Portsmouth CTC
Part of Cycling UK
Work is progressing on the Meon Valley Trail. Looks like we'll have a new route come the summer. You can read the latest at:
I understand the company that runs the Hayling Ferry has gone into administration. According to the company’s Twitter account, service is closed.
There’s still some hope the service will return if:
That would seem to require renegotiation of either the controversial pontoon fees, a subsidy from Portsmouth City Council (which withdrew its subsidy last year) or both. That leaves little scope for a return in the short term.
That’s sad news because it disrupts National Cycle Network route 2 which relies on the Ferry. The obvious alternate route (across Farlington Marshes and down Eastern Road) by-passes Hayling Island altogether.
Here's some video from the barn dance taken by Roger Carradus.
A reminder of a fun evening - thanks, Roger.
The Meon Valley Trail stretches for 10 miles from Wickham to West Meon. Work on improving the trail and upgrading it to a bridleway/cycle path has now started in earnest.
Work is planned to complete in June.
More details and the latest progress report from the Hampshire CC web site.
The winner of the photo competition was Keith Wileman. The runner-up was Pat Mitchell.
The winning photos are reproduced below. Click any image to see a larger version. Note that I have reduced the size of the originals for use on the web.
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Last Monday I attended the launch meeting of the Portsmouth Cycling Forum cycling strategy for Portsmouth which was well attended by City Counsellors and senior Officers as well as Representatives of British Cycling and other interested parties. Jon Spencer as chairman of the PCF made the launch presentation and emphasised that it had been formulated by the PFC in response to a challenge by Donna Jones the leader of the Council and covered five key action areas: Safety; Transport; Equality; Leisure; and Planning.
You can see the strategy document here.
This is obviously a very important forward move for Cycling in Portsmouth and Donna Jones has responded very favourably and wishes to progress the city policies to incorporate the strategy and will be holing further meetings to this end with John in the near future.
The next meeting of the Portsmouth Cycling Forum, at which the Strategy will be presented, is on the same day as our AGM 13th November. Even so, it would be good if Portsmouth were well represented.
The new season starts on Thursday 9th October at 7:45pm. Everyone is welcome.
Our first barbecue event for some time is hailed a resounding success when three separate groups of cyclists, starting from The Spring Centre in Havant, converged at Benhams barbecue area in QE Park around 1pm on Saturday 16th August. Many others cycled direct or came by car.
The following short video clip captures the weather, the banter and the party atmosphere on the day.
Finally, many thanks to Alison and Geoff Newman, who made this terrific event so successful with their hard work feeding so many hungry mouths.
You can see Alison's photos from the day here.
Portsmouth CTC, in conjunction with Cycle Hayling, will have a stall at the 3 Churches Fete to be held from 12.00 to 16.15 on Wednesday 13th August in Hayling Park. Come along and have a go at our Turbo Challenge (how far can you pedal from a standing start in 1 minute?) - We have 2 bikes (one adult size and one childs size) so anyone can have a go! Call in to find out all about Cycle Hayling and Portsmouth CTC or just to have a chat about any aspect of cycling. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Robert's in-depth analysis of Chris Froome's TDF chances. Nice to see the Portsmouth CTC jersey on show.