I met with the Transport Minister the Rt Hon Chris Heaton Harris to discuss our Restoring Your Railway bids for Bristol Road Stonehouse and the heritage railway in Sharpness. I have taken every opportunity to raise these fantastic projects.
I explained to the Minister the local people have wanted to reopen Bristol Road for over 20 years and we talked about the local expertise that is happening down in Sharpness. The decisions should be made soon about the bids. I know that people from all over the country have made applications but I will keep pushing and I have all my fingers and toes crossed.
We also discussed our regular online cycling summit here. The Minister spoke at the first summit so he wanted to know how it was going. I told him that we now have more signs around Stroud warning motorists of cyclists have been requested due to the police listening to summit attendees.
Gloucestershire Constabulary has installed some of the blue signs already after pledging to do so at the last summit but those at the event called for more.
I am very pleased that the enthusiasm for these summits and real work is taking place to make Stroud a better destination for cycling and walking and for horse riders too.
I fully agree we need more clear signage for safety and directions if we are to reassure cyclists and help motorists and make Stroud more bike friendly.
There was also a request for me to ask the leader of Gloucestershire County Council Mark Hawthorne to come to a summit and I will do that too.
The most recent online zoom event saw 43 people attend. They heard from Cotswolds Canals Trust who said the reconstruction of 4 miles of the Stroud Navigation canal was a great opportunity to build a multi-use space for everyone.
There was also discussion about how horse riders could use the canal and towpath safely alongside cyclists.
Sean Byrne from the Electric Bike Shop also talked about electric bikes and how they work so well on Stroud’s hilly geography. The Minister was particularly interested in this as he is well aware of the popularity of E Bikes.
I asked him to look into Cycle to Work schemes to allow more people to buy the bikes as they are expensive and whether the scheme could work better for smaller bike shops. The Treasury run these schemes but the Minister said he was alive to the issues and would feed in all information.