2010 Annual Review

From

We are now well into the new year and developing our plans for 2011 (more of this in a future blog). However before 2010 is finished I thought it was worth a few words to reflect on what we achieved in 2010.

At the beginning of 2010 we met as a group and thought about what we wanted to achieve during the year. Given that the routes in our area are relatively low maintenance we decided that the focus for the year should be on getting more people cycling by promoting local cycling opportunities and organising led rides. Basically we wanted more people to be aware of the local cycling opportunities and we wanted people to have the knowledge and confidence to get out on bikes.

We did promotional events at Bosworth Farmers Markets and also Skyride – the latter was particularly successful and we got to speak to literally hundreds of interested people. However it proved hard work to attract people onto the (Fresh Air Miles) led rides. We had scheduled some shorter “back to cycling” rides but only got 1 taker. However our 15 mile NCN anniversary rides was more popular and despite a few last minute “no shows” we had a very successful and enjoyable ride through the lanes around Market Bosworth.

We should remember that the West Leicestershire ranger group was only formed late in 2009 and that most of the volunteers are new to Sustrans. A year on we now have a really good group of enthusiastic and willing volunteers. As a group we learnt a lot during 2010 particularly in relation to promotion and leading rides and we are now in a much stronger position as we look forward to 2011.

My thanks to all the volunteers for both their time and enthusiasm.
Alan White – West Leicestershire Liaison Ranger