Author: Secretary

Hermitage – Hampstead Norreys Update

Posted on by Secretary

One of our long-standing aspirations has been to reopen the former railway line between Newbury and Didcot as a cycle route. It was back in 2005 that we first started our original feasibility study where we walked the route to see if it would be feasible and started putting our plans in place.

The section between Hermitage and Hampstead Norreys is the easiest section to convert, since the former railway line is still largely in tact and hasn’t been built on, except where the M4 motorway cuts through it.

Over the last few years, we have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including West Berkshire Council, local landowners and parish councillors, and we have secured widespread support for the project.

Working with West Berkshire Council, we managed to attract funding from Highways England, which was actively looking for projects to reduce the severance effect of its motorway network and improve access for walkers, cyclists and equestrians. This scheme ticked all of their boxes and so they offered for their contractor Kier to undertake the works.

It has been a long, slow process to secure all the relevant landowner permissions, inspect bridges, carry out ecology surveys and undertake clearance work, but we are delighted that construction work is well-underway.

The aim is to achieve a 2.5m wide path wherever possible, using a crushed aggregate surface with timber edging and underlain with an impermeable membrane to prevent weeds from growing through the surface. The path itself respects its rural setting, both in terms of its materials and its alignment, meandering through the trees to create a pleasing, informal look.

The path is forced to deviate away from the disused railway line to pass under the M4 motorway. Here, it drops down to a widened shared use footway / cycleway alongside the B4009 for a short distance before rejoining the railway line on the other side.The section between the motorway and Hermitage is already complete and gives a flavour of how the rest of the route will look and feel.

The path is not yet open and is still very much a live construction site with heavy machinery in operation, but we are hopeful that the ribbon-cutting ceremony will be just a few short weeks away. Special thanks go to Alan Langley and Josh Kerry who have been instrumental in getting all the relevant parties on board and securing the funding to help make this pipe dream a reality.

Once complete, we will seek to maintain the momentum and extend the route towards Newbury. Although this section will be more challenging, due to the amount of development that has taken place on and around the former rail line, we have already undertaken the initial feasibility work and are confident that route can be achieved, so watch this space!

Newbury Business Park

Posted on by Secretary

SPOKES undertakes a wide variety of activities to improve cycling across the district – this includes looking at planning applications to ensure that the needs of cyclists are properly considered as part of planning applications.

A recent example is at Newbury Business Park where the there is a proposal for new housing development with a pedestrian access onto London Road and associated landscaping. The plans show a green strip along the western edge of the development, which roughly coincides with the alignment of the former Newbury to Oxford railway line, which SPOKES is trying to get reopened as a walking, cycling and equestrian route.

The planning application suggests that the new pedestrian access will be “strictly controlled with only residents having a key/card to gain access.” However, this has potential to open up a path between the A4 and the River Lambourn for pedestrians and cyclists. This would connect to an existing bridge over the river and shared use path through to Curling Way, with a quiet on-road route through to Kiln Ride. We have queried with West Berks Highways Development Control if it is possible for public access along the old railway line could be provided.

While we do try and pick up most of the major planning applications, it is difficult for us to assess them all and some will inevitably slip through the net. If you know of an opportunity to improve cycling provision associated with a proposed development, then please email us at highways@westberkshirespokes.org.

Towpath Fund-Raising Update

Posted on by Secretary

The SPOKES committee has been busy over the last few months, submitting bids and liaising with various interested parties to work towards our goal of upgrading the worst sections of National Cycle Network Route 4 (NCN4) along the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath between Thatcham and Reading.

The project involves complete reconstruction of a 1.1km section of NCN4 to the east of Colthrop. The original crushed aggregate path had a design life of around 12 years, but nearly 20 years on, it has deteriorated considerably, with grass encroaching to such an extent that the path is now almost unusable by cyclists and wheelchairs. Originally 1.5 – 2m wide, it is now less than 0.3m in places.

