping to be each month May until September 2021, contact the secretary if you would like to organise one of the rides.

‘Breeze’ rides Ladies only rides, see the Facebook page ‘HSBC UK Breeze Chesterfeld’.

Spire Cycling Club www.chesterfeldspirecyclingclub.co.uk

Inclusive Pedals Taster sessions scheduled on the 1st Friday of the month March to October between 1.00pm and 3.00pm on the track around the cricket pitch in the Queen’s Park using a feet of adapted trikes. Some 2 seaters, a wheelchair carrying trike and a hand cycle. £1 donation per rider.

Other events ______

With the current situation we aren’t aware of any other local cycling events but we will hopefully have another local Cycle in Style ride in 2021.

Please let us know of any events that might be of interest. Travels of the Secretary ______Unfortunately this is a tale of missed travels!

I had planned two trips cycling in France but both had to be cancelled.

Firstly a trip I have wanted to do for a while ending in Chesterfeld’s twin town Troyes. Trains to London, Paris and fnally to Vitry Le Francois to cycle about 80 miles of trafc free paths and quiet roads to fnish in Troyes before returning home. Secondly to take part in Anjou Velo Vintage on the Loire which seems to have become one of the biggest ‘stylish’ rides in Europe. So the only car free travelling I got We had an evening cycle along the to do was a quick visit to La promenade from Gosport to Lee Biblioteka book shop which is part on the Solent but as we were of Kommune in Shefeld. preparing to leave we had a visit Alex who runs the shop stocks from a local Fox! various ‘specialist’ cycling publications and can get many The bike I picked up was an eBay more on request. purchase that I bought to add to my collection of hub gears. One that I like is Bikevibe which is This one is a 2 speed SRAM a Norwegian publication written in ‘Automatix’. English. It changes up and down automatically at around 10mph Each issue (one or two per year) depending what size the wheel is. focus on the cycling culture in a Its great on the fat but can particular city. The latest you can change at the wrong time when see from the image is Helsinki. climbing!

The only other travelling I have I prefer my Sturmey Archer 2 done since March was a trip south speed where you back pedal by car when restrictions allowed to slightly to ‘toggle’ between gears, pick up a bike and a quick visit to mind you that has a coaster brake a friend of mine in Gosport. too which is interesting! Get Involved! ______

Campaign Meetings are currently being held using Zoom on the second Tuesday of each month from 7.30pm. At some stage we hope to resume in the Chesterfeld Community Centre (near Chesterfeld coach station). All welcome to attend. To report road faults, telephone Derbyshire County Council on 0845 605 8058 Please consider joining our Campaign online at

www.chesterfeldcc.org.uk or ‘manually’ with this form: ------Membership Form Full Name …………………………………………. Tel …………………………

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