BBC Leeds interviews

Before and after the Bradford ride to The Wave BBC Leeds interviewed us. Both of these interviews were available using the BBC's Listen again feature for a week after broadcast, but now that those shows have expired, you can hear both interviews below...

Climate Chains BBC Leeds interview 1 Monday 30th November 2009

Climate Chains BBC Leeds interview 2 Monday 7th December 2009

The Wheels thank you!

Thank you to everyone who played a part in making the rides from Leeds / Bradford and Manchester a great success. Whether you rode with us, baked a cake or brewed a coffee, provided a bed, spread the word, gave us a cheer, whatever you did we are very appreciative of your help. All the riders, from age 13 to 80, who set out by bike for London made it and had a great time at The Wave, as I'm sure all those of you who arrived by train and bus from around the country did.

The rides are over but the race for action on climate change isn't won. Join Oxfam activists and take action daily during the Copenhagen Summit to ensure our politicians don’t fudge it.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195417338563&ref=ts

Bradford route - Day 5 - Cambridge to Walthamstow

We started today with yet more cake (we're not complaining!) this time provided by local members of WDM outside the Corpus Clock (a giant time-eating insect, outside Corpus Christie).

Mary was interviewed by 2 radio stations, and then we set off out of Cambridge. Fabiola, who had put us up at a church for the night, rode with us today, and we had gorgeous weather. We stopped in Ware, and ate some legendary award winning chips, which we thought were good, but not particularly outstanding. We then took the tow path along the River Lea, which was a dramatically different experience to what followed - the hellish traffic of London town. We met up with some people from a community food project at Hawkwood on the edge of Epping Forest, and some of them led us into Walthamstow.

The day didn't pass without its mishaps. There were several punctures, Heather damaged her handlebars riding into a bollard and Sam took a minor tumble in the traffic, having made the schoolboy error of not quite separating foot from pedal. But apart from these minor incidents, it was a good day, rounded off by lush curry and chocolate cake at the Hornbeam Centre. And what a great feeling of achievement to all have made it to The Hornbeam Centre, which 4 days ago was >200 miles away!

Manchester Airport to Heathrow

Having left Manchester Airport on Tuesday morning we will reach Heathrow tomorrow afternoon. And it's official cycling between airports is much more fun than flying! We've been blessed with fine cylcing weather and meet lots of great people along the route. Today we had a lovely ride through Cotswold countryside on the leg between Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford. And 65 miles a day now seems well within our reach. Perhaps following The Wave on Saturday we'll just keep going until we reach Copenhagen. We should make it there before the UN Summit comes to a close.

Hope to see you all out on the streets on Saturday for the Climate Emergency bike ride - from Lincoln's Inn Fields at 10 am and The Wave from 12 pm.

Thanks to Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign for the photo below from Manchester Airport.

Bradford route - Day 4 - Peterborough to Cambridge

#TheWave

Warboys Primary School's new bike and scooter shelter

Last night we had some lovely beer, perhaps a little too much, at a micro-brewery after our lovely meal. We felt perky this morning though. That is until we had a puncture, and a broken valve, and it was raining. So our journey through the fens to Warboys was a little miserable, and we arrived there a little late. Apologies if we seemed to make a beeline for the cake when we got there, but we were more than a little cold and wet and in need of some nourishment! The cakes were delightful - five different kinds of homemade cake, of which two were vegan!

It turns out Warboys is an interesting place, and quite a key location in terms of climate change in the UK. Warboys village itself is c30m above sea level, yet much of the Parish is below sea level. So the people there are very much in the front line in terms of the impact of climate change in the UK. We learnt a lot speaking to Vicky Morgan of Warboys Greener Futures, and also staff and children at the local primary school. The school's new bike and scooter shelters (pictured) were built after they won sustainability grants from the County Council and the Red Tile Windfarm Trust.

The area of the Parish that is below sea level is 'true' black fenland, down to 2m or more below sea level. What makes this even more significant is the presence of a landfil site, which itself is below sea level. It used to be a regular waste facility but was changed into a toxic waste facility. This was outside of the area below sea level when developed, but of course if sea levels rise this waste site, and the village, will become increasingly vulnerable.

What was also interesting was that despite the village's situation and long term vulnerability, and the active local participation of Warboys Greener Futures, many of the locals feel the same as they do anywhere else we've been. Apparently the general feeling of local people is that:

• they don't think climate change is likely to affect them much
• they're not really sure what they could do to help anyway
• they're glad that someone else is actually doing something

So, after a dreadful morning, we were really pleased to have visited Warboys and we wish them all the berst of luck with the Greener Futures project. Our luck had turned by the time we departed, and we were actually in Cambridge for 3:30pm.

