But in Shepway our wings are a little clipped. Our cycle infrastructure is largely non-existent. Where we do have cycle lanes and cycle paths, they are often sub-standard.
Cycle Shepway campaigns to put that right. We’re neither a sports club nor a technical forum. What we are is a pressure group. And we need your support.
So welcome to Cycle Shepway. Join the campaign. Explore the website. Contribute your views and ideas. We have a mountain to climb. But take heart - cyclists have conquered Kilimanjaro!
Cycle Shepway needs your support
If you leave us your name and email address below, we’ll send you news of events, campaign rides, and dates of meetings.
Let us know your concerns and ideas. Write to the local press, lobby your councillors, make your voice heard.
Cycle Shepway is a pressure group that campaigns for improvements to the cycling infrastructure of our district – Folkestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh. We are pressing for better bicycle routes – a proper network that links the fragmented paths and lanes we have at present.
We are frustrated at the poor cycle signage across Shepway. Cyclists need safe and well defined routes, especially in Folkestone and Cheriton from east to west and north to south. On the seafront we need dual-use signage from Folkestone Harbour to Hythe. And we need more racks for parking.
Set up in 2007 as the Shepway Cycle Forum, we achieved our first major objective in 2011 with a Cycle Plan for Shepway agreed by Kent County Council, a five-year strategy to make cycling easier and safer.
But it’s only a start. The Plan is largely aspirational. The task of Cycle Shepway is to turn hopes into realities. Our voice must be heard. For instance, we need a seat on the Joint Transportation Board of Shepway District Council and Kent County Council.
Cycle Shepway believes even minor improvements will trigger an increase in journeys by bike – to school, station, shops and work. As well as healthy exercise, more cycling will ease family fuel costs and rush-hour congestion. And leisure cycling, already in resurgence, will boom.
When people feel we have a safe and useful network, everyday cycling will take off
With Folkestone just 45 minutes by high-speed train from Stratford International, an influx of sports fans is expected in Shepway for the Olympics. Many will be cyclists. The least we can provide is a near decent infrastructure to help cycling visitors enjoy our coast and countryside.
Cycle Shepway wants an infrastructure worthy of the 21st century – at least as good as the rest of the UK, at best on a par with our Continental neighbours.
