BIKE TO SCHOOL WEEK 2020: 28 September to 2 October

BIKE TO SCHOOL WEEK 2020: Week of 28 Sep - 2 Oct.

Bike To School Week chimes perfectly with the aims of DLWTRAIL - in particular, relating to the benefit of an active lifestyle on health & wellbeing - whatever your age! It includes promotion of active travel in general, including walking, cycling and scooting.

If you're a parent of a child at Long Whatton or Diseworth schools, why not talk about Bike To School Week with your children, other parents, staff and your PTA / FODS?

Resources & support material for parents, teachers and pupils here: www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/projects/2019/uk-wide/bike-to-school-week/ Your DLWTRAIL Campaign Group supports active travel in all its forms! . RELATED LINK: Leicestershire County Council's 'CHOOSE HOW YOU MOVE' initiative: www.choosehowyoumove.co.uk/

DLWTRAIL FEASIBILITY STUDY SUBMITTED TO LEICS COUNTY COUNCIL

Following our exploratory meeting with Leicestershire County Council earlier this year, your DLWTRAIL Committee got somewhat left-fielded by Coronavirus. Didn't we all? However, we continued to beaver away on our Feasibility Study, which we’re pleased to announce that we have today submitted to LCC.

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR DLWTRAIL FEASIBILITY STUDY We won’t repeat the content in this blog post, because we hope the study will speak for itself. We do emphasise that we’re still at the beginning of what we expect to be a long journey. However, with the surge of interest in cycling and walking, especially during lockdown, we feel that our campaign is riding the wave of a movement towards a “new normal” for active travel. Our feasibility study isn’t a firm plan; it’s an outline description of what we hope to achieve, and how we might achieve it. We will use it to present our case to potential partners and interested parties, of which Leicestershire County Council is the primary one. We thank both LCC and Long Whatton & Diseworth Parish Council for their continued support and encouragement.

Thank you particularly to all Diseworth & Long Whatton residents who have voiced support, continued to share their ideas and suggestions on our blog and in our facebook group, and contributed to our Dossier of Demand. We couldn’t have even got to this early stage in the process without you.

Your continued comments and suggestions are, of course, welcome.

Watch this space for further updates. - Your DLWTRAIL Committee

DLWTRAIL UPDATE JUNE 2020

The world has changed since our last update. However, with the prospect of a Covid “New Normal”, active travel – particularly walking and cycling – has moved up the agenda. Where does the DLWTRAIL campaign stand now, and what might the future hold?

We are challenged in a number of areas, but we continue to liaise with local landowners, Councils, Sustrans and other parties. We never expected this to be easy, and now that HS2 is apparently going ahead, we have another piece of major infrastructure set to slice between our two villages. Financial pressures on both public and private sectors will be immense.

However, we continue to explore options, and we appreciate the enthusiastic support of the Parish Council. We hope to soon have a “preferred solution” clarified. Then we can get on with a feasibility study of our preferred option. A positive attitude will be required!

This will be a long haul, so in the meantime we’re going for a “QUICK WIN” …

A QUICK WIN? Immediately after lockdown, The Green “danger road” between Long Whatton & Diseworth became transformed. The motor vehicles disappeared, and the road was once again considered ‘safe’ by pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. Many people, including families on bikes, took advantage of this “new normal” However, the vehicles are returning, many of them travelling at hazardous speeds. The “old normal” has returned. What’s our “Quick Win” proposal? We would love to get the speed limit along The Green reduced to a maximum of 40mph. But, for various reasons, this is something which LCC Highway is reluctant to agree to progress and, anyway, would not be a “Quick Win” Here’s our alternative: The Parish Council has agreed to approach LCC Highways to augment the existing signage on The Green by siting “Caution – Pedestrians / Cyclists / Horses” signs when leaving both Long Whatton & Diseworth. This is not a solution, but we want to get something tangible achieved – no matter how small. Thanks for your continued support, and stay tuned to our blog and facebook group for further updates. - The DLWTRAIL Committee “Safe, Active Travel between Long Whatton & Diseworth”