By contrast, the Manchester riders seem to have had a nice day's weather cycling through the Cotswolds, and as yet have had no punctures. I hope I've not jinxed them by saying that, and I'm looking forward to being able to report tomorrow on the Bradford and Manchester riders all meeting up in Walthamstow.

Bradford route - Day 3 - Nottingham to Peterborough

Veggies looked after us well in Nottingham last night, and we learnt that 90% of rainforest clearing is to grow soya for animal feed. After stopping for a live phone interview on BCB Radio, we were nearly stampeded by cows! Then a hill and a demolished bridge snuck up on us, and by this point we'd had 2 punctures and were behind schedule! As we passed our half way point, we enjoyed some hot pasties by a christmas tree in Stamford, before getting a wee bit lost & suffering 2 more punctures. We were still more or less cheerful though, and met lots of friendly locals in Linconshire.

We got to Peterborough at 6pm, which wasn't too bad considering the delays we'd had. Kerry at the church cooked an amazing meal, which was followed by Green Drinks. Green Drinks is something they do here in Peterborough once a month, and on this occasion they tied it in with our visit.

We are once again touched by all the comments we've had on Twitter today.

Manchester route - Day 2 - Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station to E.ON UK HQ, Coventry

Eion speaking with school children in Ibstock about Climate Change

We left Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station at 07.30 this morning. Then, headed off on our journey towards E.ON in Coventry. A big thanks to everyone who came out to meet us Ibstock. The school children were great. We were filmed for Belgian and Swiss TV. Lets hope the message gets across in translation! This evening we were on BBC BBC Warwickshire at 7pm. So, all in all a successful day!

Eion being interviewed for TV

Bradford route - Day 2 - Sheffield to Nottingham

Just about to depart from Sheffield train station

Today was very cold, but we had a lovely visit to Halfway Juniors school this morning. We found time for a swift half in The Anchor, Bolsover. There's a nice castle there, but we didn't see Dennis Skinner. We then encountered two climate change deniers half way up a hill. Their opinion was that 7 seams of coal proves climate change is natural. We suspect them of being ex-members of the union of democratic miners so are disregarding their theories at the current time.

Halfway Juniors school

We got lost somewhere near Mansfield and met up at the Badger Box where some members of the party were upset at being denied beer in the push on to Nottingham. On the outskirts we met a local cyclist who kindly took us right to the door of the Sumac Centre which has lots of books, good food, a bar, a guitar, free Internet and is the home of Veggies catering. Some members of the group are doing yoga on the beer soaked carpet . . . Tea has been drunk and everyone is OK.

Bradford route - Day 1 - Bradford to Sheffield

Jack's back (most of us have vests like this)

Our send off this morning in Bradford was well attended. Some of us were interviewed by BBC Leeds, BCB Radio of Bradford, and Alice, a student from Leeds Uni. The Lord Mayor was also there, to interview Mary, celebrating her 80th birthday.

The entourage arrived in Sheffield after a fairly event free journey that took approximately 7 hours. The weather was fine, with a slight tail wind, and there was only 1 puncture today. We met up with one of tomorrow's riders, Ruth on the edge of Sheffield and then enjoyed the company of our hosts at the Lescar Pub. The local Friends Of The Earth people who are putting us up are most hospitable, and the chocolate chip cookies are highly tasty! We're feeling surprisingly perky and looking forward to tomorrow's ride to Nottingham.

Mary, being interviewed live by Daragh Corcoran of BBC Leeds

Thanks a million to everyone who has been Tweeting messages of support @climatechains and re-Tweeting our updates; we're really touched! You can follow our updates there at twitter.com/climatechains

Some more photos from the Bradford send off can be seen on Albert's Flickr

Bradford latest summary

This blog entry contains the salient points for the Bradford-London route. This is not a static blog entry, and this info will change to reflect the current state of play as I get more confirmed details. I'm aware that there are gaps in the info below, so please could people involved help me complete the details, particularly confirmation of who's riding when in the table that follows.

Underneath the table is a list of the key facts for each leg of the journey, for which I also ask that those involved send me info for inclusion where applicable.

The details on this blog entry are partially for our own benefit, but also partly for the benefit of people not riding with us, but helping us in each city. Therefore, it's important that we keep this blog entry as current as possible so people have an idea of how many people are arriving and what is already planned.

Finally, at the bottom of this blog entry is a link to the Leeds COP Network's Bike-based campaigning page, which will help people get more of an idea of the practicalities involved.

