people’s millions/sustrans connect2 project: voting figures are out.
London 2008: green plan announced (key proposals include default 20mph speed limits in all residential areas; increased cycling budget)
active southampton campaign launched: “Experts say just 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day, such as a brisk walk, can reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease and mental illness. As part of Active Southampton city leisure venues will be offering discounted activities while unusual pursuits, like new aged kurling and fit n funky’ dance exercise classes are being introduced to tempt people out of their armchairs.”
£140m safe cycling plan unveiled: cycle training for 10-year olds
from http://www.thepeoples50million.org.uk/:
Your votes have been counted, and Sustrans’ Connect2 has been revealed as the winner of the People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway, scooping £50 million of lottery money to spend on a national network of walking and cycling routes.
Read more at Sustrans Connect2 website
* Lovers Walk: if you’re on facebook and you’re interested in cycle paths around the university, check out the Campaign for Better Cycle Paths and Footpaths group. There is also a petition you can sign. This is not specific to the lighting issue on Lovers’ Walk but of general interest to people who walk or cycle to the university, especially at night.
* People’s Millions: Phone voting is now open. Phone 0870 24 24 602 to vote for Sustrans Connect 2. Visit the website to read more about all four projects and to cast an online vote.
Tonight on ITV1: 11:05pm–11:20pm
Lorraine Kelly champions the cause of Sustrans: Connect 2, the second project in the running for a special cash award, to be decided by viewers at home. The transport link enterprise aims to improve local travel around the UK and benefit people’s health as well as the environment.
(Don’t forget to vote)
0930 on a Saturday morning. Ouch. I rounded the corner of the Civic Centre still brushing the sleep from my eyes. At least getting from bed to the town centre in about twelve minutes flat had blown off some cobwebs—and I wasn’t cold. From the Civic Centre, we cruised through town to St Mary’s and then up as far as the Swaythling/Mansbridge roundabout. route (opens in new window). As I understand it, the routes we took were approved cycle routes, except for crashing through St Mary’s saturday morning market, which will be one soon. Many of the routes through town I didn’t know of, so it was an interesting morning for me.
The highlight of the trip was the planned link from Jamie’s Computers (just beyond the level crossing in the Mount Pleasant industrial estates) along the riverside to the Horseshoe bridge. If you catch the train from Southampton Central towards St Denys (Airport and beyond, or over the river towards Portsmouth), this is one of the scenic bits of the route where the train line runs very close to the river. Just between the railway and the high tide mark, National Rail have put in some preliminary boarding, but completion of the scheme awaits funding… if Sustrans Connect2 wins the people’s millions funding, then this is one of the links they will support.
We also spent some time at the bridge by the football stadium – a weak link in the city’s cycling network but apparently it is being replaced in the next few years. Cobden Bridge is another unpopular section; apparently cyclists find it scary. From Cobden Bridge, we were mostly off-road, taking the shared-use path along the Itchen, up to the gravel path that runs along parallel to the riverside path north of Woodmill Lane, through the Mansbridge estates and a wooded path which was new to several of us, coming out by the roundabout just in time for lunch.
Online voting is now open for the people’s millions. Of the four projects, only one would affect communities right across the UK; the Sustrans Connect2 project, which would divide the funding among 79 projects from Scotland to Southampton which aim to improve walking and cycling connections between local communities. One of these projects is to build a footpath along the Itchen parallel to the Empress Road Industrial Estate – read more about it from the Daily Echo article. Please do go and cast a vote!
connect2 in the daily echo.
PDF with pictures
See also www.sustransconnect2.org.uk/resources for more suggestions on how you can help with this exciting campaign … for example:
- add a few lines to the bottom of each of your emails (in your automatically generated signature),
- send out an email to all your address book using the standard text,
- add a web banner to your website or
- tell a friend where the resources are available…
