Host Profile: Bankside B&B

Bankside B&B is an elegant non-smoking 4 star boutique bed and breakfast situated in the Suffolk hamlet of Uggeshall, just minutes from Southwold on the Heritage Coast. There is ample parking and secure storage for bikes and wi-fi throughout.

Breakfasts are served with local produce and home-made bread and preserves.

Hosts Elaine and Tony have made a puncture kit, tools and pump available for guests and passing cyclists who might need them. Please just ring the bell and ask.

Directions:

Uggeshall and Bankside B&B is situated just north of Henham Park. From the A12, take the B1126 Wangford Rd away from Wangford toward Stoven and turn left just before St Mary's Church and Bankside B&B is situated about half a mile on the right.

On the A145 London Road midway between Brampton and Blythburgh, take Stoven Road signed towards Wangford and Uggeshall and then the first turning on the right. Bankside B&B will be on your left after some houses.

Bankside B&B, The Hills, Uggeshall, Nr Southwold, Suffolk NR34 8EN
Tel: 01502 578047 Mobile: 0798 559 2543

Email: elaine@banksidebandb.co.uk

www.banksidebandb.co.uk

   

Host Profile: Gypsy Hollow B&B & Teas

If you fancy kipping next to nature in a gypsy wagon in the grounds of a Grade II* listed Suffolk farmhouse, then this is a B&B for you. 

Then wake up to hearty breakfasts of their own Gloucester Old Spot/Berkshire pork and fresh free-range eggs. You can cook their farm produce yourself on the open fire or in the kitchen area and afternoon tea cream cakes are available for your delectation.

Along with a spa to soak away the strains of a day in the saddle, what could be missing? 

Absolutely nothing now that it has joined Suffolk Bike Aid so passing cyclists can stop by to make running repairs if need be as well as get afternoon cakes and teas.

Proprietors Philip and Clair Westwood-Dreamer are located deep in the north Suffolk countryside (not far from the Norfolk border), roughly between the market towns of Halesworth and Bungay, yet only six miles from the A12. The can even pick up guests in their horse and carriage from Brampton rail station.

Directions From Halesworth

Take the A144 Norwich Road north for about 2 miles, then turn right onto Nollers Road and then left onto Butts Road.

From Bungay

Take the A144 south from Bungay for about 5 milles, then turn left onto Hog Lane, then right onto Butts Lane.

Gypsy Hollow B&B

Valley Farm

Butts Road

Westhall

Suffolk

IP19 8RN

www.gypsyhollow.co.uk

Tel: 01986 780995

Mob: 07884 165445

52.39359, 1.51796

Source of cycling symbols

Bike Aid has scoured the internet for a source of official UK cycling symbols but couldn't find any.

But we did find a government handbook on cycle lane markings which will download as a PDF which enable you to enlarge and 'grab' the items to whatever scale you want. We did that with the cycle parking logo below. It seems sufficient for our purpose so we thought we'd share this tip.

Vancouver bike repair station outrage

Vancouver's CityStudio BikeLab recently introduced the first publicly accessible bike repair stations to the streets of Vancouver. There are now two stands with tools and air pumps where cyclists will be able to repair simple mechanical problems.

This project is part of Vancouver's Greenest City 2020 Action Plan to encourage sustainable transportation.

Instagram of new pump posted by cbruntlett 

In partnership with the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver South Lions Club, this project is piloting two stations; one located in the Woodwards Atrium on the West Hastings entrance and another at Science World.

On Saturday, April 6th, the bike repair first station was unveiled to evaluate the possibility of developing another eight stations in the future.



However, despite Canada's reputation for affability, greenness and hippy values, the installation of two $3000 bicycle pumps has sparked outrage in media editorials.

The pumps were recently installed at Hawks Ave. and Union St. (on the Adanac bike route) and at Science World, near the convergence of the Seaside, Adanac, Ontario, and Central Valley Greenway bike routes. The pumps fit both Schrader and Presta valve types, and have been built to resist the elements. It’s been reported that the two pumps cost a total of $6,000

However, it wasn’t until last week when Scout Magazine and then the Vancouver Courier ran a story that things started heating up. Both The Province’s editorial board and CTV went trolling, and Yahoo! Canada News piled on for good measure. The Province ran an anonymous editorial that was nothing short of an anti-cycling diatribe and then CTV devoted 3 minutes at the top of their 5pm newscast to outrage over this expenditure

Perhaps the no-cost model of Suffolk Bike Aid would be more suitable here?

Cycling Embassy of Great Britain

The CEGB reckons that cycling should be the simplest, easiest and most convenient way to get around in most places in the UK and yet the reality is that it's not – the roads are busy and feel unsafe or unpleasant to ride on and what cycle paths there are seem to take the long way round, or run out just when you need them most.