Info below last update by Albert on 29/11/09

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WHO IS RIDING, AND WHEN

* riding this day

# wants accommodation providing this night

(#) might want accommodation this night

Name	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Heather Blakey	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Sam Lawrence	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Jack Blakey	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Bill Phelps	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Mary Keynes	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Geoff Gilbert	*#	*#	*#	*	*#	*
John Bibby	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Ellie Parker	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Protag	*#	*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Albert Freeman	*
Keith Thompson	*
David Dodwell	*
Sam Fleming		*
Claire Welling		*#	*#	*#	*#	*
Ruth Chiat		*#	*#	*#	*#	*
David Pattinson			#	*#	*#	*
Peter Devine					*	*
James Haigh					*#	*
Yee Wye Tay					*#	*
Andy Tennent					*#	*
Eion					#	*

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KEY FACTS FOR EACH LEG

Monday: Bradford to Sheffield

Approx miles: 40

Meeting time/place: Centenary Square at 08:30
Route: Bradford --> A638 and/or Spen Valley cycle route (John's route) to Cleckheaton --> Heckmondwike --> B6117 to Thornhill --> Netherton --> Midgley --> A637 to West Bretton --> Low Barugh --> Barnsley --> A61 to Worsbrough --> Birdwell --> A6135 to Chapeltown --> Ecclesfield --> Sheffield

Number of riders: 12

Number needing accommodation: 9

Team member dealing with accommodation etc: Albert

Details of accommodation: (6 in one house, 2 in another, and 1 in a third) in S10/S11.

Evening plans: Meeting up with some of our hosts and FoE to eat at Lescar Pub, Sharrow Vale Road, at 6pm

Morning plans: Possibility of press to see us off.

Tuesday: Sheffield to Nottingham

Approx miles: 40

Route planner: Bill

Route: Go to railway station to meet Claire if timings permit --> A616/A6135 --> Renishaw --> B6419 --> Mastin Moor --> Shuttlewood --> Bolsover --> B6417 --> Stony Houghton --> New Houghton --> Pleasley --> unmarked road to --> Baxterhill --> A6075 --> B6021 --> Sutton Parkway railway station --> Kirkby in Ashfield --> A611 --> Hucknall --> Bulwell --> Sherwood Rise --> Sumac Centre

Number of riders: 12

Number needing accommodation: 12

Team member dealing with accommodation etc:

Details of accommodation: Sumac centre 245 Gladstone Street. Meal and floor space at Sumac plus floor space, showers, drying with Taz and good samaritans in vicinity.(Forest Fields) plus with Taz, about 10 mins ride from Sumac on the west of the City near the Queens Medical Centre (main hospital on Derby Road) and have floor space for about 5 people in warm flat, with hot shower, secure bike parking (housing asscociation) and communal coin-operated laundry with dryers.

Any events planned: event at Sumac Centre, and possible send off in morning too

Wednesday: Nottingham to Peterborough

Approx miles:55

Route planner: Geoff

Route: city centre --> A6011 (A52) towards Grantham for few yards --> By cricket ground minor road E --> Adbolton --> almost to Holme Pierrepoint --> R (ESE) --> Cropwell Bishop --> Langar --> Harby --> Waltham on the Wolds (AT THIS POINT MELTON MOWBRAY RAILWAY STATION IS ABOUT 5 MILES SW) --> Roughly SE --> Wymondham --> Thistleton --> Clipsham --> Pickworth --> Great Casterton --> Stamford --> E out of Stamford along the B1443 to Barnack --> R along minor road through Ufford --> Marholm --> Peterborough
Number of riders: 11

Number needing accommodation: 12

Team member dealing with accommodation etc: Bill

Details of accommodation: A whole Church (hall, lounge, 3 sets of toilets and cycle storage plus beds overnight. Westgate Church, 70 Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 1RG

Any events planned: A food event is planned, with others invited too. There is also a reception in the brewery next door.

Thursday: Peterborough to Cambridge

Approx miles: 40

Route planner: David

Route: B1091 --> Farcet --> B1095 --> Pondersbridge --> B1040 --> Ramsey St Mary's --> Ramsey --> B1040 --> Warboys (stop at school for tea and cakes approx. 11:00) --> B1040 --> Pidley --> B1050 --> Somersham --> Earith --> A1123 --> B1050 --> Willingham. Then one of two options:

1) Turn SE on a back road through Rampton to Cottenham, then take the B1049 south through Histon and into Cambridge, OR

2) Join the not-yet-in-use guided bus route which runs along the old railway about a mile south of Willingham on the B1050 into Histon and then Cambridge.

