Dear <<First Name>> 

I recently rode out to Abberton, which is unusual for me as I live on the north side of the city and generally head up into Suffolk for leisure rides.

However the sun was bright and a cool breeze made it even more pleasant so I decided to strike south for a change. 

The contrast in the scenery between Layer, Peldon, Abberton et al and Dedham Vale is amazing considering they are not that far apart.

What also struck me is how good the cycleways are from Flagstaff Road to Berechurch Hall Road and Bounstead Road. 

These were an early success for the campaign. CCC member Mary Revell (sadly no longer with us), Neil Allen and myself all lobbied hard for planning gain in connection with the new garrison.

The result is the super cycleway you see above. It was also a lesson in how activism works with planning applications, which we haven't forgotten: we send in our comments religiously every fortnight.

Speaking of religion, while out and about I called in at Great Wigborough church which is usually locked. I'm a humanist but I do love steeple chasing.  To my delight, the door was open and Chris Parkinson, the churchwarden, gave me a guided tour, including to the top of the tower which offers views of the countryside for miles around. I could see Essex University, Mersea and lots of local villages like I've never seen them before.

Chris is there every Wednesday afternoon from May to September. This is the route I followed which you can download to your phone or Beeliine as a GPX file. The church is slightly off that route, between Peldon Road and the reservoir, but it is signposted. Details of the church are here.

Will Bramhill, campaign vice-secretary

Sad news to start this month's newsletter, we're afraid. Arthur Whiston, a Colchester runner and cyclist, died when he and a car driver were in a collision in Argents Lane, near West Bergholt. He was riding his bike at the time.

Mr Whiston, 73, who worked for the Royal Army Medical Corps before retiring, was primarily a runner but used his bike to get from A to B.

He was a member of Colchester Harriers and a stalwart of Parkrun. Tributes were paid at five Parkrun events across Essex. Colchester Junior Parkrun, which he used to marshal, held a minute's applause.

Chantelle Fisher, Mr Whiston's granddaughter, told the BBC: "He didn't believe he was this big influential person but it's quite clear to see that's what he was. I think deep down he knew how popular he was but he was modest and would never brag about it." Amber Fox-Hammond, a fellow runner, said: "Even in his 70s he was able to do a sub-25 minute 5km."

Lydia Cunningham, who knew Arthur for more than 30 years and frequently ran with him, told the Gazette: "It wasn’t just his commitment to the running community, it was his commitment to the community as a whole. He was a sweet man – he was very gentle and loved by all.”

Mr Whiston is survived by his wife Pauline, from whom he was separated, stepdaughter Nicola and step-granddaughters Chantelle and Max.

Police arrested a 69-year-old female motorist on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. She was freed and the investigation into the incident is continuing.

The crash happened at lunchtime on July 5. Police would like information about the incident including any bikecam or dashcam footage. If you can help the inquiry, call 101 or use live chat at essex.police.uk quoting incident 429 of July 5.

At a suitable time Colchester Cycling Campaign will work with Essex County Council and the police to consider safety measures in Argents Lane.

If you have been affected by this story or by road violence in general, please speak to the good folk at Roadpeace, the national charity for road crash victims.

To our knowledge no more cyclists have been fined in the city centre since David King, the leader of the council, intervened in the matter following lobbying by the campaign.

Campaign leaders are due to meet David and council officials presently to look for a long-term solution.

Thank you David for your help so far.

In the meantime, Will Bramhill, the campaign vice-secretary, has spoken to Cycling UK about Public Spaces Protection Orders nationally and has canvassed the Manifesto Club.

He has also written to Pam Cox, the Colchester MP, to ask for her help with influencing the Crime and Disorder Bill to try to make the system fairer.

All cyclists will have experienced careless and dangerous driving, writes Stuart Johnson.

This might be the "close pass" where a driver whizzes past you and leaves too little space, or the left hook where a driver turns across your path.

In the past there was little you could do – but this has changed with the availability of reasonably-priced video cameras and support from Essex Police.

On the Colchester Cycling Campaign blog this month I explain how to report careless and dangerous driving using the Essex Police Extra Eyes service.

I'm happy to give personal advice about cameras. Please contact me at admin@colchester-cycling.org.uk.

Meanwhile several members have been using Pass Pixi camera warning signs attached to their bikes, baggage or clothing and report that drivers tend to give them extra room. You don't need to be running a camera to benefit from this. Prices start from £6.

This is your chance to help fund the campaign. Thanks to everyone for last month's donations. As an organisation we run on a shoestring. We don't need much money but it's nice to know we're appreciated.

The campaign has stepped into the debate about the Norwich to Tilbury pylons scheme. 

According to roadside placards around Colchester, the project by the National Grid (NG) will generate a vast number of HGV movements on what are usually quiet country lanes.

The protesters give one example: 189 lorry movements a day are expected on the B1070 from East Bergholt towards Raydon — and there will be a similar increase in lorry traffic elsewhere across the region.

"This is going to have an effect on several of my leisure rides up into the Dedham Vale AONB and over to Harwich," said Will Bramhill, campaign vice-secretary. "It won't just be leisure riders affected though. I see a lot of people riding these lanes to get to work, or going about their everyday lives."

The pylons will cross the Essex-Suffolk border at Stratford St Mary and go over the A12 and the A137 to a transformer station off Little Bromley Road.

The route then heads west, crossing Ardleigh reservoir, going to the north of Langham Road, across the Boxted Straight, to Great Horkesley.

After that, it takes in Fordham, Ford Street, Surrex, Rivenhall, Faulkbourne and Fairstead, heading towards Little Waltham. 

At various points, the affected roads are crossed by the National Cycle Network and National Byway cycle routes. Many rural roads carry a fair level of cycle traffic anyway.

