Tag: Newbury

Towpath Updates

Posted on by Secretary

The section of towpath between the A339 and Hambridge Road reopened this week. The Canal and River Trust has been making extensive improvements to this stretch, including a new tarmac surface.

Although some of the towpath had been improved in recent years, the eastern and western sections were previously in a very poor state. The section past Greenham Island suffered badly with puddles whenever it rained, while the path between Tesco and Hambridge Road had lost its top surface, exposing larger stones underneath, with large level differences appearing where the path joined the bridges.

The new path not perfect – the path is still very narrow in places, particularly past Greenham Island where you need to slow right down or stop for pedestrians or cyclists coming in the other direction. But the eastern section seems wider, making it easier to share.

Inevitably, we have already had one complaint that cyclists are now travelling too fast, so we would remind everyone to please respect other users of the towpath – please slow down and pass with care.

We have also heard people complaining that the tarmac surface is not in keeping with the rural feel of this section of towpath, with does feel very green and leafy in places. Thankfully, we have confirmation that the Canal and River Trust is coming back to surface dress the path with a buff coloured stone, which should soften its appearance. This should be done by the end of October.

The other bit of good news is that SPOKES has successfully raised enough funding to upgrade another section of towpath to the east of Colthrop, with works due to start within a few weeks. We raised £109,000 from Canal and River Trust, West Berkshire Council, Thatcham Town Council and Englefield Charitable Trust and we are putting in £10,000 of our own funds towards the project.

This will tackle one of the worst sections of the towpath where the old path has reduced to a narrow, deep-sided rut, which is extremely hazardous to cyclists and makes the path unusable by people in wheelchairs and families with pushchairs. We will keep you updated on progress with the construction.

Social Bike Rides Start Up Again

Posted on by Secretary

Our programme of social bike rides for 2020 was knocked for six when the COVID lockdown was announced. However, as restrictions are starting to be relaxed, we are finally able to start our social rides again, albeit with some restrictions in place.

British Cycling has announced that in line with government guidance, HSBC UK Ride Social activities can start from 4 July. However, all rides must comply with the relevant Government guidelines on social distancing and group size.

For now, we have to keep to a maximum of six in a group (one ride leader to five participants), and maintain social distancing of at least two metres at all times (except between members of the same household).

In line with government guidelines, masks or face coverings are not required if social distancing is
maintained; the use of face masks or coverings is a personal choice, but they should not restrict breathing.

If you are within the ‘clinically vulnerable’ group, then the advice remains that you should stay at home as much as possible and avoid contact with others outside your household.

Further information for participants can be found in Section 2 of British Cycling’s COVID-19 guidance, ‘The Way Forward‘. We would ask all ride participants to read this before booking on a ride.

We have planned rides on the first and third Saturday of each month starting on 18 July and running through to 17 October.

In previous years, we have planned rides with the option of a cake stop at a local café. However, this introduces an unnecessary risk and unless we can be certain of sitting outside, we will need to skip the cakes until the COVID risk is reduced.

As ever, all our 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. This is even more critical now, since rides are limited to 6 people.

Please note that our rides are not aimed at complete beginners. Rides are typically 25-35 miles and 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.

If you have any queries or concerns, then please do contact us.

Newbury Towpath Closed for Upgrade

Posted on by Secretary

The Canal and River Trust has closed the canal towpath in Newbury between the A339 flyover and Hambridge Road until 9 September to upgrade the towpath and carry out bank repairs. The works are being funded by developer contributions from the Newbury Racecourse development.

The towpath surface had become badly eroded, particularly on the approach to Hambridge Road, where the top coating of fines had been eroded over time, exposing larger stones underneath, which made it uncomfortable to ride on. At the other end, the path was muddy and tended to attract puddles after it rained, which wasn’t great for walkers or cyclists.

There was also a problem where the path meets the bridges along the route, since the softer material on the path surface became eroded, creating a lip that was dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists alike and pretty unmanageable for anyone in a wheelchair.

SPOKES lobbied hard for the improvements to feature an all-weather, bound surface on this section, since it is so well-used and is essentially within the urban area and therefore appropriate in character. This should be much more durable and should not suffer from the same problems as the old crushed aggregate surface. We look forward to this being opened up for use in September.

We are also continuing to lobby for improvements to the towpath elsewhere across West Berkshire and hope that further works will be completed soon.

Kennet & Avon Towpath Repairs

Posted on by Secretary

The SPOKES Committee has been working hard over the last few years to highlight the deterioration of the Kennet and Avon Towpath throughout West Berkshire, much of which forms part of National Cycle Network Route 4.

Constructed in the late 1990s by Sustrans, NCN4 was originally built as a 2m wide crushed aggregate surface with grass verges either side. Unfortunately, the path has received very little maintenance since. In many places the grass has encroached narrowing the path considerably, while in others the top surface has worn away exposing larger stones beneath and making it uncomfortable to ride on. Also, the banks of the canal have been subject to erosion over the years, with boat mooting pegs tearing holes out of the bank in various places, and dogs widening the holes as they enter and leave the water, creating a hazard for unwary cyclists.

