News

Dear fellow members and friends

As some of you will be well aware I’ve been having real difficulties getting recent issues of this newsletter out. We’ve now so many people on the mailing list that it has to be sent out in two or more batches and there’ve been several occasions when my email has just refused to send out one or both of them.

When this has happened I’ve got round the problem temporally by sending the newsletter out initially using the membership list – and then following this up by using retyped sections of the general mailing list. This is why some people have received the same newsletter twice.

Now we have a regularly updated blog with all the information available I propose to confine the mailing of the newsletter to the members’ list starting with the next issue. Everyone else will still be able to keep up with what we are doing via this website. And, of course, we’ll continue to welcome people who want to try one or two of our rides before joining. But if you are not already a member but want to continue to receive these newsletters regularly you’ll need to join (Click here then follow the instructions lower down the page.)

One very important advantage of membership (if you are not, like me, also a CTC member) is that as part of the national club you can get CTC third party insurance at a very reasonable rate. I joined the CTC  in 1954 at the age of 13 and have never had to use the insurance cover, thank goodness.  But that’s the point of any kind of insurance, isn’t it? You hope you never need it – but it’s there if you do.

Incidentally, CTC adult membership is now £41 p.a. The Clarion can’t offer all the services that the CTC does – but our £7 which covers both national and local membership is a bargain by any standard.

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Sorry, again, about the mix-up about train availabilty and August ride dates in the last issue.  I’ve now definitely moved my ride to 4 August – to allow more time for volunteers to come forward for 18 August onwards.  It’s starting to get a bit urgent.  If you are short if an idea – I can suggest some possibilities, as can Jim.

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Jim has a CD of cycling tips from Cyclenation. Linda has it at the moment but will pass it on to anyone else interested.

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I wonder whether anyone can help Rob? (see below)   If you can please contact him direct on rob2doe@gmail.com

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A couple of issues ago I included a message from Bunty Tait who was  hoping to get in touch with Alan Limbrey.  I said it was a “long shot” – and was delighted to get the following message from Bunty: ” Your long shot worked. Alan has been in touch and I ‘m flooded with memories of riding at Preston Park, Portsmouth, Southampton (all dangerous tracks at speed) but also Herne Hill, Coventry, Paris and Copenhagen.  Good Old Days.   Many thanks for you help.  Bunty.”

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In case you haven’t already seen Angela’s message our summer social will be a  picnic on Goring beach on Saturday 10 August.  Further details in next newsletter.

Ian

Message from Joyce – Fracking at Balcombe 

Some of you may already know that Fracking has come to East Sussex in the guise of Cuadrilla Ltd who are planning to be fracking in Balcombe. The local community is active in opposing it as SEER – Sussex Extreme Energy Resistance. You can visit their Facebook page and info@frack-off.org. We are talking here not about one well; it is suggested it could mean 32 wells within the parish of Balcombe and over 100 within 5 miles of the village. The whole licence area is very large and could accommodate 1,200 wells – there are also proposals for the Weald . The community of Balcombe are doing great work but they are a small community, and fracking, if allowed to go ahead, will affect all of us who know and love the countryside of Sussex where we cycle so often and care about our environment.  Under pressure the Environment Agency has launched a consultation process geared to the Balcombe application, so we can do something. The deadline is 16 JULY  so please act quickly.

You need to email the Agency :- PSCpublicresponse@environment-agency.gov.uk  

You will know what you want to say. But some thoughts might help :-

What is the EA doing to ensure that residents and other interested members of the public are fully informed of activities on the site?

Will members of the public have a chance to review the method statement sent by Cuadrilla and raise any questions before a permit is issued?

500m³ of water will be trucked in for the exploratory drill – where is this water coming from? How much water will have to be trucked out? When will it be trucked out? Where will it be going?

What is being done to safeguard bats, dormice, newts and water voles? An ecological survey was not conducted by WSCC – why not?

What is the EA doing to protect groundwater, the aquifer and Ardingly reservoir? Have the water authorities been consulted? The site is in a drinking water protected area – what does that mean? How will the surface and groundwater be protected?

There is a small seasonal stream close to the access road within Lower Meadham Woods which takes water off the access track. How can it be assured  that water going into this stream is clean and free of contamination? This poses a possible water contamination risk to tributaries to the river Ouse. South East Water recently have proposed to top up Ardingly Reservoir from the river Ouse, What are the risks regarding this stream which currently has water in it?

Joyce

Rob Doe writes

This is a slightly long story and an unlikely request. My eldest son Pat is training to equal the record of his Grandfather (Ernie Whittington formerly of the Clarion) who in 1938  clocked up 194.25 miles in  a 12 hour Brighton Mitre race (called the Hardrider I believe).

Pat thinks its only fair he does it on an equivalent bike.  But he doesn’t know what that bike was.  Only that it had a three speed Sturmey Archer in all probability as the quadrant can be seen on the crossbar (Ernie is the one at the back):

Pat explains his quest here.

Can you throw any further light on what this bike might have been or know anyone who might?  I’m afraid the picture doesn’t seem to give much to go on.

Ernie was a shopworker at Corbins the wallpaper shop in London Road and his widowed mother was very poor so we don’t think he would have had huge amounts of disposable income to spend on bikes.

We need four of these bikes or the equivalent as Pat has roped me and his two brothers into a Brighton to Cheam ride as part of his training.  Ernie rode to Cheam every week in 1939 to undergo his wartime emergency training as a precision engineer.  He was a highly skilled toolmaker for the rest of his life.

As an aside, I’m interested in what they are wearing.  Are these 1930s cycling clothes?  The trousers look very modern.

All the best. Forgive my impertinence in troubling you with this.

Rob