Middlesbrough Town meal feeding 5000?

Last year the town meal actually had over 10,000 visitors so for Friends of the Earth to be invited to help out is certainly a big thing. To be held in Central square Sat 25th September. We hope to show what you can do in a small handkerchief, concrete backyard building on Darlingtons dumpy bag allotment at Lingfield Point. If you are interested get in touch.

town meal 2009

Town meal 2010 details

August and September meetings

- Thursday 26th August 6.30-8pm Mima, Cafe Prego
I've never been to Mima before so this will be interesting. Mima is very central and if you come early you can look around the galleries. Car parking is free after 4pm and there is cycle parking right outside the cafe so you can keep it in sight. We have an update on the "Fix the Foodchain campaign" and details of the Sky Ride Click here Cafe Prego

- Wed 8th September 7pm NEW STOCKTON GROUP, the Hub cycle centre, Bridge road, stockton Hope to have lots of people here fro the launch of Stocktons New group
click here

- Thursday 23rd September 7-8.30pm, Friends meeting house, 131 Cambridge Road, Linthorpe, Mbro. TS5 5HL Carla our network developer should be coming to this meeting and we should have tea and cake!! We should have the latest info from our the national conference. Map and Google streetview here

Middlesbrough Sky Ride takes off

This Sunday Middlesbrough cyclists took to the streets in an truly amazing event, the Mbro Sky ride. What a triumph!! From 10 to 2 pm streets were cordoned off to 4 wheel traffic making the ride nice and safe. It was quite surreal cycling down the wrong side of the road or through red traffic lights, I couldn't quite shake the habit of warily looking over my shoulder for cars though.

To see families, mums, dads and kids cycling through the streets of Middlesbrough it gladdened your heart. Live bands and entertainment were provided around the 5 mile route and made it a real treat - a full day out. For the youngsters BMX team Extreme and the unicyclists laid on a stunning acrobatic display very impressive and inspiring.

We had three people on the ride, myself and Joe and his little 6 year old boy who was just really learning to ride his own bike without stabilizers. It was a touching, special moment that you don't forget.

Friends of the Earth helped publicize the event by getting members involved and running a special radio programme on CVFM community radio. We hoped to have a stall available but they had already been allocated - perhaps next time!

It looks like a new golden age of cycling has begun and the mbro Sky ride has caught the crest of the wave encouraging a new generation of cyclists. FoE hopes it is made an annual event.

The Gazette article is a very good one with a great photo slideshow click here to view it

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2010/08/16/cyclists-hit-the-streets-at-sky-ride-middlesbrough-84229-27071413/

what a venue! July Friends of the Earth meeting

Our July Friends of the Earth meeting is at Linthorpe cemetery Thursday 29th July, 7pm a 53 acre nature reserve, the biggest treed area in Mbro, which is jam packed with wildlife, flora and fauna and what wonderful, beautiful 100 year old trees.
Follow the link below to see a map and further venue details, but we are in the education centre that used to be the old Hebrew prayer house, a squarish building opposite where the old General hospital on Ayresome Green Lane used to be.
http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/GreenFlag/GreenFlagAwardSites/NorthEast/Default.aspx?parkID=240
If you are interested in green issues, animals, allotments, cycling, renewable energy, food . . . . come along,please take this opportunity to get involved or give us a ring/email.

Boro Mela big success

The Middlesbrough Mela in its 20th year was very busy, and a big success. The Friends of the Earth's stall concentrated on getting new members, but we also had a colouring carbon footprint competition for the kids that went down well. It was great to meet the public and chat with other stallholders. Estimates are that some 7000 people came on the Saturday but there were many more on the Sunday.

The delicious smells wafting from the food stalls, the hubbub of the market, the rhythm of bangra music and the bright colours of the crowd were a heady mix, and it all went off with no trouble at all! The stalls varied from the council and fire brigade, to food stalls and fancy goods, to jewelery and clothes. On the Sunday morning the wind had picked up which made it difficult to put up banners and display boards but the stallholders all helped one another out and by mid-day it had died down and the sun came out and brought out even more people.

Here's looking forward to the 21st boro Mela!

Greener Living Roadshow

In Holland over 30% of journeys are made by bicycle - thats a stunning fact. In the UK its only about 2% bike-it website and there is not any real reason why it is not higher in the teesvalley. FoE actually ran two stalls one to reduce cycle crime and the other to try and recruit more people to start a Friends of the Earth just for Stockton.

Apart from being able to try out lots of different types of bike there were other stalls included the 10:10 campaign, CTC, the carbon trust, the real nappy people and things like solar panel and insulation companies.

The day went well and the new venue of Ropner park was lovely.

Cycle theft puts off cyclists

Imagine if people left their mobile phones unattended outside a shop for 5 minutes, would you be surprised if they were stolen? Well this is what happens to hundreds of bikes, an opportunist thief will zoom off with your bike given the chance and because they are usually untraceable you are unlikely to get it back. This happened to two of my friends and it certainly put one off cycling again.

But what about the lady who locked her bike up outside a Berwick Hills supermarket in plain sight and came out to just the cut lock? What can you do especially if you have a nice bike? Its not just David Cameron with this problem.

Advice is that you use two locks, a shackle and a chain, that thieves would use different methods to break - its unlikely that they would have bolt cutters and a hammer and chisel. Lock it to a proper bike stand if possible so that it cannot be lifted off (Dave Cameron take note!). Have a look at the bikeoff website We are liaising with Cleveland police to see if FoE and Middlesbrough Environment City can help with this problem.