Cycling in Shepway District

Shepway District Council have responded to our letter asking that they support the Times’ Cities Safe for Cycling campaign.

The Cycle Shepway (formerly Shepway Cycle Forum) AGM will be taking place at 7pm on January 26 2012 at Shepway Civic Centre. Cyclists who live or work in the area are encouraged to attend in order to help further cycling in the district.

National Cycle Route 2 west of Hythe has recently been extended to follow more of the path beside the Royal Military Canal. The increased traffic-free stretch extends beyond West Hythe to Aldergate Bridge following the southern boundary of Port Lympne wild animal park. You may even catch a glance of some of the animals in the park, as pictured.

The new path of National Cycle Route 2 can be seen on OpenCycleMap.

We’ve asked all of the candidates for councillors in Ashford Borough, Canterbury District, Dover District, Shepway District, Swale Borough, and Thanet District for their views on a number of cycling-related topics. Their answers can be found on our May 2011 election page.

Following on from yesterday’s post about the Shepway Cycling Plan, it was adopted last night. We now look forward to the improvements that it will bring for cyclists across the whole of Shepway district. Well done to everybody that campaigned to see its introduction, with particular congratulations to the Shepway Cycle Forum.

The councillors that sit on Shepway’s Joint Transportation Board will decide whether to approve Shepway’s Cycle Plan tonight. The plan has been in the making for several years. Shepway Cycle Forum and Spokes have been involved with much of the consultation on the document and have been campaigning for its introduction for quite some time. The introduction of the plan will allow developments within the district to be judged assessed against the plan for how they contribute to its policies. This means, for example, that new developments should provide cycle parking provision and, if of sufficient scale, cycle paths.

The final draft document can be found in the meeting’s agenda:

http://www.shepway.gov.uk/moderngov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=150&MId=221&Ver=4

We look forward to a positive decision tonight.

Kent County Council and Kent Highway Services have put Shepway Cycling Plan out for public consultation. Shepway Cycle Forum have been campaigning for a cycling strategy for a number of years. We encourage you to make your representation to the plan.

Members of Shepway Cycle Forum had encouraging meetings with Conservative candidate Damian Collins and Lib/Dem candidate Lynne Beaumont in the run up to the General Election. Both pledged support for the forum, particularly in the protracted ongoing consultations with Kent Highway Services over a cycling strategy for Shepway.

With Damian Collins now installed as the new MP for Folkestone and Hythe, the forum looks forward to some heavyweight political clout in the campaign to raise the profile and facilities for cycling in Shepway. Meanwhile, Lynne Beaumont, who took a spin on bike on Sandgate seafront after her meeting, proved helpful in identifying local politicians with cycling sympathies.

The venue for both meetings was kindly supplied by the newly opened cycle and coffee shop The Hub in Sandgate High Street.

A brand new cycle shop, “The Hub Cycle Shop“, will open in Sandgate at 2pm this Saturday 8th May. British Olympic Gold Medallist Jamie Staff will open the shop which can be found at 61-63 Sandgate High Street. The shop also contains a coffee shop.