Winter is sneaking up on us, and it won’t be long before we have ice on pavements and cycle paths. Obviously we won’t have ice on most roads, as roads actually are gritted by the respective councils.
In Plymouth, I want to set up a cycle gritter, which would basically mean a trailer towed behind a bike. This is needed, because unlike the fair city of York, Plymouth City Council doesn’t care enough about cyclists to do ANY gritting of cycle paths! (In fact, apparently Plymouth City Council wants £900 to drive a pavement sweeper up the almost one mile of cycle path between Coypool & Plymbridge! How stupidly shortsighted can they get!)
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| York’s cycle path gritter – pic copied from their Twitter feed |
I thought of converting my daughter’s tag-along, as she really is outgrowing it now, but to do so would be rather complicated.
A far better option would be to get hold of a kiddie-trailer – you know: the type towed behind a bicycle to carry small children. That should have a larger capacity for carrying grit salt and more space for a wheel-driven mechanism to spread the grit salt.
What I don’t have is a) a trailer, b) a workshop to do the conversion in and c) the funds to buy or rent a & b respectively.
So here’s a shout into the wind: if you happen to have an old trailer that you no longer use, and wish to donate it towards a good cause, I’d be much obliged! Also, donations of bags of grit salt will be gratefully received, as would any volunteers to help grit the various cycle paths in and around Plymouth, once the thing’s been built.
Of course, even better would be getting one of these, but I can’t see that happening soon!
Please spread the word?