Ride Report – Hoo Peninsula

The Hoo peninsula is a wild and desolate place, especially on a cold winter’s day. However, with Gravesend only 17 minutes from Stratford international station it is a very accessible location to explore on two wheels.

The eight of us left Gravesend and cycled anticlockwise around the peninsular. At Lower Higham we picked up the national cycle network route across the agricultural landscape, with lots of polytunnels and orchards. Along the Medway coast we went through Hoo St Werbergh, the largest settlement on the peninsular. We passed the infamous Kingsnorth dual oil and coal fired power station on our right as we rode over the central ridge and could see the confluence of both rivers in the distance, beyond Grain. At Allhallows, the most easterly point on route, we stopped at the mobile home park for a photo opportunity with the North sea and bright lights of Southend in the distance.

With the wind behind us we sped along to St Mary’s Hoo where we had a pub lunch. Refreshed we whizzed through High Halstow and as we approached Cooling, house names like Havisham and Fezziwig indicated the Dickens connection. St James church with its reference to “Great Expectations”, was worth a brief stop, passing Cooling castle we then picked up the NCN track next to the railway and the Gravesend to Rochester canal, which brought us back to Gravesend and the short train ride home

See more photos (thanks to Robin Stephenson): https://flic.kr/s/aHskR4Bs5m

Read some background info https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/hoopeninsula-landscape/hoo-peninsula-landscape.pdf/

Readout from 30 January Meeting

It was standing room only at our January meeting and a wide variety of interesting issues were considered.  Please therefore forgive the long post.  If you would like further details on any of these matters please get in touch.

  • We decided to hold our annual meeting on 26 April 2017, venue to be confirmed.  There will be some catering.  All ideas for speakers or events gratefully received.
  • We decided to progress the idea of taking a monthly stall at Woodgrange Market on the second Saturday of the month (except winter) from 10 am to 2 pm,   to offer minor bike repairs (with a strong teaching element) to promote cycling; to promote LCC and Newham Cyclists; and to have a  jumble of unused bike equipment.  We agreed to apply for a grant for tools and other essential equipment and to use some of our existing funds for this purpose, initially £100 to establish a stock of spares.
  • The transfer to a new website is proceeding .  The new site (which is now in use) is being degliched and ought to offer new possibilities to communicate, such as e-mail alerts.
  • Two charities have offered us places on the summer Ride 100 – should anyone want to take this up please get in touch.
  • We decided to invite  the local charity Aspire, Ambition, Achieve to our next meeting to talk more of their proposed Saturday club for children based in Hermit Rd Park.
  • Steve outlined the ride programme.  He is intending to reschedule the Greenstead Ride that was rained off.  The next rides are a country ride around the Hoo Pensinsula on 12 February and a short family West Ham Heritage Ride in conjunction with the Bike from Boleyn Campaign on 4 March.
  • There is enormous activity on infrastructure at the moment, illustrated by number of outstanding consultations at the time of the meeting.Thanks to Olawale’s efforts we have been more active than ever in promoting good infrastructure.The outcome of the regular update meeting with Newham Council’s Sustainable Transport Officer before Christmas is available in chart form.  Get in touch if you would like to see it or discuss any particular infrastructure development (photos help).

    If there are particular infrastructure concerns they can be raised with us.

    The meeting appreciated the need to try to influence plans as they were being formed; the need to photograph and report (via ourselves) facilities not in good order, such as gates left open.  Generally when these have been raised with the Council there is a positive response.

    Issues which aroused particularly strong discussion were the Greenway (for which we will now seek a ride with Council officials) and events in the QE Olympic Park (which is also being looked at by LCC centrally).  We also  decided to assist those who had been waiting longer than they should for on-street secure cycle parking agreed by the Council.

  • Finally we discussed two disturbing local Labour Party developments:

First, West Ham Ward passed a motion seeking primary legislation to make it mandatory for cyclists to use cycle lanes.  It was pointed out that this was a retrograde battle fought and lost some years ago in the redraft of the Highway Code.  Also it was inappropriate in a borough where the cycle lanes can be very substandard (CS2 Warton Rd, Romford Rd) and the Council has even insisted on the  removal of a  protective lanes at a patently dangerous slip road (Tramway Ave) in order to accommodate driver misbehaviour.  We have sought advice from LCC and agreed to engage with this issue on social media and in the forthcoming borough insert to the LCC magazine.

Second, a motion was put at the Labour Group for the Council to reverse its position of support for the Silvertown Tunnel and to call for the project to be cancelled.  although this was in line with recently expressed  deep concerns about the project by the Council this motion was wrecked by an amendment proposed by a Cabinet Member.  The meeting noted this development with deep disappointment given the significant environmental degradation that this project will cause.

Arnold