Number of riders: 12

Number needing accommodation: 10 but David Pattinson might stay with his son here, or with the whole group if we are all together in one place

Team member dealing with accommodation etc: Ellie

Details of accommodation: Castle Street Methodist Church

Any events planned: send-off in morning from time-eating insect in Cambridge

Friday: Cambridge to Walthamstow

Approx miles: 50-52

Route planner: Sam

Route: south on Queens road --> Trumpington road --> Trumpington --> across the M11 briefly --> A10 --> B1368 London Road --> Puckeridge --> A10 --> Right
at crossroads, to Colliers End --> Wadesmill B158 --> Ware --> A1170 --> Broxbourne --> B194 --> Waltham Abbey --> A112 --> the Hornbeam
Number of riders: 16

Number needing accommodation: 16

Team member dealing with accommodation etc: Heather

Details of accommodation: Hornbeam Environment Centre - floor space basically. There are a few beds offered in houses, but it would be good to know soon if we want to take these up, as they were offered some time ago.

Any events planned: none for Friday night, rest night ahead of The Wave

Saturday: Walthamstow to Central London

Approx miles: 10

Number of riders: 18+
Accomodation: no large scale plans have been made for accomodation after The Wave. Some are coming back by train that night, some coming back the next day, with accomodation being arranged individually, or collectively in smaller groups.
Any events planned: The Wave!

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BIKE-BASED CAMPAIGNING GUIDANCE

As mentioned above here is the link to the Leeds COP Network's Bike-based campaigning page: http://www.leedscopnet.info/about-resources/bike-based-campaigning/

Cycling for Action on Climate Change

With just 4 weeks to go until The Wheels to The Wave rides Climate Chains in both Bradford and Manchester are hard at work getting everything ready for the off.

The purpose of the Climate Chains rides is to raise awareness of the potentially dire consequences of climate change, encourage others to take action ahead of the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen and join The Wave march http://the-wave.org.uk/ to ensure a real deal is struck to stop climate chaos. We welcome your help. There are many ways in wish you can lend your support: join us for a section of the ride, offer a cyclist a bed for the night, host a social gathering at which we’ll participate, join our facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139922536366 and invite your friends to do so too.

The ride from Bradford will travel to Sheffield (Mon, 31st Nov.); Nottingham (Tues, 1st Dec.); Peterborough (Wed, 2nd Dec.); Cambridge (Thurs, 3rd Dec.) and Walthamstow (Fri, 4th Dec.). And the ride from Manchester Airport will travel to Castle Donington (Tues, 1st Dec.); Stratford-upon-Avon (Wed, 3rd Dec.); Oxford (Thurs, 4th Dec.) and Walthamstow (Fri, 4th Dec.).

There is a separate cycle ride to The Wave being organised from Bristol and Swindon. The Bristol Blue Wave http://www.bristolbluewave.org.uk/ will leave from The Cathedral Park, Bristol on Wed, 3rd December for the 150 mile ride to The Wave.

If you are already in London there are 3 ways of getting on your bike and getting involved.

On Friday, 4th December: Join us as the ride travels to Heathrow and celebrate with us as we reach our finish in Westminster. You can join the long-distance cyclists in Slough for the final 21 miles of the ride from Manchester Airport. Email info@thewavevelo.org.uk for joining instructions.

On Saturday, 5th December: Join us and hundreds of other cyclists for the Climate Emergency bike ride http://www.campaigncc.org/bikeride2009. It begins in Lincoln's Inn Field at 10 am and finishes at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park at 12 pm, from where it will lead into The Wave march. This ride is approximately 6 miles long and will stop at the BP and E.ON offices on-route.

On Sunday, 6th December: Join Ride Planet Earth, who will be having an International day of cycle action against climate change with rides taking place concurrently around the World. The London ride http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=92551293898 will begin from Angel Tube Station at 11.45 am.

If our Wheels to The Wave routes aren’t passing near where you live and you are unable to get to London by coach or train http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/the-wave#transport to join The Wave march on Saturday, 5th December then why not get a few friends together and stage your own Ride Planet Earth http://rideplanetearth.org/ cycle event on Sunday, 6th December.

The Wave and Quit Dirty Coal

James Hansen, one of the world’s foremost climate experts has warned that “coal is the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on the planet”. (1) The organisers of The Wave, the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition have a policy on dirty coal (2) which includes a call on Government to “withhold permission to build new coal fired power stations that cannot capture their carbon emissions, such as Kingsnorth”. So tonight’s news, that power company E.ON have shelved their plans to build a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth (3) is a small victory in the campaign against dirty coal.