The Canal and River Trust (C&RT) is the charity with responsibility for the upkeep of the towpath. They are making use of developer contributions from the Newbury Racecourse development to fund improvements on the section of towpath between the A339 flyover at Victoria Park and Hambridge Road in Newbury. They will widen this 1.7km stretch of towpath to around 1.8m and will apply a tar spray and chip material to create a sealed, all-weather surface. They are also constructing 20m of sheet piling back-filled with canal dredgings and planting, and 8m of bank protection with timber stakes and coir rolls where the banks have been eroded.

However, a lack of funding means that C&RT are unable to carry out all of the outstanding maintenance tasks on their network. SPOKES has therefore sought to raise funds to tackle some of the worst affected locations, starting with the section between Colthrop and Brimpton Road. Here, the grass has encroached to the extent that the path is now less than a foot wide in places with a high lip on either side, which makes it almost impassable for cyclists.

Providing a 2m bound surface for this 1km section has been estimated to cost around £219,000 using C&RT’s term contractor. We had some early success, managing to secure up to £50k of match funding from Greenham Common Trust, plus some small grants from Thatcham Town Council and Englefield Charitable Trust. We submitted other bids to the Veolia Environmental Trust and British Cycling, but these were unsuccessful. However, West Berkshire Council has agreed to contribute £42,000 and SPOKES is putting in £10,000, which is the majority of our reserves. When matched against the Greenham Common Trust funds, we have close to half of our original total.

However, we believe that this will be sufficient to construct a crushed aggregate path to a width of 1.6m, which is actually C&RT’s preferred specification and would be similar to the original Sustrans construction. C&RT has indicated that they may be willing for us to use suppliers other than their term contractor to undertake the work. This means we would be able to go out to the market and take advantage of cheaper rates to stretch our money still further. We aim to go out to tender shortly and if all goes according to plan, we hope to start work later this year.

We hope once we have demonstrated the impacts of these improvements, that this will create some momentum to tackle the remaining stretches of NCN4 in West Berkshire, which Sustrans ranked amongst the top-10 priorities for the network across the South of England.

Newbury Towpath Consultation

Posted on by Secretary

When they granted planning permission for the racecourse development, West Berkshire Council managed to secure developer contributions to help improve cycle links between the site and Newbury town centre. Enough people have now moved into the new flats to trigger payment of these contributions.

SPOKES has lobbied for the money to be spent on upgrading the section of towpath between Hambridge Road and Victoria Park. This section has deteriorated significantly in recent years and is now in an unacceptable condition. In some places the path has lost its top surface, exposing larger stones beneath. This makes it is uncomfortable to ride along on any bike without suspension. Other sections are plagued with puddles, making it unpleasant for pedestrians and cyclists alike.

We are delighted that the Council has listened to us and has allocated the funds to the Canal and River Trust to carry out the works, which will involve providing a new 1.8m wide surface over a 1,500m stretch of the towpath.

The River Kennet is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the Trust quite rightly wants to achieve the best balance between protecting the river and its wildlife, and creating a path that will deliver the greatest benefit for the local community.

They are currently consulting on three options for the path construction:

  • Option 1 – Tarmac path construction with a tar and chip surface (surface dressing) along the full length of the resurfaced section of towpath.
  • Option 2 – Rolled gravel surface along the full length of the resurfaced section of towpath.
  • Option 3 – Tarmac path with surface dressing along the north side between Victoria Park and the footbridge to the rear of Tesco, and a rolled gravel path along the south side from the Tesco footbridge to Hambridge Road.

The tarmac path has the highest quality construction, with a true all-weather surface. It is also the most durable, typically lasting 25-30 years before major repairs / resurfacing is required. Although construction costs are slightly higher, on-going maintenance costs are significantly lower, resulting in a lower whole-life cost. However, it may be viewed as being more suitable for urban areas.

The rolled gravel surface gives a softer, more natural appearance that is more in keeping with a rural setting. However, it is softer and more liable to wear and therefore has a much shorter lifespan. It typically needs major repairs / resurfacing after 12 years. It is particularly prone to incursion from grass growing in from the sides, particularly on paths without timber edging. While it is usable in all weathers, it can be a bit muddy after long periods of rain.

SPOKES favours Option 1, since the whole section of route is well-used by both walkers and cyclist and the level of use will only increase as the racecourse development is built out. The existing rolled gravel path suffers from significant erosion where it meets bridge decks / ramps leading to hazardous level differences and requiring regular repair.

CRT suggests that cycle speeds are higher with a tarmac path construction, but in reality any difference in speeds is likely to be negligible and we do not feel that this is an issue.

Regardless of the type of construction, we will push for the path to be constructed with a slightly raised profile so it drains to the verges on either side rather than collecting water. We would also like to see the width increased to 2m or more where space allows.

If surface dressing is used on the tarmac path, then care needs to be taken to properly sweep the path afterwards to remove any loose chippings. We will ensure that the Council undertakes the appropriate inspections once construction is complete.

To find out more about the proposals, watch the video that the Canal and River Trust has produced and complete their on-line survey. The closing date for responses is 20 January 2019.