Starbeck school Promote Cycling - Hooray

An excellent meeting last night with Mrs Carolyn Sandford the head at Starbeck School.  The School are now keen to encourage cycling and we will work with them to try and promote safe cycling for the school's pupils. Hopefully the Knaresborough Rd improvements will help and we will see what else we can do. Initially we are working with MrsSandford and the School to try and get some cycle racks installed as soon as possible. We also had a walk round the school with Mrs Sandford and found a suitable site for some racks to go.

Next task is to do some design and costing work and then look at how we can collectively fund the project. It seems likely that that school PTA maybe able to help and we will be getting in touch with Sustrans to see if they can help as well. We are hoping to be able to use local suppliers for the fabrication where possible,  my new venture  deeprinse has offered to do the installation for free.

image: Kevin H:

Wanted Businesses who want to get their staff cycling

If you would like to work with us to get your workforce cycling to work we would love to hear from you and there is a potential 25K if you do a really good job.

Now its not our 25 Grand. Nesta (no I'd never heard of them either) are running a competition, well they are calling it a challenge, for businesses who want to work to increase the number of their staff who cycle to work. They are after innovative and effective ways to get some bums on seats.

Now as this is bread and butter to us we would like to work with any companies in Harrogate or Knaresborough that want to put an application in. We could offer support and ideas though we are scratching our head a bit at the moment, but we reckon making cycling sexy might be a starting point. You know get Brad and Angelina down for a day to ride around the Stray or something simple like that.

You have to have at least 10 employees and entries are to be in in October. If you are interested or have any good ideas we would love to hear from you

More details of the challenge here

image Gage Skidmore

GOOD NEWS Harrogate Primary School agrees to look for solutions

We got a letter today from Mrs Sandford the Head at the primary school that we posted about recently. She has asked if we will try and arrange a meeting with her over the next two weeks to look at possible ways we might move the cycle storage issue forward. This is excellent news and we look forward to working with the school and other agencies to try and get a speedy solution and see if working together we can promote cycling in the local community.

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Money for Cycling in Harrogate, What do you want most?

A few days ago North Yorkshire County Council were succesful in winning £1.6 million to be spent on sustainable transport initiatives in Harrogate and Knaresborough. The original bid was for £3.9 million and proposed a range of initiatives including upgrades to some of the main routes into Harrogate to make them more cycle friendly.

This is great and welcome news, but obviously as the bid has only been funded in part, some of the projects proposed will not now go ahead. Cycle Harrogate hopes as many as possible of the cycling projects will be implemented, realistically though we may need to lobby for one or two.

The bid involved proposed work on the roads to: Hornbeam Park, Otley Rd/Harlow Hill, Leeds Road, Whetherby Rd and the road between Knaresborugh and Harrogate, you know the one we have been going on about for the last few months. Work was scheduled over the next three financial years.
Wheeel Easy and The Harrogate Cycling Group where involved in the bid process and where named as stakeholders on the bid document.  They will both want to have input into the negotiations that will be going on as interested bodies jostle for funding. If as looks likely our Knaresborough Road proposals are going to be implemented, what do commuting and utility cyclists in Harrogate want us to lobby for next?

Here are the bid choices

1. Completion of cycle provision between Knaresborough and Harrogate.

2. Cycle Provison on the Otley Road up Harlow Hill towards Harlow Carr.

3. Better cycle provison on Leeds road as it enters town.

4 Upgrades to the road from Woodlands to Hornbeam Park.

5 Cycle provision on Whetherby Road past the hostpital and down to the Showground.

All of these are clearly important, but we started as a single issue campaigning group and we think our efforts are best focused on getting things done one at a time. We also want to represent the views of ordinary people in Harrogate (and Knaresborough) who use their bikes as part of their everday lives. So what do you want?  We are about getting bums on seats. Where do you want your bums? Either leave a comment on this post or get involved on twitter or facebook

image CJ Isherwood