Per capita the UK produces more CO2 emissions from fossil fuels than any other nation.(1) During the winter the UK produces around 55,000 MW of electricity (4) to satisfy peak demand, of which half (28,000 MW) is provided by the UK’s 18 coal fired power stations. (5) E.ON operate 3 of the 18, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Ironbridge and the existing Kingsnorth power station, between them producing 5,000 MW (9 percent of UK electricity) from dirty coal. (5)

And that’s why Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, E.ON UK Headquarters and the 2,000 MW coal fired power station at Didoct A, Oxfordshire remain on our cycle tour of climate crime scenes from Manchester Airport to London for The Wave.

(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/15/james-hansen-power-plants-coal

(2) http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/policy/quit-dirty-coal
(3) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/07/eon-cancels-kingsnorth-power-station
(4) http://www.e-day.org.uk/national.aspx
(5) http://www.ukqaa.org.uk/PowerStation.html

London to Copenhagen Bike Ride 2009

Things are going well with our preparations for our ride(s) to London. Some of us met in Bradford last night to discuss a few practicalities. Also, with the ride from Manchester taking shape, and with people in different parts of the country starting to get in touch, it looks like we could have quite a healthy number of spokes on our Wheels To The Wave.

I'd also like to mention Christian Aid’s London to Copenhagen Bike Ride, which starts after The Wave, from 9th-16th December. This will see an army of cyclists arrive in Copenhagen in time for the UN Summit. There will also be an opportunity to hand over mass numbers of pledges which people in the UK have signed to Gordon Brown to ask him to commit to a fair and just deal for developing countries from the talks.

Second Wheels to The Wave Route Planned

We are planning a second cycle route which will take us from Manchester Airport to The Wave demonstration on Saturday 5th December. Departing from Manchester Airport on Tuesday 1st December we will travel to London via some of the UK's biggest climate crime scenes to: (a) call for an end to domestic air travel and (b) highlight the need to end our reliance on dirty coal power.

The Climate Crime Scenes

DAY ONE - Tuesday 1st December
Manchester Airport & East Midlands Airport, Derby

Overnight in Castle Donington

DAY TWO - Wednesday 2nd December
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, Nottinghamshire & E.ON UK Headquarters, Coventry

Overnight in Stratford-upon-Avon

DAY THREE - Thursday 3rd December
Didcot A Power Station, Oxfordshire

Overnight in Oxford

DAY FOUR - Friday 4th December
Heathrow Airport

Overnight in London

DAY FIVE - Saturday 5th December

Climate Emergency bike ride & The Wave

As for the Bradford to London route, people are welcome to join us for all or part of our journey. If you can't commit to a long distance ride why not join us for a shorter cycle. At the start for the intial few miles as we set off from Manchester Airport, or for the final leg of the journey from Heathrow into London.

If you'd like to know more about the Wheels to The Wave ride from Manchester Airport please Email info@thewavevelo.org.uk

The basic idea

The Inspiration:

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition have organised a demonstration in London to take place on Saturday 5 December 2009. This event will be known as The Wave.

Several of us felt moved by the excellent recent film The Age Of Stupid. We felt we must DO something.

Our idea is to cycle to London in the week leading up to the march. Our starting point is Bradford and we thought we could stop for a night at conveniently located towns along the way, trying to raise awareness of some of the issues as we do so.

The Route:

We decided on the following route:
30th November: Bradford to Sheffield
1st December: Sheffield to Nottingham
2nd December: Nottingham to Peterborough
3rd December: Peterborough to Cambridge
4th December: Cambridge to Walthamstow
We will aim to stay on the south side of Cambridge as Cambridge to Walthamstow is the longest leg.

If people want to cycle one day with us as we go through their part of the country - or indeed join us for the rest of the journey to London - then great. Local groups could also help with local publicity.

The Preparation:

We have planned several collective bike rides for us to judge our own level of fitness, and these are really intended to make sure that each of us can actually manage the full journey. This seems a timely point to put in a health warning – obviously this is an entirely self-organising group, and we are all individually responsible for making sure we are ready to do a week’s cycling in December – so it’s also important to make sure that’s clear to anyone else who'se interested in doing this.

Anyway, collective bike rides (all from Bradford):
• 6th September, 20 miles
• 27th September, 35 miles
• 18th October, 50 miles
• 14th & 15th November – 2 day ride – 50 miles each day, staying over at a bunk-barn, maybe at Ribblehead?
• The big one 30th November – 5th December to London of course!