All 2005 Articles

AS the dark evenings return, a local cycling group is reminding West Berkshire's cyclists to check that their lights are in, good working order.

The chairman of West Berkshire Spokes Ed Cooper, said: "It's time to dig out your bike lights and check they're working properly.

"During the summer months, when you may not have needed to use your lights, the batteries could have failed. It's better to check them before you need them, than for them to fail when faced with your first night-time ride of the coming winter."

As the escalating cost of future motoring again hits the headlines, Newbury Weekly News deputy news editor Julian May reports on a week in which he foresakes his own car and cycles instead.

FULL of bravado I agree to take on the challenge of abandoning my car and cycling the seven miles from my home in Marlston, near Hermitage, to Faraday Road for National Bike Week.

Taking my life in my hands to avoid the 4X4 school run up Marlston Road, my lungs are already bursting as I cough and s splutter up Marlston hill and Slanting Hill.

Content that I have mastered this, and was well and truly in my stride, I am dejected after a seven-year-old starts racing me .. and wins (I really must give up the cigarettes!)

I admire people who are brave enough to compete with the cars which race up Long Lane every day, but I want to stay in one piece and decide on the more genteel Cold Ash hill, and, more importantly, it is downhill coming into work.

As I reach the bottom of Cold Ash, and then the roundabouts to Thatcham, I am bemused by the number of motorists who think it is perfectly normal not to indicate at a roundabout.

The sun is shining on my back and the birds are singing - Who wants to sit in a queue of traffic breathing each others' exhaust fumes?

Drivers stare, apparently quite concerned by my red face as I negotiate Bowling Green Road and Tull Way but I feel better than I look and plough on.

There is a great deal of satisfaction cycling along the A4 past the traffic jams, and although my thighs are burn- ing I am already benefiting from the aerobic buzz of exercise and I reach the office feeling just a little more alive than I did yesterday.

Local cycling group Spokes is helping West Berkshire Council to carry out a cycling. audit around the district to discover how many people are cycling to work.

Spokes members will also join highways officers, engineers and the public on a ride around newly-constructed ccleways on Friday. starting at 6pm outside the council's Market Street offices and ending at 7.30pm at The Queen's Hotel with a Light buffet.

THE controversial plan to ban cyclists from the centre of Newbury has attracted strong opposition from residents and cyclists, with more than 100 people signing a petition against the move in just one hour on Saturday.

The idea for the ban initiated from a consultation by West Berkshire in 2002 that recommended that cyclists who endanger pedestrians should dismount in Northbrook Street and Bartholomew Street (north).

The consultation was labelled "fatally flawed" by the cycling organisation Spokes and the disagreement between them and West Berkshire intensified after a brochure outlining the controversial plans for Newbury's Market Place declared that cyclists would be expected to dismount and walk through there as well.

West Berkshire councillor and Spokes supporter Tony Vickers, (Lib Dem, Northcroft) has said that it has become clear from the Liberal Democrat plans to turn the Market Place into a continental-style piazza that no provisions were currently being made for Newbury's cyclist population. However, this could change pending a decision on he Market Place by the new Tory administration at West Berkshire Council.

Spokes chairman Ed Cooper has said that most cyclists were walking their bikes through the streets on Saturday while the organisation was collecting petitions.

"When it is busy, almost all cyclists will dismount anyway," he said. The organisation responsible for the co-ordination of the National Cycle Network, Sustrans, has urged the council to reconsider their plans to ban cyclists. Sustrans area manager, David Wallis, said: "Newbury is not particularly cycle-friendly and these proposals to ban cycling will only compound these difficulties. A small number of anti-social cyclists would most probably ignore any ban anyway."

CYCLISTS in Newbury are fighting plans which could leave them saddled with push- ing their bikes through the town centre.

West Berkshire Spokes a local pro-cycling organisation - will present a petition to West Berkshire Council tonight (Thursday) against plans to ban cycling in the town centre.

The group said this week that the ban - which has been agreed by the council but not yet imple- mented - would be ineffectual and unenforceable.

Tony Vickers of Spokes said: "You are not going to stop the small number of irresponsible cyclists by banning them.

