The Greenway - Plans for an Ouse valley cyclepath

Please post thought and ideas about this here.. more news soon...

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Permalink Reply by Susan Thompson on February 13, 2011 at 16:29

There was a very positive meeting last Friday of a new Greenway cycle path group which included people from most Ouse valley villages between Lewes and Newhaven. Plans to promote the new route include organising local consultations... as in Kingston where support was found to be around 70%... a petition and a cycle ride on Sunday 13th March. There will also be approaches to local councillors and our MP and Transport Minister who has recently negotiated a new Sustainable Transport Fund. More news soon...

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Permalink Reply by Susan Thompson on February 18, 2011 at 23:45

On the morning of Sunday March 13th I'll be joining many other local cyclists and non cyclists for a Cycling Breakfast to discuss the urgent need for a safer route linking the Ouse valley villages between Newhaven and Lewes. This will be followed by a riverside walk to look at options for village connections.

The C7 is the only route between our county town and channel port which links together all the Ouse valley villages and can be sensibly used for leisure and utility cycling. The C7 is not considered to be a safe route for cycling by local cycling groups... cyclists are advised to be very careful, the Cycling Breakfast is not a cycling event and so cycling will be at your own risk.

The safer Ouse Valley route may become a local link in the Avenue Verte London to Paris route encouraging sustainable tourism,there will also be savings of fossil fuels and carbon emissions as more people chose to cycle on a safer path, health improvement and well being benefits are also anticipated for active cyclists.

We will be encouraging local villages to consult their local communities to gauge interest and options for different routes soon....

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Permalink Reply by Susan Thompson on July 18, 2011 at 14:14

The South Downs National Park hosted a meeting last week at the Linklater pavilion to help to form a new group to take this project forward.

There are plans for a South Downs National Park application for Local Sustainable Transport Funding. The Ouse Valley Safe Cycling Network group will be meeting again next week to start to organise the community consultation process and to make plans for a well supported application for a safe network of Ouse Valley cycle routes. Please let me know if you'd like to get involved in this new initiative.

Susan Thompson.

villageconnectionsinfo@gmail.com

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Permalink Reply by Susan Thompson on March 10, 2012 at 17:56

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 within the community and with local businesses and landowners, had meetings with transport architects and engineers, the Environment Agency, East Sussex County Council and our MP and transport minister...

We spent months working with our new members from Kingston Road developing an application for an ESCC and SDNPA proposal applying for Local sustainable Transport Funding but had recently been disappointed by not being included, our project being a little too long term.

However our decision to invest all of our SDNPA Sustainable Communities start up Funding in a Sustrans feasibility study has luckily played a key role in the recent Sustrans decision to propose our 2 mile cycle path connecting Kingston with Lewes as part of their £8 million tranch of the coalition government's "Linking Communities" project... part of a £30 million package of developments to connect communities, reduce carbon emissions, get people active and make cycling safer and more convenient.

We are all celebrating getting the go ahead for this first stage of our new valley network and feel really invigorated to carry on working towards our aim of creating safe, shared, sustainable village connections from channel port to county town as an international gateway to the South Downs National Park.

OVCN and Environment Agency maps will be displayed as part of the Mapping the Future open morning in Newhaven next Saturday 17th March. A public talk about the OVCN project and comparisons with the Shipwrights Way in West Sussex is being planned for the Linklater in May. Please check the OVCN website for details. www.ovcn.org.uk