For many months Cherry and I have flagged up to the Council the dangerous state of the road surface on Ralph Allen’s Drive, which is littered with ruts, patches, and deep pot holes.  These hazards can make riding a bike down Ralph Allen Drive dangerous.  The photo shows Cherry and Roger highlighting the surface problems in Ralph Allen Drive last Wednesday.

 Roger has recently been appointed to the new B&NES role of Cycling Champion.

Champions for specific council issues have become quite common over the past few years and B&NES has 10 Member Champions, for Older People, Energy, Human Rights, Heritage, Public Realm, Energy/Climate Change, Procurement, Children, Vulnerable People, Regulatory Services and now Cycling.

Champions are able to be advocates for their area of interest and promote it within the community.  However, they have no decision making powers, they are not paid and are not part of the present Council Administration.

One of my first actions will be to examine the council’s Cycling Strategy to discover what progress has been made towards achieving the targets set when the strategy was put together in the 1990s.   I am also developing a plan of action.  I would welcome ideas from the public.  Please contact me if you would like to contribute towards the Plan.  Some of my initial thoughts for the “Plan of Action” include the following:

• I would like to see many more children riding to school in safety – in the past the message going out to cyclists has been “it is too dangerous to cycle on the roads”.  I want to play a part in changing the message to one of encouragement.“  Our roads should be made safer to encourage more cyclists, especially the young”

• I will call for better road surfaces for cyclists – some of them are potential death traps with the number and severity of potholes and repairs- the condition of some of our main roads is not good enough.

• I will be looking for places, where it is safe to do so, to ask the Council to establish more ‘shared paths’ – like the one between Saltford and Keynsham.

• I would like to see action taken to encourage First Group and First Great Western to show more consideration to cyclists on their buses and trains – with the loss of the ramp at Bath Spa station I will be trying to find out what steps Network Rail are taking to avoid the jam of people, bikes and luggage trying to get through narrow turnstiles

• We should aspire to the cycling culture of our twin city of Alkmaar, in the Netherlands – we should look at some of the ways that they promote cycling.  I believe we can make great improvements with a great deal of commitment and a little funding.