THe return of the Swarm

Join us and members of Cycle Lewes, for a second cycle swarm through Lewes, 11am Saturday 1 August. This forms part of our campaign to press ESCC to use government funding for infrastructure changes that encourage low carbon, non polluting alternatives to car travel within the town.

We will meet in the ESCC (east side) car park, gathering for an 11am departure. On the first pass we will cycle down the High Street, Little East Street, past Waitrose and the Premier Inn (see green route on map. The first group to arrive at the farmer’s market (in the car park behind Premier Inn), will pause there to allow later groups to join them before walking their bikes on to Cliffe Bridge. (It is important that we don’t obstruct the market or other pedestrians in this process.)

We expect to be met on Cliffe Bridge by people representing Lewes Living Streets They will be on foot and carrying banners. They will then lead us in a socially distanced, single file, procession through Cliffe High Street, the intention being to demonstrate the solidarity between pedestrians and cyclists in our campaign.

We will then return to the ESCC car park via School Hill (see red route on map) as on the first swarm.

Once we have all regathered in the car park, we will start our second round of the town following our first route as far as the Premier Inn but then continue along Friar’s Walk and Landsdowne Place before riding up Station Street, along Fisher Street and then descend again to Phoenix Causeway (see blue dotted line on the map) to finally gather on Malling Playing Fields. (Again, when cycling along the shared walk and cycle route past Tesco’s it is important that we indicate our solidarity with pedestrians by giving them priority wherever we meet them.)

For anyone who doesn’t feel confident about tackling the Station Street route, the alternative is to join the shared walk and cycle path that runs from Cliffe High Street past Tesco’s onto Malling Playing Fields.

Our first Cycle Swarm, 11 July

The first outing of Lewes Rebel Riders was on 11 July. We organised the ride as part of the “no going back” campaign, seeking to put pressure on the County Council to use government funding to promote low-carbon alternatives to car travel.

Over 100 people joined us, including several children and young people, riding as a colourful, bee-themed “cycle swarm”. The swarm was led Rebel Riders and supported by members of CycleLewes, Lewes Living Streets and the Green Party. The ride was carefully designed to be open to all ages and levels of confidence to highlight the appetite for cycling and the need to make it safer for everyone.

We gathered outside County Hall (ESCC are the council that manages roads) before cycling slowly, in a socially distanced swarm through the town, along key roads (the High Street, Little East Street, Friars Walk, Phoenix Causeway and School Hill) that need to be modified to favour cycling and walking over cars and vans and other fossil fuel dependent travel.