We intend to act as a conduit for best practice around the World and get standards, as opposed to guidelines, implemented to create cycle infrastructure that we can all be proud of and that people will use.

We feel that this has to be addressed as a matter of urgency as badly designed and implemented infrastructure is continuing to be built at council taxpayers’ expense whether people like it or not.

 The Dutch and the Danes have demonstrated that it is easy to provide safe, attractive and efficient routes for cycling, away from fast traffic, which anybody and everybody – men and women, old and young, and rich and poor – want to use. 

The Cycling Embassy of Great Britain want to see an end to cyclists being pushed to the margins; they want to see a network of direct, well-designed, separated cycle routes that are safe even for young children to use. 

Manifesto & Mission Statement

Cyling Research Library

Sat Nav POI

With GPS satellite navigation technology commonplace in handheld devices and smart phones, if you provide services to cyclists it's probably worth the trouble to ensure that the master sat-nav Point Of Interest (POI) databases have your business in their listings. It's essential too that their maps accurately record local cycling infrastructure such as bike lanes or cycle paths. 

You can do this by checking the information held by Navteq, the main publisher of sat-nav databases. Unfortunately there isn't yet an official Bike Aid POI category but we're working on that.

Browse to http://mapreporter.navteq.com

Use the search box to find the place you want to report on or click-and-drag the map.

On the left of the web page are 4 main categories:

· Point of Interest. Here you can record or make changes to a shop, business, or other Point of Interest (POI). You can promote your community by listing local businesses as people often use their sat-nav as a 'Yellow Pages'.

· Address Marker/Location. Make changes to the location of a house or building.

· Road or Road Feature. Here you can add, edit or remove roads and road features such as signs, one-ways, or restrictions.

· Other not listed.

But if you right-click on a road itself, a dialogue box pops up:

· Edit details of this road

· Exit/Roundabout is new

· Turn restrictions have changed

· Signs are different

· Other categories

Click ‘edit details of this road’ and you will get a choice of:

· Edit Road Segment Details

· Data is correct, I want to report something else

If you click 'road segment' you can report any one-way restrictions, change the class of road, note any vehicle restrictions, the type of road surface and describe the house numbering. Quite often this data will be blank and so you will be providing a useful service to complete it.

Navteq classifies roads in their database as Class 1, 2, 3, 4. This corresponds to A, B, C, D roads. In the UK, only A and B are officially designated on signage although Highways Department will refer internally to C and D and Unclassified roads too.

If you click 'something else' you can add advice about road width restrictions or errors on the map that are not reportable elsewhere.

You can also attach photos of any errors or issues.

You can only report geographic information that can reasonably be reflected in a digital map. Therefore it is probably not much use to report “this road has a problem with speeding…” while reporting “the road is only eight feet wide at this point…” is more useful to the digital mapmakers.

Some GPS devices use data from another company Tele Atlas. You can enter less geographic information on their website but this database is more detailed in POI categories. http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/mapfeedback/index.php

To research or record local features, or if you want to use maps without paying a hefty copyright fee, you can contribute to the OSM, a global ‘wiki’ map http://www.openstreetmap.org/ where you can record features of interest.

The UK Ordnance Survey gets its POI data from a company called Point X which the OS owns in partnership with Landmark Information Group. Point X doesn't indicate on its website how to correct or submit data but we have asked them and when they tell us we'll post it here. Landmark claims to be an unrivaled source of large scale current and historic digital maps together with high quality environmental risk and planning information.

PointX is a joint venture company established to provide the most comprehensive range of points of interest data in Great Britain. They have over 600 classifications ranging from airports to amusement parks, hospitals to hotels, petrol stations to pubs and restaurants to railway stations. Customers for this data are central government, the emergency services, local authorities and companies developing location-based services.

Point X says it has over 170 data suppliers including Market Locations (who replaced Thomson Directories), Department for Transport, Transport for London, Police, Fire and Ambulance Authorities, Education Authorities, Royal Mail, Visit Britain, LINK Interchange Network, The Court Service, UK Payphone Directory, Little Chef, National Trust for Scotland and the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux.

The Point X POI data is used for drawing the Traveline journey maps, in local government 'health checks' and by location pointing services such as finding your nearest swimming pool or ATM. It seems there has been some significant wrangling over merging this data with the 29 million entries of the seperate Postal Address File maintained by the Royal Mail, so these are not combined as yet though the postcode boundaries have been released to the Ordnance Survey.

I wonder how many POI errors that people familiar with Halesworth, Suffolk can find on this map Traveline served on 31/3/13. The public convenience #4 has been closed for a decade, public convenience #2 is non existent, but if it means those that were at the swimming pool, they were demolished in September 2010.

The Way I Roll

Suffolk Bike Aid was tipped off to this series of films made by Peter Sutherland and financed by gear maker Thule by the Photo District News which is indispensable reading for the professional photographer.

