Among the varied stalls in the car park at County Hall on May 24th at the Green Picnic could be seen CycleWight members giving information to an eager crowd about cycling on the Island. Tim Thorne is seen here extolling the virtues of the Brompton.  Favourite topics raised were the cross town Newport route, routes between Ryde and Newport and a cycle friendly route from Carisbrooke to the West Wight. 

Here is a classic newspaper article from January 13th 1955 published in the Isle of Wight Times - the local weekly paper for Ryde.  It gives a flavour of the times with a precise account of the persecution by police of a cyclist with dodgy lights.    

 YOU ARE NOT HERE TO CRITICISE Objecting Father Told By Juvenile Court

When a 15 ½ year-old boy was given a conditional discharge for having no rear light and fined 10s for having no reflector in respect of a bicycle at East Wight Juvenile Court on Friday, his father objected to the decision of the court and was told by Lt-Col. F.C.R. Britten “You are not here to criticise the court”.  

His son, the father had said earlier had gone into the Royal Air Force since the offence and had a good chance of going to Cranwell.  The father was assured by the bench that the case would not do anything to prejudice his son’s career in the Air Force.  

P.c. R Haward said that at 5.5 p.m. on December 2 he was engaged in a cycle lamp check at Sandown when the boy passed on a bicycle which had no rear light.  Stopping the boy and examining his machine witness found there was a rear light fitted but there was no glass and the bulb was painted over in red. The bulb had apparently fused.  P.c. Haward said the machine did not have a reflector either.  

The boy told P.c. Haward he was sorry and when asked for an explanation about the rear light he said he thought it was on when he left Sandown. The wiring along the frame of the cycle was short and that was the reason that the light had failed.

The chairman told the boy’s father that where the rear lamp was concerned it was an accident that might have happened to anybody and therefore his son would be given an absolute discharge.  There was however no excuse for there being no reflector on the cycle and a fine of 10s. would be imposed.  

Having heard the decision of the court the father said “I do not like the way this case has been conducted.” He began to protest and the chairman told him “You are not here to criticise the court.”

A team of cycleway supporters have been busy clearing back many years of bramble growth at the sides of the Newport to Cowes cycleway,  Led by Tigg, our Sustrans ranger, the Sunday morning sessions during the past few months have opened up the track and tidied up long stretches to the approval of cyclists and walkers.

Work in progress at the Cowes end of the cycleway

We await the removal of the cutback vegetation as promised by IWC contractors. 

Meanwhile the shared path along Fairlee Road was quartered by IWC contractors to reveal hidden tarmac surface under years of encroaching vegetation.

An improvement in the crossing point for cyclists at the west end of the Racecourse on Fairlee Road has also been completed, in conjunction with speed limit reductions.

In December a TV vote successfully secured Sustrans £50m in lottery money to develop cycling projects throughout the country. The nearest scheme to the Island is in Southampton where it will enable work to go ahead on the boardwalk linking Northam and Horseshoe Bridges for the benefit of walkers and cyclists. This was described by Dale Bostock, Southampton's cycling officer  at our AGM in November.

A thousand apologies for all the technical problems we have suffered over the past few months. We trust that our server has eliminated all the gremlins and we will be able to provide you again with an up to date information service for cycling on the Isle of Wight.

Please contact us if there are problems that arise.

Updates coming shortly. 

Click here for CycleWight News from 2003

Click here for CycleWight News from 2002

Click here for Cycle Projects Log