"The police have said they are not going to enforce the ban. All that a ban will do is stop law abiding people going about their business on a bike."

The idea to ban cycling from the town centre came from the original public consultation on the Newbury Vision Renaissance plans.

The meeting starts at 5pm at the council's Market Street offices.

I'VE got serious doubts about the usefulness of the new-look market place. I also think the public consultation is too little too late.

Yes, a cafe society could be fun, weather allowing and it is developing regardless of expensive Government initiatives. The proposed pretty brick surface will only be noticed when stones come loose and break peoples' ankles. And they will.

It would be cheaper, easier to maintain and keep clean to use tarmac. And think what else the money could be used for.

Some of the answers to questions in the leaflet are frankly suspect.

Sadly, the market is not flourishing. Many good stalls have gone. Others are sporadic. Moving it, if only for a few weeks, and then keeping all traffic away from it, doesn't seem wise.

I cycle to the market regularly for my fruit and vegetables amongst other things, but I can't carry a bag of spuds too far now. I really don't want to end up doing all my shopping in Sainsburys, even though their provision for cyclists isn't bad.

The idea that there will be plenty of parking is wrong. If Newbury ever had plenty of parking, why are Stroud Green and most back street pavements full of cars?

And provision for cyclists? We are effectively banned from the heart of the town. We don't want yobs on bikes all over the pavements any more than we want ill-parked cars there, but a responsible cyclist is no threat.

There seems to be little awareness of the usefulness of bikes, their acknowledged environ- mental advantage or their diversity. We have child seats, child trailers, carrier bikes, trikes, courier bikes and even rickshaws. All these and more are used sensibly by people who choose not to drive and want to live in a quiet space without congestion or pollution. 'Cyclists dismount' or 'Get off and push' is as impractical as it is derisive.

The cover picture of the Vision leaflet could be right. It shows a big, bland area with a few people looking lost and nothing going on.

Much of this surely needs a second thought. The town is for people, not the other way around.

DON CARTER

SPOKES (West Berkshire cycling campaign group) would like to contact one of our newest members, a middle-aged lady who joined up at our stand at this month's Farmers Market in Newbury, at about noon on April 3.

With. a group of friends she spoke about how she biked to work. She decided to join and paid £5 for a family member- ship, filling in a card with her name and details.

Unfortunately a gust of wind blew away much of our material and- we now realise we no longer have her details.

Could she please telephone (01635) 45036 to speak to our membership secretary.

Martha Vickers

AN argument broke out this week between West Berkshire Council and cycling organisation Spokes over whether bicycles can be peddled on Northbrook Street, Newbury.

Spokes wrote to the authority accusing it of not knowing its own streets-confusing road users.

The council hit back, saying that Spokes is fully aware that a by-law to ban cycling has been approved and is being drafted.

The argument began after the council published a leaflet an its plans to revamp the Market Place into a continental-style piazza.

The document claims that cyclists will have to walk when they get to the new, Market Place, just as m Northbrook Street.

Spokes immediately disputed that cycling was banned in Northbrook Street. Martha Vickers, of Spokes, said: "The signs at both ends of pedestrianisation in Newbury clearly bar only motorised vehicles .

"A ban would significantly inconvenience a great many cyclists and cause some to abandon cycle journeys in favour of using a car.

"If I drove my car, I would be adding to congestion, pollution and parking problems in residential areas. A ban is in complete conflict with the objectives of the local transport Plan. It makes no sense."

However, the council disagreed Highways and engineering project manager Derek Crouch, said that the council approved in October 2004 that a by-law be drawn-up banning cycling from Northbrook Street.

He added: "It therefore follows that if the current zone is extended to include the Market Place that the same provision should apply."

Spokes was originally formed by the council and its members include Liberal Democrat -councillor., and keen cyclist Tony Vickers and Newbury Town Council chief executive Graham Hunt.

The organisation has written to the council in protest.

Before this spat the two enjoyed a good working relationship which saw West Berkshire Council named the most-improved local authority in England for its cycle-friendly policies.

However, Mrs Vickers said: "This kind of work sets back all the good d work the council and Spokes have been doing."