News

January 2010

Happy New Year from the Trailnet team. We’re looking forward to some more great activities in 2010. One of the highlights will be our new geocaching project due to be launched at Thorndon on 19th February. Leading the project will be our new team members, programme manager Michelle Hopkins and geocaching trainer Alan Farrow.

On the health ride front we are looking to expand our existing rides and to establish a number of new sessions at some other sites across the region. We’re also really excited that some of our current health riders have signed up to attempt their first triathlon in June. It’s great to see people who’ve only recently started cycling have now got the confidence to take on such a challenge and we’re looking forward to helping them achieve this goal by adding some swim and run sessions to our itinerary.

December 2009

A quiet month to end a hectic year but we did manage to fit in a final social ride on Sunday 6th December. We tried a different format this time with the ride starting and finishing at the Viper, meaning that everyone could relax over the usual great buffet, knowing that all the hard work was over. The positive response suggests that we’ll be doing more of these in 2010!

November 2009

More good news on the funding front with a discretionary grant from Brentwood Council to assist with the purchase of some adult tricycles. These bikes will allow people with balance problems to enjoy riding in Thorndon Country Park and can also help with our lessons for beginning riders.

October 2009

The highlight this month was the news that Trailnet have been successful in securing £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to establish geocaching (www.geocaching.com) in Essex country parks.

This is a two-year joint project between Trailnet and Essex County Council's Parks Department and involves the use of handheld GPS units to locate 'caches' hidden close to heritage sites within the parks. These caches are typically boxes that contain a means of recording the find and, in conjunction with web-based materials, provide information about the historical and cultural heritage of the site.

We are currently looking to recruit a programme manager and are aiming for a project launch in February 2010. Watch this space for updates.

September 2009

September got off to a great start with Trailnet being presented with the award for Most Innovative Scheme at the Active Brentwood Sports Awards. Alison and her partner, Mike attended the presentation ceremony at the Brentwood Centre on 4th September and received the plaque on our behalf.

On the 7th and 8th of September we were asked by East of England Tourism to support a visit by a group of travel journalists wanting to ride one of the region's newly-mapped cycle routes. Over the two days we were able to highlight some of the historic and cultural sites whilst proving that Essex isn't as flat as they'd imagined.

Sunday 21st September saw Trailnet hosting the fourth annual Havoc on the Hill Bike Festival at Langdon Hills, Corringham. The afternoon's MTB racing comprised round 4 of the inaugural Mud, Sweat & Gears MTB Series and almost 300 riders of all ages competed across the 20-minute, 40-minute, 1-hour and 2-hour events. For more information about the series, including results and final series standings see www.mudsweatgears.co.uk

August 2009

With the school holidays in full swing August was a quiet month on most fronts although we did organise another evening social ride on Friday 14th, with almost 30 riders joining us for a 12 mile spin to the Thatcher's Arms for food and drink followed by a short trip back through the darkening woods. As usual, a great time was had by all and we're planning a couple of Sunday afternoon outings before year end.

The big news this month is that Trailnet are now a Community Interest Company. This is a specific type of not-for-profit company structure that allows us to undertake a range of commercial activities, providing that any income generated is for the benefit of the community. This change of status will make no difference as to how we operate but will allow us to access additional funding sources.

On Friday 24th July, Trailnet were invited by Visteon to attend the launch of their Cycle2Work initiative. In addition to providing a free bike check and basic service, we presented a series of short talks on the benefits of cycling and overall the response to the event was overwhelmingly positive.

The weekend of 18/19th July saw the second annual Danbury Bike Festival at Danbury Outdoors. With the Little Havens Charity Bike Ride on the Saturday and round one of the Mud, Sweat & Gears MTB series on the Sunday, there was a chance for all ages and abilities to tackle the challenging but exciting circuit.

June 2009

June means Bike Week and Trailnet were busy helping out at a number of cycling events including lunchtime rides for staff at both Basildon and Thurrock Councils. We were also delighted to support the launch of Essex County Council's Walk Essex and Cycle Essex campaign.

ECC's Tourism Marketing and PR Manager, Elli Constantatou organised the event at Hanningfield Reservoir, which included a ride out to RHS Hyde Hall for a tour of the gardens and some well-earned refreshments. Joining us the ride was guest of honour, TV presenter and keen cyclist, Nicholas Crane. On returning to the reservoir there were speeches by Nicholas and by Stephen Castle, leader of Essex County Council.

