It was a fantastic day on Sunday for the Cycle Path celebration, not just because of the sunny weather but because at least 1000 local people turned out to show their support. Along with Paul Smith, Labour Candidate for Bristol West, and Faruk Choudhury, councillor for Easton, I joined the march at Fishponds. Two hours later we arrived at College Green, having collected hundreds of people along the way. There was some concern over whether the plans have been 'shelved' and calls for the council to make clear that had indeed been 'binned'. My understanding is that in the short-term the focus now will be on putting a BRT link between Long Ashton and the city centre, and at some point they (by which I primarily mean South Gloucs council) to link it to Emersons Green - but it won't be along the cycle path.
John Grimshaw from Sustrans urged everyone gathered on College Green to support his campaign for new cycle paths to link up with the existing Bristol-Bath path, which sounds like an excellent idea. He wants as many people as possible to come forward to 'adopt' these proposed paths and mount local campaigns in support. Can't find any info on their website as yet, but I know they've got maps of the suggested routes for anyone who's interested.
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3 comments:
"Success for the cycle path campaign?" - the "?" being paramount here.
Clearly, holding a joint protest and celebration march was not a good idea as the media communicated the wrong message to the public. Nobody should have claimed the Railway Path had been protected before the actual voting at the Council meeting on 1st April 2008. Full council meeting available here:
http://www.railwaypath.org/node/70
It would have been a success if not for Labour's wrecking amendment:
In legislative debate, a wrecking amendment (also called a poison pill) is an amendment made by a legislator who disagrees with the principles of a bill and who seeks to make it useless (by moving amendments to either make the bill malformed and nonsensical, or to severely change its intent) rather than directly opposing the bill by simply voting against it. (read more at Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrecking_amendment
Let's be clear about one thing, especially while there's so much debate and rumour, the Railway Path is NOT protected until this is done with the proper legislation... do you not agree?
p.s. Most people refer to it as a Railway Path as this respects its heritage and all those who use it - pedestrians, cyclists, the local community and anyone who enjoys this green corridor.
Dear Kerry. I understand you are clearly against any BRT plans on the Railway Path but think it might be good to clear up the confusion in the public domain by publishing the voting that took place, as David Blunkett does:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/david_blunkett/sheffield,_brightside
In the interest of clarity, do you agree the public have the right to know how their councillors voted on the BRT amendments? I realise this is your own personal website but would you consider publishing this information as you are a key Labour figure in this debate?
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