The cost of restoring this short section has been estimated at £219,000. At the beginning of March, we submitted a bid to the Good Exchange, which matches the grant makers and donors that have money to give, with the charities and community groups that need money. We were subsequently delighted to learn that we had been successful in securing a match-funding offer from Greenham Common Trust up to the value of £50,000, which can be matched by individual donations and external funding.

Since this is one of our top priorities, the SPOKES committee has elected to put almost all of its funding towards the project, allocating £10,000. Also, Sustrans has recently indicated that it can put £100,000 towards cycling projects in Newbury and Thatcham. Although it cannot directly fund the towpath improvements, it would potentially allow West Berkshire Council to allocate funds from the A4 cycle route to the towpath, which it helps maintain as a public right of way.

The final element of the funding jigsaw is a £59,000 bid to the Veolia Environmental Trust, which awards Landfill Tax Grant to eligible community projects. The bid has successfully passed Stage 1, and we will find out if we have been successful in June. If all goes according to plan, then we hope that construction can start in the autumn.

In the meantime, we will continue to seek additional funding with the aim of maximising the length of towpath that can be upgraded. If you would like to donate money to the project, then we would be most grateful. To do this, please visit the Kennet & Avon Towpath page on the Good Exchange website.

Social Bike Rides for 2019

Posted on by Secretary

With Spring just around the corner, it’s time for us to re-launch our programme of social bike rides – we have planned rides on the first and third Saturday of each month between March and October.

Run by friendly and experienced ride leaders, our rides are aimed at the cyclist who wants more than a family ride, but who doesn’t want to go as fast as a ‘club run’. We go at a relaxed pace (about 10-12 mph) and the regular rides are generally somewhere between 20 and 30+ miles, with a longer ‘Big Wheel’ event in the summer. Each ride passes a café, which gives us the option for a pit stop depending on how the group feels.

All rides are published on LetsRide, which is a free to use website run by British Cycling and we ask riders to book a place on each ride you want to attend. This lets us know to expect you and ensures that we have a manageable number of cyclists.

Please note that our rides are not aimed at complete beginners. While we try and go at the pace of the slowest rider and are happy to wait at the top of a hill for slower riders to catch up, we do recommend that you get a few miles under your belt before coming on your first ride so you are confident that you can do the distance and take on a hill or two.

Bike Shop Survey Results

Posted on by Secretary

Last year we decided to put together a quick survey to ask local cyclists about their experiences with local bike shops (LBS). This gave people an opportunity to sing their praises, but also to highlight what they could do better / differently.

We had a total of 48 responses, to the survey, which is not as many as we had hoped for, but when you consider that we only have just over 100 members, then it’s not too bad! We offered a £50 voucher to encourage people to fill out the survey – the winner drawn at random from the responses was Megan Winfield who chose a Bikelux voucher as her prize.

The survey responses highlighted a marked imbalance between the number of male and female cyclists, with women only accounting for 20%. This broadly reflects the split between cyclists out on the road, so it didn’t come as a surprise. However, there was a good split amongst all age groups and amongst the various cycling disciplines. There was also a good split in terms of the annual cycle mileage of respondents, from occasional cyclists through to dedicated high milers all represented.

We had feedback in relation to seven different local bike shops including a couple that are outside West Berkshire. However, it didn’t seem to matter which shop people visited, the responses were similarly glowing, with a whopping 85% saying that their experience had been ‘very good’.

When invited to comment on anything that was particularly good / bad about their experience, most people mentioned one or more of the following:

▪ Friendly, knowledgeable, helpful staff
▪ Great customer service
▪ Reasonable prices
▪ Fair and honest
▪ Advice and sales tailored to the customer’s needs.

This reflects our own experiences and shows what a great job our local bikes shops are doing. In these days of internet shopping, it is the customer experience that will allow shops to compete, and they seem to be delivering this in spades. You can find out more about what people thought of their local bike shops in our survey report.

And remember, Spokes members can get 10% discount on parts and bikes at a number of local bikes shops including Banjo, BIkelux and Specialized – just show your membership card when you make your purchase.