The cycle path in Hereford linking the city centre with Rotherwas and beyond, being created as part of Sustran’s Connect2 project, is moving forward. Here’s a new item from Herefordshire Council on students at Herefordshire College of Technology’s Holme Lacy campus working to clear their end of the route.
In Worcester, a series of two-day exhibitions on the Diglis Bridge scheme are being held. Still to come is
19-20 May - Powick Village Hall
21-22 May - Worcester Guildhall
Both are open 6pm to 8pm.
The proposals can also be downloaded via the link above.
In case you haven’t heard, the Sustrans Connect2 scheme won the Peoples Millions lottery vote. The £50 million will go towards 79 projects around the UK, but will also unlock a similar amount, or more, from local authorities etc to fund key connecting routes for walkers and cyclists.
The Cycle Malvern group is in the process of checking out how the Worcester Diglis bridge would connect with a route between there and Malvern.
There are also other interesting local cycle route possibilities emerging. An update to the Cycle Malvern email list in the next few days should contain a little more info.
The phone lines are now open for voting on the Peoples £50 Millions projects. The number to ring to support Sustrans’ Connect2 project, of 79 cycling and walking schemes around the UK, is 0870 24 24 602. But if you are voting from work do note that doing it by phone via a switchboard may be a total waste - they are only counting one vote per number (DDI systems can sometimes show as one central number in our experience. )
You can still vote online - it takes a double registration process and my first attempt took days for the confirmation email to arrive. But hopefully that was a glitch caused by how I treat cookies. So give it a go at Peoples £50 million vote site.
And here’s the promo show on ITV featuring Lorraine Kelly (after the general intro) via YouTube. The last scheme featured is in my old stomping ground of Southwark and is explained by a local cycle campaigner:
The bicycle news site quickrelease.tv has saved me the bother of expressing my concerns about public voting between four worthy causes for fifty million quid of lottery funds. Although I’d also add my personal dislike of the promotion of gambling as a way to address important issues.
Both the Sherwood and Black Country schemes include walking and cycling aspects, but it is of course the Sustrans Connect2 bid, with 79 projects around the country creating new opportunities for potentially millions of people, which is the high profile one here. As more than one blogger elsewhere has said, the Eden Project is actually promoting more car and coach use with its glorified greenhouses attached to large car parks, at one extremity of the country. And its press release, claiming that a vote for Eden was “a vote for the planet”, might even get me to vote for Sustrans.
The voting for the People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway opens online on Monday (26th November), with the Connect2 set of 79 walking and cycling projects in with a good chance. One of these 79 is the Two Tunnels Greenway proposal, extending the first Sustrans route (I think) near Bath using an old railway tunnel.
I’d previously thought that the suggestion of a walking and cycling route through the disused rail tunnel, parallel to the current one between Great Malvern and Colwall, a bit dubious, even if the money for it could be found. However, the Two Tunnels website says “Reusing long rail tunnels can seem alarming to the uninitiated, but experiences worldwide are most positive”. Worth having a poke around this site if you are interested in the idea.
I added a news feed from BikeRadar.com to this blog over the weekend (bottom left). Its the best general cycle news available in RSS that I could find (not aimed at mountain bikers, racers or cycle shops).
And for instance, today they have a news item which gives a much better flavour than anywhere else of the Connect2 project from Sustrans, up for large amounts of lottery dosh by public vote soon. As a Sustrans sceptic, I’m almost convinced. But then I don’t approve of gambling either.
On the other hand, both the Black Country Urban Park and the Sherwood Forest bid, also competing for the £50 million of lottery funds, both include cycling elements. Read Wolves on Wheels for the Wolverhampton voting dilemma.
Online voting for “the People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway” opens in a month (26th November). Of the 4 schemes, only one has national coverage, Connect2 from Sustrans*. If this was the winning bid, new cycle/pedestrian bridges would be built in Hereford and Worcester. Here’s the Connect2 blurb about the latter:
“A walking and cycling bridge over the River Severn will create a new map of the city for people living on either side of the river, whilst also opening up a circular riverside walk with views of the cathedral. As this crossing will focus attention on the south western quadrant of the city, it will also be fundamental in tackling the long-sought connection to Powick by either avoiding the bypass roundabout or ensuring proper signalised crossings are installed.”
* The other 3 schemes are Eden Project, Sherwood Forest and Black Country Urban Park.
