To celebrate the first and second stage of the Tour de France, which comes through the Harrogate district on 5 and 6 July 2014, Harrogate Borough Council has given grants to local groups to make the visit of the sporting spectacular even more memorable.
This is a second round of funding from this year’s community chest and was made available by the council to support activities or events linked to and inspired by cycling or the Yorkshire Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2014.
Councillor Anthony Alton, Leader of Harrogate Borough Council, who this week approved the grants, said: We wanted applications for projects that would involve and motivate people to create a lasting and positive legacy to mark the historic visit of the race to our district.
We are fortunate that the Tour comes through our district on both days it is in Yorkshire on 5 and 6 July 2014. This makes us unique as no other area on the route has this privilege. It will come through a huge area of our district from Masham to Ripon, Ripley to Harrogate then again the next day from York to Knaresborough, Starbeck and out through Harrogate. There is so much opportunity that we want everyone to grab it and get the best out of it.
We have a very good mix of events to support to make sure that the positive impact of the race spreads right around the district. This is why we created this second round of funding from our community chest but dedicated to the Tour de France.
Details of the grants awarded:
£2000 Knaresborough in Bloom – Tour de France Display Garden at the Harrogate Spring Flower Show, to be permanently displayed in Knaresborough.
£1500 Chrysalis Arts – Cold Bath Road Community ‘Slow Art’ a visible celebration of the Tour to be created working with local residents and business community but also to attract visitors.
£2000 Nova Cycling Club – Developing projects for young cyclists including off-road cycling providing a fun experience whilst developing a set of competencies.
£1500 – Fairfax Community Centre – ‘La folie de la mosaique’ – working with over 100 children and young people to design and create a mosaic on the external walls of the Community Centre.
£950– Starbeck Tour de France Group – ‘Tour de Starbeck’ – Old recycled bikes to be painted and used as trail around Starbeck both on the actual route and off and the production of a trail leaflet.
£1000 Brighter Boroughbridge & District – Creation of a garden at the southern entrance to the town. The centrepiece will be a wooden bike sculpture to be made by Jennyruth Workshops.
£1800 Nidd Plus & Sport Nidderdale – ‘Tour de Nidderdale treasure trail’ that can be done on foot, cycle or car encouraging residents and visitors to explore locations across the Dale supporting local businesses and celebrating the Yorkshire Grand Départ.
£1200 – Forest School/Starbeck Children’s Centre ‘On your Bike’ – project to encourage and enable more young people with varying disabilities to get cycling.
£1500 – Ripon Tour de France Festival Group – Programme of guided rides and activities that will continue after the Tour linked to the legacy programme.
£1000 – Knaresborough Spinners Cycling Club – ‘Ready Steady Go’ – community cycle rides with a programme of bike safety and maintenance.
£1330 – Bilton Bike Club – establishing a cycle club with organised rides, cycle safety and to teach bike maintenance.
£1500 – Harrogate Cycle Action Group – To provide signage for the Harland Way (Spofforth) cycle link to the Great Yorkshire Show Ground. This project will build on success of the Nidderdale Greenway and will provide signing to the network encouraging leisure cycling and tourism as permanent benefit to the community.
In the build-up to the Tour, detailed information will be given to residents, businesses and visitors which will be made available on www.visitharrogate.co.uk and more details about the race can be found at http://letour.yorkshire.com/
We need your help too – Tell us what you are doing to celebrate the tour – In this exciting year, Yorkshire will see the world’s greatest cycle race – the Tour de France – start in the world’s greatest county on 5th & 6th July 2014 before moving down for a third stage between Cambridge and London.
The race will bring millions of fans to the roadside to cheer on the champions of the sport and as we are now less than sixth months away, we would like to try to make this the best experience possible for all attending.
We would appreciate your help with a quick online survey, which will give us some information on where our visitors plan to view the race from, thus giving us an insight in to the travel demand across all stages.
