Now we are talking, some concrete legacy proposals

I just got my sweaty little hands on a copy of North Yorkshire County Council's Tour legacy proposal report and its better than I could have imagined. Traffic free to Spofforth is part of it although what form it will take on the ground is unclear. Better yet there is a whole raft of proposals including extending the Nidderdale Greenway via Ripon to Masham how cool would that be? As well as loads of other stuff in the Dales  and some urban stuff too.

Now these are un-funded proposals currently, but as a starting point at least NYCC have identified viable and much needed projects so good on them. I'm very excited I haven't read it all yet, but you should have a read we will be talking about this for a while yet.  I will be trying my damnedest to make it all happen but at least we have a starting point.

Oh and Froome looked good today in the Tour could be a good summer.

The Harrogate Cycling festival

I have just got back from the cycling festival at Killinghall Moor. We parked at the Hydro and cycled up, my youngest struggling up the hills but I managed a one arm pushing, one arm steering assist up the steeper bits and he did the rest on his own.

The event itself was great. The mini pump track was my kid's highlight and mine if I'm honest. I ended up racing another dad on a 16" wheeled little kids bike, great fun. There were plenty of local bike shops in attendance, some scalextric cars you peddled bikes to get moving and a BMX ramp if you were braver.

Jo Armstrong from Sports development Harrogate the brains and drive behind this was there. As we arrived she was worried nobody would show up she needn't have been.  Lots of people were there, by 12 and you were queing for your go on the attractions. People were getting their bikes coded by the police, trying out electric bikes or just eating cake and ice cream. It was a really nice atmosphere so a big thank you to Jo and Harrogate Borough Council for making it happen. When you build it they come.

I talked legacy to Jo whilst my children pebble-dashed themselves in cake and ice cream. She seems taken with the idea of traffic free to Spoforth as a Tour de France legacy for Harrogate. She is going to ride the proposed route with one of Harrogate's leading cycle boffins next week as well as North Yorkshire County Council's new sustainable transport officer as a kind of feasability study.

We got to chatting about the Nidderdale Greenway too. One thing that came up was how delighted Sir Thomas Ingeleby is with increased business on the back of the extra traffic his castle and ice Cream parlour are receiving. Surely this is a model for businesses and landowners to see cycle routes as opportunities not threats? When you build it they come.

I talked to the guy from the Big Red Bike shop too. He is now hiring bikes and surfing the wave of demand generated by the Greenway. Only 8 bikes at the moment but if traffic free to Spoforth happened he felt he would be able to upscale his operation and maybe employ someone to deal with this demand full time in the summer.

Next July when the tour is on, another local landowner will be helping to meet huge need for accommodation by putting camping fields on over Wetherby way. If these people had a traffic free route into town that would be genius. Come on Harrogate we can make this happen. Business wants it, cyclists want it. We could become more than a town with a famous tea room and a foul tasting spring. We could become a national destination on the cycling map. Incidentally the Greenway made the Guardian at the weekend. When you build it they come.

York to Harrogate then on into the Dales that route, would pull visitors and money in from tourist hotspots and we could all benefit long term from this steady stream of visitors. It would be a younger more family orientated market than the one we cater for as a town currently, one we don't really exploit fully one with a bit more cash to flash. Take a look at Grizedale Forest in the Lakes or the Manifold valley in the Peak District if you want to see these sort of schemes creating jobs and revenue.

If we build it they will come.

Who wants to play Virtual Tour De france?

Its that time again Wiggo is out but Froome looks on form and the behemoth of Cav looks as good a bet as ever. Its tour De France time. Get yourself by a telly at about 4.15 in the afternoon for the next few weeks. The nice people over at velo games run a fantasy Tour De France game, league, thingy. You pick a team and as the results roll in stage by stage you get points and somebody wins.

This year Cycle Harrogate are running a mini league so you can see how you compare with other local folk and maybe consider a career change if it goes well. This time next year you will be watching "your" riders for real so I thought I would get you used to the idea 12 months early.

If you want to join in and play along  you sign up then pick a team. next go to your team and click the join league link at the bottom. Its a bit fiddly but you will work it out. Its free and no cyclists are hurt.