The campaign has responded to NG's official consultation and asked that:

• NG's work abides by the recommendations set out in the guide produce for Clocs — Construction Logistics and Community Safety.
• all drivers employed by NG and its contractors are given compulsory Level 3 Bikeability training so they have first-hand experience of riding in traffic, and
• all lorries used on the project comply with the Direct Vision Standard at the level applicable from October this year, ie three stars.

The consultation closed on July 26.

The campaign website has been updated with two routes to get to and from the port of Harwich to Colchester. We've relied on Google Translate to give us versions in Welsh, Dutch, German, French and – why not? – Irish Gaelic.

We've also pointed out some interesting things on the northern route via Bradfield, Mistley and Manningtree.

If you speak any of the languages listed, please check the auto translation!

Find the page here: https://www.colchester-cycling.org.uk/harwich-to-colchester.html. Visit Colchester has promised to link to it from its website.

... is this handy map of cycle parking at Colchester hospital. We posted it on a Facebook Colchester community group and it drew the usual "like you're going to do that with a broken leg" type of comment.

That said, lots of people, from outpatients to the chief exec, can cycle in for their full journey or just from the park and bike at Cuckoo Farm. Such journeys will be even better once the cycleway alongside the Northern Approaches comes into use in January.

One error that is still to be corrected: there are no Sheffield stands by the front door ... although that is a long-term ambition.

The campaign congratulates Pam Cox for being elected MP for Colchester on July 4 and we look forward to a productive relationship with her. We are encouraged that she regularly cycled to meetings at the town hall in her role as a city councillor.

Our thanks to Will Quince, Colchester's MP for nine years, for his help with various matters during his tenure. Will now chairs Transport East and the campaign has offered him the chance to make use of our expertise when the chance arises.

Congratulations too to Sir Bernard Jenkin, who was reelected as MP for Harwich and North Essex. Bernard has been in the House of Commons for 32 years and boundary changes mean that part of urban Colchester is now in his seat – mainly Old Heath, parts of the Hythe and the controversial Middlewick Ranges site, where 1,000 homes are planned. Bernard has been seen round and about on a Brompton and is a strong cyclist.

To see a map of Bernard's Colchester fiefdom, follow this link: https://www.os.uk/election-maps/gb/?x=600918&y=224013&z=8&bnd1=wmc&bnd2=&labels=off

This month we leave Colchester and head south to Kelvedon where two telegram boys lean with their bikes against the Post Office. If this snap was taken during the 1914-18 war, the lads must have had the grim job of delivering news to Essex families of the deaths and injuries of their fathers, brothers and sons in the forces.

The telephone has reached rural Essex, going by the sign over the man standing in the doorway next to posters for the British Army and the Foot Guards. 

It is hard to place the location but your editor has been up and down Kelvedon High Street on Google Street View and reckons this is it. The only clue is the distinctive ridge and finials of the roof on the right in the background.

We can't read the name of the draper and grocer but candidates from the 1911 census include George Venson Hart, Charles Taylor, Joseph Horne, Robert Newman and Edward Fuller.

Kelvedon was obviously a 15-minute village back then. 

You can park your bike, hire a cargo bike or get help with cycle repairs at the Colchester cycle centre off Sir Isaac's Walk in the city centre. The city centre bike kitchen's website is here. The Old Heath bike kitchen and cargo bike library is here. Both are also on Facebook.

Click here to use the secure bike park in Colchester and those in many other cities.

The wait goes on for details of road schemes at Clingoe Hill and St Botolph's. We know our friends at Essex County Council and Active Travel England are doing their best with both schemes. We won't wait for the newsletter to let members know of any news – we'll put it out on the members' email group. If you're not a member, please sign up at www.colchester-cycling.org.uk

Alan Palmer Way, to the north of the former Cowdray Centre site, now has its official sign, which was unveiled on July 21. About 30 of Alan's friends and family gathered for a ceremony and to remember Alan.

Sickness meant we didn't hold a July Bike Meet. We usually have a holiday in August ... but if there's lots to discuss we'll meet online at 8pm on Monday August 19. If you would like an invitation and link, sign up as a member or supporter at colchester-cycling.org.uk.

By the time you get the next newsletter, Boxted bridge will have been shut for a year. It closure means leisure cyclists from Colchester (and a few utility riders) have to go either via Stratford St Mary (the infamous Gun Hill) or chance it on a short section of the fast and busy A134 between Burnt Dick Hill and Nayland.

The seemingly slow response to Boxted bridge, Middlemill bridge and the quay collapse at the Hythe (which still isn't fixed though the Rowhedge Trail has been diverted) are perhaps symptomatic of the UK's financial situation.

As this newsletter is being put together, Lower Castle Park is shut for an Eighties music event featuring the Human League and Bananarama. The Middlemill bridge closure means that cyclists at, say, the park gates in Maidenburgh Street cannot get to Leisureworld easily.

The closure is affecting thousands of cyclists and pedestrians daily. Please, Colchester and Essex councils, let's have some "action this day" – and thanks to Sir Bob Russell, the town's high steward, for pressing on this. 

Have you signed the Colchester Cycling Charter yet? If not, please do. If you work or volunteer, please ask your organisation to sign too. The more people on bikes, the fewer traffic jams will snarl up our city.

Feel free to pass on this newsletter via email and social media by using the link at the very top ... and encourage your friends to join the campaign so they receive their own copy every month.

Chairman: Stuart Johnson
Vice-secretaries: Alan Spence and Will Bramhill
Treasurer: Catherine Johnson
Your committee: Alex Hooper, Chris Stevenson, Jean Quinn, Nathaniel Catchpole and Paul Byrne