More information about the Visit Essex campaign can be found at their excellent website Visit Essex

May 2009

Rotary Club Ride - The second annual Basildon Rotary Club Mountain Bike ride took place on Sunday 10th May with almost 100 riders enjoying a gentle 40-mile sightseeing trip through the Essex countryside. Ok, there were a few hills but everyone managed to get over them and roll back to the Towngate to collect their well-deserved finisher certificates.

Trailnet were on hand to offer a last-minute tune-up and to provide mechanical support to riders out on the course. On reaching Thorndon, Dave and Geoff decided to swap their support vehicle for the tandem and rode most of the way on this, suffering the embarrassment of a puncture in the last few miles. Several riders seemed to take great pleasure in stopping to ask if we needed help!

Training Ride - The previous weekend saw the third of our training rides for the rotary club event. Despite Geoff, Keith, Greg and Alison all being on hand to guide the ride we managed to take a few wrong turns and the planned four-hour session ended up being closer to six hours! I’m sure that those who got through this marathon found the following Sunday’s 40-miler a breeze.

April 2009

More Health Rides – With yet more interest in our Thorndon Health Rides we’ve now added a Thursday evening session. These rides start at 6:30pm and are aimed at beginners who can’t make the Tuesday morning session.

March 2009

March was a good month for establishing new rides. On 16th March we ran our first family ride from the Riverlane Centre, Purfleet. These are designed for parents with young children and we supply bikes and a selection of trailers for the infants and tagalongs for those a little older.

Mum and/or Dad can get some exercise and take junior along with them so no-one gets left out. Rides start at 10:30 and there's no cost to take part but you will need to call the Riverlane Centre by the previous Friday to book your place.

Due to the popularity of our Thorndon Health Rides we've added a second ride on Tuesday mornings at 11:00. These are sponsored by South West Essex NHS and the first two rides are free, after which you pay just £3 for the session and bike hire.

January 2009

The New Year is typically a time to evaluate what went well (and what didn't) in the previous 12 months and to start working towards our new goals whilst consolidating our existing projects. Now that we have Alison in place we aim to build on our health ride programme by extending these to other areas of Brentwood, Basildon and Thurrock.

Our other key objectives are to work with Essex country parks to provide a range of outdoor activities for people of all ages, to promote recreational and competitive events, and to deliver a range of activity-related education programmes.

Watch this space for announcements about these and other initiatives over the next couple of months.

December

New Employee - Since receiving funding from South West Essex NHS for a pilot health ride programme we have recruited a part-time ride leader and administrator, Alison Kemp. Alison has been involved in sport for most of her life and is a qualified gym and circuit training instructor. She also has several years' experience in working with special needs children.

To find out more about Alison and her sporting and professional achievements, read the About Us section of our website

Heath Rides - Great news regarding our health rides as we can now confirm receipt of a grant for £22,000 from South West Essex NHS to fund a part-time ride leader and programme administrator. This will allow us to promote the rides more widely and to offer additional sessions at both Thorndon and other locations within the South West Essex NHS catchment area. Check out the health rides page to get the latest details of these rides or conatct us to book a place or to get more information.

Bike Sale - To clear our current stock to make way for all-new equipment in 2009 we are selling off adult and child bikes, trailers, tagalongs and child seats at between 30% and 50% off the RRP. Come along to either Thorndon or Great Notley to check out what's available.

October

Purfleet Rides - On Friday 31st October we hosted a couple of rides for parents and children from the South West Thurrock Children's Centre at Purfleet. Leaving from the Riverlane Centre, our hour-long rides took us along the riverside path with great views of the Thames to the south and the RSPB Nature Reserve to the north before turning back at Coldharbour Point to retrace our route. Despite the chilly weather, everyone enjoyed themselves and we will be working closely with Thurrock Council, whose initiative this was, to make these rides a regular occurence.

Sea Scouts at Great Notley - October 25th saw our biggest single group booking when 24 members of the Thurrock Sea Scouts rented bikes from our Great Notley Cycle Centre for a trip along the Flitch Way.

Health Rides - Trailnet and the Vitality team from South West Essex PCT have organised a series of off-road Health Rides from Thorndon Country Park. The first series of rides will take place on Thursday mornings at 11:30 starting on 4th September. These rides are free and include the use of one of our rental bikes. To book a place, please contact Vitality on 0800 077 8000.

