A huge thank you to everyone who made the time to respond to our survey about the future format of our Liskeard cycle groups. We were delighted to receive 29 responses with the following results. (Please note: for the first half of the survey relating to opinions I have given the responses in percentages; and for the second half, relating more to the commitments we are prepared to make, I have given the responses in numbers of people.)

92% agreed it is important for all our cyclists to have third party insurance. 75% agreed there is a case for exploring cheaper cycle club membership to facilitate this. Of those who didn’t agree, all but one were happy with their current Cycling UK/CTC Cornwall membership. 78% broadly liked the idea of establishing a Liskeard Cycling Club.

24 of the 29 respondents were prepared to register with the new Liskeard Cycling Club. 28 people were prepared to take out third party insurance by one means or another. 11 people were kind enough to say they were prepared to sit on the Liskeard Cycling Club Committee for a year but, as we would expect, 17 were either not able or not willing to make this sort of commitment. However, 20 people did kindly say they would help with a fund raising event, such as a cake sale or raffle.

There were a number of helpful comments which I am summarising as follows: Some people made the point that they personally would not be making a saving by supporting these changes but were prepared to do so if it helped others. One person wondered whether we should not make the changes but instead use our CTC annual grant of £200 to subsidise fees for people who find it difficult to meet the costs of joining Cycling UK. (The Committee had looked at this possibility in some detail but in the end concluded that it was not appropriate for the committee to be conducting means testing of members and so abandoned the idea). There was also the positive thought that a local cycling club might provide the opportunity to include other cyclists (e.g. mountain bikers) and other age groups.

The committee met on the 30th April to consider the above responses. It concluded there does seem to be enough support to go ahead and create an Liskeard Cycling Club affiliated to Cycling UK. It did also acknowledge this was quite a lot of work so before proceeding with the change the committee has asked our Chair to double check with Cycling UK and with their insurance brokers whether our current ride leaders will still be protected if their cyclists have their third party insurance from a variety of sources (e.g. Cycling UK membership; British Cycling membership; British Triathlon Fderation membership; membership of another affiliated group, such as Callington Cycles Riders ; or through their own household insurance policy. ) We suspect the answer is no but we just want to check before we go ahead and make a lot of unnecessary changes. The committee is meeting again as soon as we get a response to try and make a final decision. Phew! Almost as bad as Brexit but thank you all so much for all your help.