Merseyside's
Biggest Bike Ride To Return Next Summer For Its 21st Year!
AWARD winning Pennine
Events have announced that Merseyside's biggest bike ride will take
place on 22 June 2014, in the run up to the Tour de France visiting
England. The event will see Liverpool City Centre play host to
thousands of cyclists setting off on their cycle challenge following
in the tyre tracks of the likes of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris
Boardman and Victoria Pendleton. With the 2013 event attracting over
3400 riders, this year the organisers are hoping for even more
participants in the 21st running of the event!
It was also confirmed this week that the charity of
the 2014 event will be Claire House Children's Hospice
House.
Riders choose from 7 different route options, all of which include a
unique traffic free section underground through the Birkenhead
Tunnel. These options include a 6 mile traffic free family ride, a
25mile Wirral Circular, the classic 50 mile Liverpool to Chester to
Liverpool and the 100 mile Cheshire Challenge.
The Liverpool Chester Bike Ride will once again be
raising money for the Claire House Children's Hospice, hoping to top
the whopping £22,000 raised last time. The organisers and the highly
respected hospice therefore call on more people to take part and
support them.
"We have brought forward the event from its usual July date to avoid
clashing with the Tour de France being in Yorkshire. Hopefully
people will be stimulated by the build-up to the world's most famous
cycling event and be getting out on their bikes in the
Liverpool-Chester-Liverpool Bike ride. This time the
Liverpool-Chester-Liverpool Bike Ride will have a new, lower price
for children entering the event, with event fees starting at £6 and
ranging up to £23 depending on age and route for people entering
before the end of the year. So what better way to warm up for the
Tour de France than to take part in your own cycling challenge!"
said Mark Sandamas, Director of Pennine Events.
For more information please visit:-
liverpoolchesterliverpool.com
or call them on:- 01772 447979.
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Bill must be
fair to the victims of HS2 compulsory purchase, says CLA
"THE High Speed Rail
Preparation Bill to be debated in parliament on Thursday, 31 October
2013, must be fair to those facing compulsory purchase of their
properties." the
Country Land and Business Association (CLA)
told the press on Wednesday, 30 October 2013.
CLA President Harry Cotterell said:- "HS2 has become a
political football with yards of controversial media coverage. Yet
all the while, farmers, other land managers and rural businesses
along the proposed route are really suffering. With the huge level
of uncertainty, they simply can't invest in their businesses. The
best the victims of compulsory purchase along the route can expect
is derisory compensation, often paid late, on which they will be
taxed. We've been promised fairness by the Government and want to
see a proper property bond scheme, a duty of care by the acquirer
and guarantees of mitigation measures put in place by this Bill."
Former Government Minister Caroline Spelman, MP for Meriden which is
on the proposed HS2 route, said:- "As the paving Bill reaches
its final stages in the Commons, with the help of the CLA I have
tabled amendments with the aim of securing compensation which is
fair and generous, as the Government has promised it should be, for
those living along the route of HS2. These include the property bond
to underpin sales, help for businesses and landowners, mitigations
which offset the loss of green space and measures to ensure
[compensation] payment is prompt and just."
CLA Chief Surveyor Andrew Shirley said:- "If HS2 is to be the
modern face of public transport, it should be matched by a 21st
century compulsory purchase system, not one that harks back to the
Victorian era and is in a terrible state of disrepair. Owners of
rural property and businesses close to the proposed HS2 route are
already suffering blight, and the Government needs to act quickly to
resolve the issues that affect them. This can only be done with an
effective property bond scheme which provides property and business
owners with assurances they will receive the promised fair
compensation so their businesses can continue to invest with
certainty."
Transport reviews set to start!
REVIEWS are set to start
for 800 people in Liverpool who get Council transport to social care
services. At the moment, social care assessments assume that
everybody who travels to support services, such as a day centre,
needs transport to get there. This is regardless of whether or not
they are able to use public transport or have access to a mobility
vehicle.
Under the new proposals, transport will only be provided where an
individual is deemed eligible following an assessment, and after
public transport, concessionary passes, motability vehicle and
Disability Living Allowance mobility component (DLA) have been
considered and deemed inappropriate. Where it is identified that
direct transport is the only safe method, it will continue to be
provided, subject to an annual review.
It will bring the City Council into line with many other
neighbouring and comparable local authorities who have done, or are
doing, the same thing. Following consultation, an appeals process
has been introduced to the policy to make sure people who receive
the DLA mobility component do not have the whole allowance used up
by travelling to day centres which could impact on other aspects of
their social life.
Deputy Mayor and Cabinet member for adult social care, Councillor
Roz Gladden, said:- "This is about making sure that we
consider everyone's individual circumstances rather than simply
imposing a universal service on them. We have a situation at the
moment where we simply treat everyone the same. In some cases we are
providing transport for them to get to social care services when for
the rest of the week they are using mobility vehicles or public
transport. We know that service users can benefit massively by
making their own way to and from services as it gives them a huge
sense of independence. We fully appreciate that any suggestion of a
change to the current system will inevitably cause some concern
among some services users and their carers, but they should rest
assured that we will not be withdrawing the service unless they are
able to use an alternative form of transport. This is about making
sure that we target resources at those people who actually need it."
All of the existing 800 services users will be reviewed over the
next 4 months, but no transport service will be removed without a
social worker fully reviewing their individual circumstances. Full support and training will be
given to people where necessary. Letters have been issued to the
people affected to inform them that the reviews are set to start in
November (2013). |