Making Swindon a Better Place to Cycle

What does Swindon Cycle Campaign (SCC) do?

Well, we aim to be the voice of cycling in Swindon – a group of volunteers dedicated to making our town a safer and more attractive place to cycle in.

This voice needs to be as diverse as possible and we need voices of people who would like to cycle more but are deterred by things like traffic, barriers on existing cycle paths and not knowing where to start.

SCC aims to promote cycling and help more people to enjoy the freedom and joy it brings. Our three main focuses are:

1. Improving Infrastructure – this often involves consulting on council proposals and new developments, for example filling missing links across the town centre, the New Eastern Villages development and more recently the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan for Swindon.

2. Promotion and Increasing Participation – this often involves organising events, providing advice and information and helping people to cycle more. Previous things SCC volunteers have helped organise include the Swindon Cycle Fest, setting up a free orienteering challenge across Swindon, supporting disability cycling, Learn to Ride sessions and working with local media outlets.

3. Moredon Cycling Hub – For the past six years, SCC volunteers have been working with the council on a successful bid to British Cycling for the funding of an inclusive cycling hub at Moredon.

So, what are we planning for this year?

As a volunteer-led organisation we naturally have limited resources. We’ve planned things for 2022 but are keen to have suggestions and input from more local people.

We’d like to start work on an ‘Accessibility Audit’ to map out where barriers exist on the current cycle network. This could include things like steps, poor surfacing or staggered gates which make such paths difficult to use for many people (e.g. those with cycle trailers, adapted cycles and disabled cyclists). This map could be used by the council to identify ‘quick wins’ when funding opportunities arise.

We also need help with extending our reach through organising and running more events to promote cycling, as well as improving our communications and social media presence.

With work being started on the Moredon Cycling Hub imminently we need more people to join the cycling steering group, apply for grants to purchase a greater stock of adapted cycles and run participation programmes.

Those interested in getting involved in whatever capacity, can get in touch via the contacts page on our website: www.swindoncyclecampaign.org.

Or if you’d just like to keep in touch with what’s going on you can sign up to our mailing list. Happy cycling!

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