If you want it you can have it

Can't decide whether to sell this story as local government going wrong or right, it is a bit of both. Here goes, Liberal Democrat councillor and prospective parliamentary candidate Helen Flynn is trying to get Sustrans gawd bless 'em to do a feasibility study on how Harrogate could build more bike infrastructure. Here is her briefing document on what she proposes.

I'm supporting it, not because I'm a Liberal Democrat, I'm not. For what its worth, politically I'm somewhere to the left of Denis Skinner on taxation and somewhere to the right of Jeremy Clarkson on personal freedom, so finding a political party to align myself with has always been tricky.  

I'm supporting it, because I think it is the most useful, cost effective thing we could do as a town currently to try and solve our congestion problems. It won't solve the problem but it might mean we have a way of getting some more people onto bikes or walking and that, will do for me. 

It's not sexy though a feasibility study is it? The Beryl Burton story had a nice human interest angle. A feasibility study, just screams dull. But without a word of lie this is the one that could actually make a difference long term. 

Getting a Top Coat on the Beryl Burton Cycleway cost 80K  this is a mere 15 grand but it could prime the pump. What worries me is at the moment people are arguing that the Tour De France legacy will be funding that was in place before the Tour De France even had Harrogate in it's sights, that is just a distortion of where we are. At the moment when the current money is all spent (soon) there is no funding for cycle infrastructure in the medium term and no plans to get any.

How about this angle to sex it up a bit...

Local Council in Tour De France town refuse gift horse from Cycle Charity.

Sustran's have offered to do the study for 15 grand. Which is well under what it would cost them, but they are in the bike infrastructure business, so they want it to happen, this is a good offer from the best outfit we currently have in this country. 

Sustrans know that funding for cycling is sporadic, unpredictable and when it is around you have to grab it fast and hold on tight. One thing they have found is if you have a feasibility study full of what they call "shovel ready' projects. When the money is there you can be first in the queue bidding for it.

Helen Flynn has asked HBC to help with funding, as of today she has 3.5K pledged from local businesses and individuals. HBC said no, I suspect because she is a Liberal and well they 'aint. It's not a lot of cash is it? So it is a political decision, which is poor but then transport policy is political so, here we are.

So she is looking to you the local community. If you are a business and you want to help talk to Helen you can get her here: Helenflynn@me.com , If I had the money I would fund it myself.

If you are an individual, muggins here is going to be setting up a crowd funding campaign as soon as I can get details off Helen of where to send the money. I was going to set it up with my own bank account, but how dodgy does that sound?

Wouldn't it be great if we had the money in place before Cav got here. If as a community we could show our council that we want this stuff.

It can be done. When I'm not riding a bike I'm a climber. The UK bouldering team (small climbing with crash mats) had a sponsor pull out last month. They crowd funded the necessary 12K sponsorship in 24 hours so they could compete. It came from people like me, I was in for a tenner.

Then something incredible happened. I wrote a piece to the climbers saying how we were all behind them now and they climbed for us too as we had put our hands in pockets and maybe they would climb a little better knowing this. On Sunday Shauna Coxsey won the first british gold medal this country has ever won in bouldering, in Gridlewald. I'm not saying it made any difference but I'm not ruling it out.

Sometimes if you put your money where your mouth is the effects can be extraordinary. If as a town we said we want this and if you won't fund it we will, perhaps a few people in the soon to be new and I believe slightly more than 15 grand in cost, council offices would have to sit up and take note.