From these films Suffolk Bike Aid discovered pro rider Chris Van Dine and his partnership with Pedals 4 Progress, which is we suppose the point.

Photographer and filmmaker Peter Sutherland made his 2002 documentaryPedal, about the fast-paced, sometimes reckless work of New York City’s bike messengers, on a shoestring budget with his own funding. Though the film was picked up by the Sundance Channel and aired on the TV network for two years, Sutherland says, “I made no money.” Last year, however, his work on the film landed him a lucrative assignment producing six short, documentary-style films for Thule, the Swedish company that makes handlebar bags, saddlebags and other bike accessories. Ten years after the release of Pedal, says Sutherland, the Thule assignment “was an unexpected way to get compensated for making the film.”

Pedals 4 Progress rescue bicycles destined for landfill and ships them to developing countries where they are sorely needed and highly valued. The bikes are put to work not only as basic transportation, but are used as a supplement to school and community programs. The bikes are adapted for use as trash haulers, produce trucks, taxis, and farm machinery. Some municipalities even sponsor recreational cycling programs, making bikes available to all who care to participate.

The Way I Roll - six films about passionate bikers (Trailer) 

Join the Halesworth Bicycle Team

If anyone is interested in encouraging cycling in the Halesworth area, there will be a meeting on April 18th 2013 at 5.30 pm at the Halesworth library with Joseph Young of Cycle Suffolk to which local cycling groups and people have been invited.

In October 2012 the Local Government Minister Grant Shapps, the MP responsible for the Mary Portas town regeneration project, gave a £10,000 consolation prize to Halesworth after it applied to be a Portas Pilot Town. 

The Halesworth Portas Pilot Town Team who submitted the bid quickly allocated this funding, cutting the budget down to 10% of the original plan, but they obtained additional funding and were able to put several proposals immediately into place. The derelict print works off the Thoroughfare has been tidied up and is set to hold weekly markets, auctions and craft fairs and local food producers and gardeners and the community have been mobilized by Halesworth in Bloom projects as well as a branding campaign; HalesWorth Visiting to entice passing trade.  It's not sour grapes but it's a great shame that a year later some towns who won the £100,000 grand prize still have their money in the bank or have frittered it away on Christmas decorations instead of seeding sustainable projects.

Improving cycling facilities has always been a part of Halesworth's tourism and economic sustainability strategy. The Halesworth Town Plan cycling group (who were part of the Portas bid) came together in May 2012 as a refreshed group to action some ideas that could be taken forward, regardless if they had funding or not. Community development is often a case of Fast/Cheap/Good: you can pick any two. One of this group's actions was encouragement of the Halesworth Wheel and organising several turn-up and ride events around it.

This group have since been allocated £2500 of the Portas money. Half of that cycling pot has gone towards completing the Millennium Green Cycle Path (a scheme backed by the Department of Transport and Sustrans needing match funding), the other half will be spent on developing footfall by enhancing Halesworth's many advantages to the cyclist; be they the club, commuter or tourist rider (or is there a better typology?)

With the promise of this tiny pot, a 'bicycle team' will have to brainstorm some very clever ideas to develop cycling in Halesworth and so I have put some thoughts here to start the dough. What the town needs is more ideas and more people to see them through, so willing hands and feet are very welcome. 

cyclists' yellow jersey

Like many rural market towns, Halesworth faces many economic challenges but encouraging cycle tourism plays to its strengths. With good transport connections, key services, wide range of quality accommodation, location midway between the AONB coast and inland heritage attractions, nature reserves, excellent rural pubs, quiet roads and beautiful scenery; the various factors add up to put Halesworth as the top choice as a base for a cycling holiday or to visit on a tour. The attractions of the other Waveney 'four towns': Beccles, Bungay and Southwold and the wider Waveney Valley are part of Halesworth's offer too.

The Halesworth Tourism Group recently produced a leaflet touting the Blyth Valley Experience showing what the town and surroundings have to offer (opens a PDF).

This list is not in any order. The intent in sharing it is to stimulate other people to offer other ideas too. If other towns 'steal' these ideas and do them first, so much the better. My particular interest is tourism and commuting and not so much 'club' cycling so I hope my ideas will be balanced by others.

Some of these ideas will be easy to realize and everyone can take these actions at anytime. Some of these ideas will need further resources; contacts will have to be made, other financial support found and of course, having some people to take responsibility to see them through.

