NCN24
A "WebLog" of news and images from National Cycle Route 24 through Radstock.
The paths are becoming a popular attraction with plenty of cyclists and walkers evident each time I visit. Sadly, plenty of dog's mess too. And horse poo too, even on the sections that horses are banned.
Why do I keep thinking that the class of people who can afford the money to run horses are the same ones who think that the British Empire still exists and that they are running it? Therefore it's ok for them to flout the law because they think that they are the law. These are probably the same types who blast along narrow country lanes in Range Rovers and big Volvos expecting the peasants to stand aside and doff their caps. Or is it that I'm just falling into the stereotyping trap?
On to more mundane things: The condition of the surface of the track from Meadow View to the B&NES boundary continues to be a cause for concern. Because I am a local Sustrans Ranger I regularly get my ear bent on the subject from people. It's probably second only to their complaints about the horses and their produce. The official line from the local authority is that as it's a "temporary route", pending redevelopment of the Radstock railway land, that's what they gave planning permission for, so would we please shut up about it and go away, please. A response would be that because the redevelopment project has been rumbling along for at least the last ten years and, given the local authority's track record on not managing large projects, very likely to continue for another decade or two, why not tarmac the temporary route anyway - and, no, we won't shut up and go away.
On the subject of local authorities and their well honed ability to overspend on poor quality work, I notice that sections of the tarmac path is beginning to break up already; and that's before the winter frosts get at it. Wrong type of tarmac was it, boys?
Another subject of mockery is this wonderful set of steps, allegedly to provide access to Kilmersdon. Try getting a loaded touring bike or a disabled person down that lot! (I thought that it was a legal requirement to make life easier for disabled people - maybe they'll use it as an excuse to close it down, like the Victoria Hall). How you get to Kilmersdon from here is not clear - I haven't been arsed to find out yet. 
There are certainly no signs to the path from Kilmersdon itself. I've asked this before, and I'll ask it again: was there any consultation among the target user groups on the design of the path? Were there any cyclists on the design team? Wouldn't a suitably graded ramp built diagonally down the bank have been a better option. Maybe they all think like MP Tony Banks, who once famously stated that cycling is like masturbation: something only done by adolescent boys, who eventually grow out of it.
Some good news: I hear on the grape-vine that funding is in place to build another mile of railway path from Mells Road to Conduit Bridge on the way to Frome. Even better news is that efforts are being made to get Sustrans to contract to build the path and keep the job away from local government organisations' sticky fingers.
Official Opening Day!
The three new sections of bike path into Radstock were officially opened today by Councillor Sir Elgar Jenkins, B&NES Councillor for Transport & Highways.
Click here for pictures and narrative of the event
Not having had a chance to see what was happening on the paths for a few weeks I took a quick trundle round with the camera after work on 15th June.
At the start of the path in Waterloo Road there is a
new sign with the warning about "steep gradients 1 1/2 miles ahead". At first, I took this to mean the 25% hills in Shoscombe Vale. However, a similar sign at the Shoscombe end indicates that the warning is about the 10% incline on the Paglinch farm deviation. Good grief!
One of the "security features" added after the brief "hippy" incursion a few weeks ago was the installation of this chicane of gates. However, close examination of the gates suggests that they are about as useful as a chocolate teapot in this respect.
At the Shoscombe end, the new signs are departing one-by-one to pastures new due, I understand, to being attached to the posts with "the wrong kind of double-sided sticky tape". At the Bath Spa they just get "the wrong kind of paint"!
Next stop, Meadow View at the start of the Mells Road route, the new site of one of the most bizarre signs seen so far: I make a mental note to avoid taking my wife across on the tandem...
Further thought suggests that this is really one of those initiative tests as posed in so-called "leadership" courses. Like: how do you get a disabled adult in a wheelchair over the bridge when only one person is allowed on the bridge? We came up with four possible scenarios:
1. Get a good run-up; let go of the chair at the last minute so it freewheels across the bridge, then sprint over and catch the chair before it deposits its occupant in the nettles. [Warning: Do not crush rare insects in nettles with out-of-control wheelchair. This will incur a visit from a Cam Valley Wildlife Group hit-squad].
2. Take a long pole slightly longer than the bridge span. Stand at one end of bridge and use the pole to carefully propel wheelchair to the other side of bridge.
3. Similar to 2 above but attach rope to wheelchair before walking across to other side of bridge; tow wheel chair across.
4. Say "sod this" and go by road via Haydon and Kilmersdon - it's a crap surface here anyway.
Facetious, cynical, sarcastic? Moi!! The very thought! However, I can't help wondering if this whole project is degenerating into a typical B&NES white-elephant style farce.
The other sign indicating "Kilmersdon access by steps only". Handy for a bike path. One wonders just how wheelchair users, tandemists, bike trailers are expected to cope - assuming they can get past the barriers and over the bridge without causing it to collapse into the river, in the first place.