Havoc on the Hill - The third annual Havoc on the Hill Family Bike Day took place on Sunday 21st September and yet again the weather gods smiled upon us. Almost 150 people took place in the various events that included a Treasure Hunt, Hill Climb, Kids Race and a choice of one or two-hour Enduros. Feedback has been very positive and planning is already underway for next year's event scheduled for 20th September 2009. Full results are available on the event website at www.hoth.org.uk

August

Mardyke Big Day Out - Sunday 10th August saw the Mardyke Big Day Out where the Mardyke Valley Project and The Forestry Commission put on a major event to celebrate the completion of the latest phase of their project to protect and improve the Valley for people and wildlife by looking after habitats, improving the pathways along the Valley and holding free community activities and events.

In addition to live music, a MTB stunt team, archery sessions and a climbing wall, Trailnet and Gateway Cycling teamed up to offer bikes and free guided rides along the newly-developed path. Over 60 people of all ages and cycling experience took part in one of the hourly rides and the volunteer leaders from Gateway’s recreational group certainly had to work hard to keep up with some of the enthusiastic youngsters.

July

Thorndon Bike Rentals - Our joint venture with Essex County Council was officially launched on Monday 28th July. Representatives from ECC included Councillor Phil Baker who has the lead for cycling promotion within Essex and the event was covered by the Brentwood Gazette and Vision Magazine. Initial opening hours will be 10am to 4pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays but rentals are still possible outside of these hours by prior arrangement.

Langdon Nature Reserve - To highlight the newly marked trails in Langdon Nature Reserve we're going to lead a ride from the Visitor Centre on Sunday 27th July at 10am. Contact us for more details or to let us know if you plan on taking part. We'll have a limited number of bikes (plus trailers and child seats) available for rent but you'll need to pre-book these.

June

Langdon Nature Reserve Cycle Centre: Sport England funding has now been received via ActiveBasildon to provide storage, bikes and ride leaders at the Essex Wildlife Trust facility. We have also worked with EWT and Thurrock Council to develop and sign three bike trails (family, intermediate and long) throughout the Reserve.

To use the bikes please contact us or watch out for details of our first organised rides.

Thorndon: Work has been ongoing to fit out the recently acquired workshop and to provide access to this via a new gate and path. Our plan is still to have this fully open in time for the school summer holidays. Look out for the leaflets that should soon be appearing at the Park's visitor centre

May

Rotary Club Charity Ride: The first annual Rotary Club Charity MTB Ride on 18th May was a great success with almost 100 riders successfully completing the 40-mile mixed terrain course and raising money for Little Havens Children's Hospice. We're already planning next year's event when, by popular demand, you can expect a lot more off-road riding.

Rotary Club Training Ride 2: Our second training ride for the charity riders took place on 5th May with 17 riders meeting up at Thorndon Country Park on the warmest day of the year so far. After almost four hours in which we covered about 25 miles of roads and tracks, everyone arrived safely back at Thorndon for the obligatory drinks and ice cream, confident in their ability to complete the event on 18th May .

April

Rotary Club Training Ride 1: We held our first Rotary Club training event on 20th April and this was well received by the 16 riders who came along. Despite losing a few riders from time to time we always managed to get back together and everyone did really well on a fairly tough, mostly off-road 20-miler that was probably the equivalent of nearer 30 miles of road riding.

From the start at the Towngate Theatre we headed into Langdon Hills Country Park and eventually made our way to Langdon Nature Reserve, where we stopped for a well-earned ice cream and drinks break before the last few miles back to Basildon.

Danbury Bike Festival: Planning is well underway for the Danbury Bike Festival on 19/20 July. We've now agreed the various circuits for the Saturday charity ride and the Sunday 'Mud, Sweat & Gears' MTB races and we reckon that everyone taking part will find the courses suitably challenging. Watch this space for news regarding the great prizes on offer for the competitive riders and additional prizes for those who take part in both Mud, Sweat & Gears and Havoc on the Hill on 21st September

Thorndon Bike Rentals: The Thorndon Park container has now been moved into the compound as part of an agreement with Essex County Council that will allow the Park to use this for storage in exchange for allowing us to use part of their workshop as a base for our bike rental operations.

Pupils from Dycorts and Endeavour Schools are already making use of the bikes for regular group rides and we welcome requests from other groups of any age, experience or ability for similar programmes. Our goal is to have bikes and associated equipment available for rent to the general public in time for the Summer Holidays.