• Establish a loose identity as the local Bicycle Team as a point of contact and for re-distribution of info. Avoid committee meetings, do it via the web!
• Wider promotion of the Halesworth Wheel and its Sustrans/Mike Jackson supported cycle rides - signposting on websites, leaflet distribution in TICs and libraries.
• Support the Dunwich Dynamo and encourage more stay-overs.
• Linking the Bicycle Team with relevant tourism and business groups, partnerships etc. Priority local 'Four Towns' and Waveney Valley but thinking internationally as well, i.e. Dutch Flyer promotions.
• Establish points of contact with bus, coach and train operators i.e. Anglian, National Express, Greater Anglia (Abellio) Stena Line.
• Team to author strategy papers: The club, commuter, tourism rider; how to attract & encourage them - To be circulated relevant partners and town and parish councils, especially Waveney 'Four Towns' with tips on what to to and what not to do.
• Collate listing of cycling facilities, shops, hire etc. on Halesworth websites
• Produce yellow T-shirts of 'Hales-worth Visiting' for sale in town shops.
• Auditing and signposting of cycle-friendly B&Bs and facilities; which ones have racks, storage etc.
• Local B&B promotion (Halesworth Tourism Group's sheet) to include the standard cycle facility symbols.***
• Rapid response to cycling inquiries: if people tweet #Halesworth, they can get a response from many people who monitor that hashtag. Have the Town Clerk and other web hosts SMS or tweet cycling inquiries to the Bicycle Team.***
• Prepare cycle tourism/club/commuter media contact list and background press release with quality photographs.
• Signposting to Suffolk Bike Aid.
• Have a Bike Aid collection of spare tools and kit making session at events.
• Run a Suffolk Bike Aid/Cycle Suffolk/Bicycle Team stand at Latitude.
• Plant bicycle themed/bicycle accessible Geocaches.***
• Ask a local collector to open their antique bike collection for tours.
• Encourage museums to explore or highlight cycling heritage.
• Stage an annual Bicycle Jumble Sale ('saddlebag' instead of 'car boot') in Halesworth - key stands like Ipswich Mencap bicycle recycling project.
• Create a BMX track on waste ground somewhere.***
• Explore making the Thoroughfare a two-way cycle path.***
• Have a cycle info rack in the library - make contacts and have volunteers that replenish it.*
• Hold cycle repair classes - perhaps at the NSSA.
• Encourage an entrepreneur or social enterprise to open cycle hire business, perhaps a seasonal container/lock up? CAS can signpost to grants,  WDC can advise on rate relief and Town Council on sites.
• Investigate providing electric bicycle charging points.
• Encourage the CPRE 'quiet lanes' designation on local back roads.
• Form links to local cycling clubs with the Bicycle Team.
• Encourage volunteer cycling 'greeters': a contact that visiting touring riders can meet in Halesworth.***
• Audit to ensure all cycle features are correct on OS and OSM maps, Point X  datasets, Navteq, TeleAtlas and are signposted on local websites and included on local info maps.
• Web forum monitoring and signposting when any events are near Halesworth.**
• Support the Suffolk Churches cycle ride.**
• Encourage or lobby for 'bike' entry prices at events and repay with cross-promotion.
• Encourage bicycle/foot-only camp site operations away from car/caravan camping - Support planning permission applications and rural grants to establish them.
• Offer talks about cycling in Suffolk, Bike Aid, Millennium Green etc. to local groups like the WI etc.
• Encourage posting videos of local rides on Youtube etc. Either a competition or community media project through New Cut Arts.***
• Author and post GPX & photos of local rides  on trail report sites.**
• Put local routes on ride-planner websites.**
• Encourage young people to enter decorated cycles as part of parades. Contact parade organisers, encourage business to offer prizes for bike competition categories.
• Create a Community Action Suffolk resource map hosted on the web of local cycling resources.
• Have a ‘Cycle Only’ Weekend in Halesworth, promoted by Waveney District and Suffolk County Council who may spread this throughout their area.
• Link up with our Twin Towns of Bouchain and Eitorf to promote and participate in our/their cycle events.
• Hold an 'Edwardian' Cycling Picnic with cream teas and croquet.

* people have since offered to support.

If you found this page on twitter etc. and you have suggestions or questions, or would like to help, please get in touch: nat (at) pixlink.co.uk

Host Profile: Burnt House Farm

The first host recruited solely by this blog! 

Hayden Morris is a lapsed cyclist who lives just outside Saxmundham in Suffolk on the B1119 road which sees a lot of usage by cyclists, especially at the weekend. He thought it a marvelous idea to put together a Bike Aid kit out of his spare tools, pumps etc. It seems obvious to Bike Aid that by assisting other cyclists, Hayden will be getting encouragement from the community to keep cycling himself.

Burnt House Farm (formerly The Firs) Saxmundham

The postcode is shared with a farm .5 mile away so the directions are head 800 feet or so towards Framlingham from the junction of the A12 and B119 and Burnt House Farm is the first one on the left. The Bike Aid kit is accessible any reasonable hour. Please ring the brass bell on the front porch so that they know you are on the premises. 

Burnt House Farm, west of A12 on Rendham Road 01728 602622