Those black painted steel posts are not a good idea. They should be a lighter colour to make them more visible in poor light.
The phrase "spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar(mac)" springs to mind here. This is the state the surface all the way to the B&NES boundary. It makes the route virtually unusable by anything other than fat tyred mountain bikes. Progress on my hybrid with 700x38 tyres was hazardous and uncomfortable to say the least. No way would I take my 700x23 shod road bike along here. It begs the question whether the people who designed and built this path have any idea about how to ride a bike. I dread to think how a wheelchair would cope. Not good enough, Messrs. B&NES and Sustrans. Think again, boys.
One of several of these "benches" have been installed. Looking like they were constructed from spare parts from "HMS Victory", (continuing the Nelsonian theme) those of us who have bought DIY timber in the recent past can only guess how much this lot cost - and how much tarmac that money could have bought. Muddled priorities strike again.
The Kilmersdon Steps under construction. For those experienced in downhill single-track mountain biking only...
An unusual design of picnic bench at the point where the path switches to the other side of the railway track. Looks like the Great British Public are sticking to the traditional values as far as taking their litter home with them.
On the Greenway extension the alterations to the banking and the car park enlargement is almost done and should look nice and tidy when the "loose ends" are sorted out.
A novel way of catching the water run-off from the field above the path is this new concrete ornamental pond. The water overflow enters the plastic pipe under the path and presumably soaks away into the embankment.
A final shot of the extended car park. Hopefully that car's width gap will be closed soon.
After a brief invasion by a group of "travellers" onto the path near Braysdown Bridge - they cut the lock on the access gate at the bottom of Braysdown lane - extra "security" is appearing. A pile of silage bales are now blocking the gate. A pair of "staggered gates" forming a chicane have appeared by Paglinch Farm and a pair of staggered steel hoops at the Waterloo Road end. These are a "necessary evil" but a real pain in the ass for some legitimate path users: tandems, bikes with trailers, tricycles and wheelchairs.
Fencing is being erected alongside the path from Braysdown lane bridge to the bottom of the Paglinch Farm deviation.
It is particularly noticeable that the stretch from Waterloo Road to the Whitelands footpath is becoming a right "dog-shite alley". It's such a shame that a minority of selfish, thoughtless, irresponsible, lazy and stupid people insist on making life unpleasant, unhealthy and downright dangerous to the rest of us.
On the subject of dog-poo, it is worth repeating part of a letter from the Norton-Radstock Journal of 29th April 2004:
...We thought perhaps that if the [dog] owners were fully aware of the reasons for our concern they may be more ready to clear up the offending excrement.
The case of Paul Vowles from Bishops Lydeard should give all dog owners pause for thought. During a Sunday morning game of football he grazed his knee, one of the hazards of football you may say, however the presence of dog mess on the field meant that although he showered after the game, the damage was already done. He ended up in intensive care for three days and was very lucky not to have had his leg amputated.
So please ask yourselves how you would feel if this happened to someone you know. If one of your children or their friends ended up with only one leg or were blind and all because you did not clear up after your dog. So please "bag it and bin it"...
A rather misleading article appeared in the "Somerset Guardian" of 6th May 2004. The article, entitled "Cyclepath Comes to Halt as Funds Dry Up" was suggesting that work on the the path had stopped and that the incomplete path was inaccessible to users. To compound the error the paper used pictures from this web site to back up their story. However, the pictures used were ones taken on 21st February and 13th March; hardly representing the current situation.
In reality, both paths are in use, although work is still being done. As well as the fencing and barrier work mentioned above on the Shoscombe section, more fencing has been erected on the Mells Road section. However, the tarmac still stops at the B&NES boundary with just a dust path through to Meadow View. Perhaps a sign should be erected here with the words "Welcome to Bath & North East Somerset". On the back, for the benefit of those heading onto the tarmac, could be written "...and you're welcome to it too, mate".
New signs, signposts and other new features on the Radstock-Shoscombe section:
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New signs at the start of the route to Shoscombe, off Waterloo Road, Radstock.
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Numerous versions of this odd little design keep appearing too...
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One of the 1000 "Millennium Mileposts" on the National Cycle Network.
Ours is adjacent to Braysdown Lane Bridge.
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"Millennium Milepost". Any volunteers to give it a colourful paint job?
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New gate at Braysdown Lane access point.
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Paglinch Farm deviation.
Who said that bike paths were flat and boring?
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Tractor crossing at Paglinch Farm.
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New signs at Shoscombe.
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Back in the real world at Shoscombe. At the bottom of the hill on the left is the start of a fun 1:4 climb.
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Except where otherwise credited, pictures © Nigel Shoosmith. These pictures can be freely used with the proviso that acknowledgment is given to the photographer.