This is the league code you need: 21164055

The winner gets well nothing, but the kudos of being the best team manager in Harrogate unless any of our local cycle shops want to put some prizes up? Oh and don't pick anyone in my team, I'm usually rubbish.

Summer News Update

Sorry my life has been busy with work recently and a fair bit of cycling with the family but local cycling has been moving on whilst I have been earning a living.

The Nidderdale Greenway was opened by Sustran's head honcho along with our MP Andrew Jones. There was some speeches and a tape was cut. Malcolm Margolis Harrogate's local cycling hero also made a speech. He was delighted the route was open but he quite rightly had a pop at North Yorkshire council as an entity for their lukewarm reception to the idea initially. Here is an excerpt from Malcolm's speech, I thought it deserved more than an audience of fifty.

here is the speech in full

 ...I particularly want to thank certain councillors whose support was crucial, especially Michael Harrison, Don Mackenzie and Heather Garnett, and Sir Thomas Ingilby of Ripley Castle who has always supported the principle of the Greenway. A few council officers, not least Dan McAndrew, countryside ranger officer for Harrogate, and Martin Parker, project leader for North Yorkshire, played a key part. As a campaigner I have to say the lack of enthusiasm of some officers at times very nearly defeated us. When I first got involved we had to overcome outright hostility from officers who couldn’t get us out of County Hall fast enough and made us wonder, half seriously, if they were in league with the opposition. We then faced a change from a local transport plan which gave recreational routes like this high priority to one where they had very low priority and little chance of funding. All too often correspondence goes unanswered and officers need to be chased again and again. North Yorkshire continues to refuse to appoint a cycling officer, as it did before recent budget cuts were a factor. The County still seems to me no more than a reluctant partner with Sustrans. It needs to become a truly enthusiastic partner if its stated ambition ‘to be recognised as a great region for safe cycling, inspiring more people to cycle more often’ is to be more than just fine words on paper. 

A huge thank you to those, some here today, who contributed to my fundraising effort several years ago which has at last helped produce this brilliant result. But above all I want to thank Sustrans, a fantastic organisation which has fought for this route since the mid 90’s and funded it with Big Lottery money. Sustrans has built over 14,000 miles of the National Cycle Network of which this is part. If you want to support a superb charity working for sustainable transport, with your money and/or your time, I can’t recommend Sustrans strongly enough. 

Ideally Sustrans shouldn’t be needed, though it most certainly is. In Holland, Denmark or in Belgium where Gia and I have just been cycling, Governments provide a wonderful network of safe cycle paths. It’s fabulous. In the towns and cities thousands of people bike to school, university, work, shops and cafes. There is no good reason why the UK shouldn’t have a cycle infrastructure which enables us to do the same. In terms of our transport policy we are in the Dark Ages. We need a new approach which serves the community as whole – pedestrians, cyclists, the many who don’t drive as much as those who do. And to protect our environment there must be incentives to avoid using vehicles except when necessary. Government, most local authorities and indeed many people in this country sadly still don’t get it. I’ve no doubt they will, but how much longer do we have to wait?

After Malcolm's speech and the tape cutting, we  cycled down to Ripley for fun and stalls in the Carpark I ran into Jo Armstrong it's the bike festival this Sunday, get down there it will be grand.

We also got details recently of the LSTF schemes that North Yorkshire are proposing for cycle improvements in Harrogate there is a lot of detail lots of joining the dots relatively small schemes, but its all good stuff the detail is here sorry its a weighty download but if you ride round town its worth a look.

There are moves in the pipeline for parking ticket monies to be invested in sustainable transport by North Yorkshire County Council. there are a few options being mooted. One is to pay for the Beryl Burton upgrade which I thought had been promised out of existing money but what do I know? The other Otley Road and Cardale park. Anyway more detail here if you want it.

Next up on the radar is a physical legacy for the tour. Gary Verity Welcome to Yorkshire's main man wants every kid to have access to a bike. Nothing wrong with that but I think it sets the bar too low. How about access to a bike and somewhere safe to bride them?  For Harrogate traffic free to Spoforth and the rest of Sustrans network is what we want. There are existing schemes in place we just need some support from our politicians and the movers and shakers. I think I might start bending Mr Verity's twitter ear next.

Well that's about it for now, sorry it took me a month to write anything.