Crowdfunder off to a cracking start!

After our first week we’re already 80% of the way to our first target – thank you!

Wow is all we can say – we’ve been blown away by the support we’ve received in so far – after just 1 week of crowdfunding we’re 82% of the way to our initial target. Thank you everyone who donated and shared our campaign so that we can print our Missing Links book and get it into the hands of people who make decisions about the options we have to get around Dumfries and the surrounding villages.

But we still need support to get to our target. The more money we raise the more copies can print. The more we print, the more people we can reach – it also gets cheaper the more copies we print, increasing the power of each donation.

Even the smallest donation also sends a positive message that there is support for change and improvements in the active travel infrastructure, not just for people that use bikes, but for anyone that wants to walk safely, use a wheelchair or mobility scooter or be able to cross at junctions pushing a buggy.

So please do keep on sharing and spreading the word, and donate if you can. Because Dumfries could be the perfect town for getting around by active travel – just ask Julia!

“Missing Links” – we need you!

Update: You did it! After only 10 days of crowdfunding you helped us get to our first goal of £1000. This means we’ll definitely be able to print copies to deliver to some key people in the Council, organisations like ScotRail and local NHS Scotland executives, and third sector groups. Now we’re on to our stretch goal. The more copies we print, the more decision makers we can reach. Any amount helps and just as important as the amount we raise is the number of people we can show backing the campaign for better active travel infrastructure. Please continue to give so we can get copies to community councils, head teachers and PTAs.

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A key pillar of our work is to lobby for better cycling connections in and around Dumfries. Over the part 10 years we have distilled all the route knowledge of our volunteers into a project called Missing Links. These are a collection of network improvements, some stretching as far as a safe route from Dumfries to Lockerbie via Lochmaben, others as small as a junction improvement at Dockhead. Combined, these gaps in the network would form a huge contribution to the cycling networks in Dumfries if they were closed.

Over the past few months we have been reviewing and editing all of these routes into one cohesive, professionally designed document which we now want to get printed and into the hands of the people who can help to close those gaps.

Missing Links: Dumfries High School

We’re raising money on Crowdfunder so that we can publish all our Missing Links in one book and present them to local decision makers. Please help if you can. Thank you.

This is the latest in our series of detailed ‘missing links’ posts as we explore the gaps in the active travel network in and around Dumfries. This is an extra post, in response to a planning application to rebuild the High School and the associated David Keswick Sports Centre.

The replacement of Dumfries High School comes up in front of the planning committee on Wednesday and the report makes interesting reading. Although we have absolutely no objection to the school and sports centre themselves, we put in a planning representation on the grounds of the need to improve cycling access to the school, and lack of adequate cycle parking. 

Missing Links – where are the gaps in our active travel network?

Back in 2012, we ran a series of posts on the missing links in Dumfries’s cycling network. Since then, although some of the gaps have been filled, it’s clear that there’s much to do. We know that the council are busy developing their new Active Travel Strategy so we thought we’d update our list – and see what others thought too.

Hopefully each of these listed ‘gaps’ will be pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll also be developing each one over the next few weeks with more detail, and some ideas about what could be done. We’ve also categorised them a bit

We’d also love to get a feel for what people think are the top priorities among all of these!