Our Volunteers win an award!

At the Sustrans Volunteer meeting in Doncaster yesterday (or Duncaster as Apple Maps would have it) I accepted an award on behalf of the Sheffield & Rotherham Ranger groups. Although the award was ostensibly for work on the resigning of Sheffield's routes, the  Discover South Yorkshire map, the Northern Rail Cycle Forum and the development of Route 6 into the Peak District, some of which I've taken a lead on, the fact is I couldn't have done this work had not the Volunteer group stepped up to the mark in terms of looking after the Network, leaving me some time to take on this development work. Tim & Ted in particular have done some great work, with Tim taking on the signing of 627 up to Penistone and beyond (I travelled that route this week and it was very clearly marked.) and Ted going beyond his brief as Rotherham co-ordinator to keep the routes in the east of Sheffield in reasonable order. You've all done superb work on the Network, so consider yourselves Awarded!

May I also take time to commend the North-East Derbyshire group, an area I used to look after, for the great work they've done - the ride down to Chesterfield from Rother Valley is a real pleasure.

Five Weirs Walk

A quick amend to my former blog post on this. Dick from the council has pointed out that not all the proposals are funded. He says: 

...estimate of around £750k for tarmac surfacing (to Rotherham boundary), £100K for the Cobweb Bridge, leaving (maybe) £250k for the other 9 (I think) interventions.  We need these last 9 prioritising because we don't think that there will be enough funding to do all 9 interventions with whatever is left after the tarmac and cobweb bridge works.  We won't probably, therefore, be able to fix 'just about every problem' on the 5WW - don't want to raise expectations too far.

I got late to the meeting so perhaps didn't pick up on this point in my euphoria! 

What will definitely happen is cobweb bridge and tarmacing to Rotherham. 

The other proposals are: 

Crossing at Blonk St.

Leveson St to  Warren St Crossing point

Improved crossing of East Coast Rd

Link between 5WW & Wincobank

Meadowhall Way crossing

East Coast Rd to Stevenson Rd resurfacing

Milford St to Carbrook St improvement

Link to Tinsley. 

Improvements due for Five Weirs Walk

At tonight's City Cycle Forum, Paul Sullivan brought along funded proposals that would fix just about every problem on the Five Weirs Walk, from fixing the Cobweb Bridge to a toucan crossing at Meadowhall Way,
and continuing with tarmacking the footpath along the South Yorkshire Navigation to Rotherham.

More details when I have them electronically, but it sounds like great news. 

News from up the trail in Penistone

We have moved the regular workday from Sundays to Saturdays, because Sunday was proving to be a popular day for everything else! Consequently the next three workdays will be on:

Saturday 6th October, Saturday 3rd November, Saturday 1st December 

Workdays

Having carried out a survey of the whole stretch of the Trail in April, we have decided to concentrate our efforts on the section between Shore Hall Lane and Hazlehead Bridge. This part of the Trail suffers a great deal from shade and overhanging branches, which prevents the surface from drying out and inhibits the wild flowers which might otherwise generate -not to mention making it very difficult for people riding horses! (Click here to see a map)

We’ve also revised our working practices: apart from tackling the most pressing areas first (which remains the same) we shall be working on small stretches of about 50 metres, rather than over a long stretch; returning to the same section on the following workday. In this way we can be more thorough and our work should be effective for far longer.

In order to try and get to grips with this stretch of the Trail, we’ll be putting on more midweek workdays.

The Saturday workdays will begin at the Hazlehead end: the midweek workdays will concentrate on the Shore Hall Lane/Bullhouse Bridge area.

Seating areas

We’re making the seating areas along the Trail a particular focus of our efforts. We think that if a seating area has been provided beside the trail, it should be attractive and offer a pleasant experience; particularly for children. Obviously that means no rubbish, but it also means being able to see the seat as you approach it, having a reasonable space around the seat; and if there’s a view, being able to see it and enjoy it. We’ve already done some work on a couple of seats, and will be doing more as we go.

If you have any questions or suggestions please see the website  http://tptcv.btck.co.uk/  

or contact me on 07704333445 /             01484 865852      .

Kate Dobson

A Day out in Bradford