Susan Thompson's Blog (74)

Natural England has announced they will provide £117,000 from the Paths for Communities scheme to fund the construction of a new bridleway running alongside the Ouse River linking the villages of Rodmell and Southease.

The new route will form another link in the chain of The Egrets Way: a new network of safe routes connecting Ouse valley villages and linking Lewes to Newhaven. The first section from Lewes to Kingston is currently under construction and nearing completion.

The…

May Fayre and Elderflower festival posters:

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may3.pdf

Report from the last session of the APPG Get Britain Cycling Enquiry:   http://allpartycycling.org/news/

APPCG Co-Chair Julian Huppert MP, said:

“We need firm leadership from government and a dedicated funding stream if we are to make significant progress in cycle safety and accessibility. It is only by making significant improvements to our infrastructure, introducing clear and…

A series of consultation events throughout the proposed biosphere area: between the rivers Adur and Ouse can be found at http://biospherehere.org.uk/whats-new-in-your-biosphere/events/

A POLO backed petition asking for C7 speed limit reduction from 50mph to 40mph 

Deadline for signing 18th March.

http://epetition.eastsussex.public-i.tv/epetition_core/view/SlowDownOnC7

From the 22nd October regular cycles can be carried at any time... in the Green zone from Lewes to Seaford... see map and link below 

New Cycling Policy  http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/cycle-policy/new-cycle-...

During peak periods, many of our services are extremely busy, therefore regular (non-folding) cycles cannot be carried on many of our services during these times. Fully…

The Parishes of the Lower Ouse (POLO) meeting in Southease church was very well attended, there were reports on some very interesting things happening including... a new youth hostel, plans for a new Ouse valley cyclepath and bridlepath and an epetition to try to reduce the speed limit along the whole of the C7!  Draft minutes of  the POLO meeting attached. 

Ouse valley ESCC Councillor David Rogers attended the POLO meeting communicating responses this week by the ESCC Economy,…

I've finally managed to make an interactive social website for Birds on Bikes  www.birdsonbikes.ning.com.... 
BOB Members can add their own photos, blogs, comments, ride suggestions and website links...

Will add details of Mufti and Erika's Firle ride... 

Follow this link from 10:10 if you'd like to contribute to this government consultation to overhaul our energy system.

http://action.1010uk.org/project/energybill?utm_campaign=Energy+Bill+LL+25-07-2012&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=

Our local SDNPA parishes representative Neville Harrison has kindly forwarded details of the South Downs National ParkLife in Landscape photo competition... www.southdowns.gov.uk/photocomp2012

We are still posting entries on Village Connections for the Living Landscape Photo competition... All photos will be shown as part of the Nature of Art Artwave exhibition strting next month... Photos could also be sent…

The following report from the Rio Earth summit kindly forwarded by Sharifin Gardiner of Rodmell who was there to witness the frustratingly slow process...

On the last day at the regular briefing meeting for the nine Major Groups the representative of Children and Youth, Kyle Gracy made an impassioned speech which reduced many to tears and evoked a standing ovation.

The  following is the closing statement by the Major Group for Children and Youth in the Rio…

“Currently only two per cent of women cycle regularly compared to six per cent of men yet we know that nearly one million women would like the opportunity to get out on their bikes and socialise with other women.” /www.britishcycling.org.uk/recreation/article/rec20110525-recreation-Women--Breeze-Launches-0…

Feeling very positive after the L&OVe yesterday where we discussed how to make the most of the opportunity to engage local people in thinking about Lewes and Ouse Valley economics at The Linklater Railway Land Festival in June: how to help people to better appreciate the true value our living landscape, how to encourage an understanding of Nature Gain, nature care and nature share.  In the meantime   it's Nature Day in the wonderful week long Spirit of Schubert series... tune in to Radio…

A good presentation at Sustainable Sussex by Rich Howorth of Brighton and Hove and Lewes Downs Biosphere project.   

Details at www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/biosphere... this is my understanding of the aims:

 - to aquire UNESCO Biosphere reserve status for Downland and valley zones including parts of Brighton and Hove and some marine areas protecting specific areas of chalk grassland species and marine ecology by…

A leafier Lewes with more friuit to enjoy.



Mark Ridgewell of Octoberfeast has asked me to pass on details of this Friends of Lewes and Octoberfeast project hoping to raise  South Downs National Park funding for the creation of an urban arboretum:

To map the town’s apple and other fruit trees, to discover where the ancient Sussex species exist, which have disappeared and which could be reintroduced

To discover where apple and other fruit go to waste so that, with the…

I was recently invited on behalf of OVCN to contribute ideas for an Action In Rural Sussex/Lewes District Council/Community 21/Newhaven Community Development Association bid for a "Communities Living Sustainably" Lottery fund application.  I was impressed at the range of very good ideas from all the organisations represented at this meeting.  The following resume of the proposed positive benefits from the promotion of the Ouse Valley Cycle Network for local sustainable communites was…

The South Downs Way Ahead project, led by the South Downs National Park Authority on behalf of  27-strong partnership, will trail blaze the Government’s new Nature Improvement Area scheme to protect habitats and the economic and social benefits they bring.

The Nature Improvement Areas grant scheme, supported by Defra, DCLG, Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and Natural England will operate over three years from 2012 to 2015. Its aim is to create more, bigger and better…

Dismayed and confused by a rather unedifying debate about the benefits/dangers of nuclear power in the final five minutes of the Radio 4 Today programmme seemingly devoted to sound bite discussion of huge world scale issues... I found a little more detail in the following Guardian article ... 

Fukushima residents plagued by health fears of nuclear threat in their midst - A year after the power plant's triple meltdown, conflicting official information leaves families confused and…

Ouse Valley Cycle Network

During the last year a group of very committed people from a diverse range of local organisations and with representation from local towns and Ouse valley parishes have worked with the support of the South Downs National Park Authority to raise the profile of the real need for a network of safe, shared sustainable village connections for cyclists and walkers in the Ouse valley.



We have formed a constituted group, consulted widely…