NW Regional Report August/September 2006

 

15/08/06 Local Reps Meeting at Martin Inn, Scarasbrick

            Main topic for discussion was Liverpool City Council’s change of attitude to PTW parking in the City Centre. An appeal has gone out to NW members to report back on the dedicated parking that has been highlighted by LCC as an alternative to the parking bays which have now been made out of bounds to motorcyclists.

            NW web-site has been re-vamped, and a big thank you to Chris, for all the time she has put into it. Chris is now looking for plenty of new material to put up there.

            New Liverpool & West Lancs. Local Rep, Alan Chester, was welcomed on board. A big thank you was given to Billy Downs who has decided to step down. A lot of unrest within the group due to the decision to pay £1500 for the car park at the Brum Demo.

 

22/08/06 Ridesafe Backsafe meeting, Police HQ Hutton

            Update on the groups activities around the region, and discussion of future events at Haydock Park, Manchester G-Mex. One point that I have raised as a major concern is the apparent lack of enforcement of the mobile phone usage in cars offence. This problem seems to be getting worse in the region and any added distraction to drivers must be bad news to PTW riders. I feel this is something that MAG should be getting more involved with.

 

August 29th-Sept 4th Set-up/marshalling at Stormin’ the Castle

            Took a week of work again to help out at the rally. Had a great time, as usual, and managed to get there and back without breaking down this year !!

 

9th September KillSpills Rally, Ace Café

            Spent the week leading up to this making MAG flags for the run. Was well worth it to see the MAG presence highlighted this year. Got caught on camera riding in a restricted bus lane, with about a hundred other bikers, and a £100 fine dropped through the letter-box a few weeks later from TfL. I have now got a covering letter back from Metropolitan Police which should get me off the offence. Apart from that, it was a great event, going from strength to strength, and took part in the London-Brighton reunion run on the Sunday, which all in all made for an excellent weekend.

 

29th September-1st October Motorcycle Extravaganza Show, Haydock Racecourse

            Managed to wangle the MAG stall into this show F.O.C, as the organisers originally wanted £350 for a 3mx3m stall. This was achieved by agreeing to distribute a load of flyers for them prior to the show. Well worth the effort, as plenty of punters there over the weekend. Picked up a dozen or so members, and sold a bit of merchandise. Gave away all the old (and some new) editions of road that we had in the region, plus a couple of hundred editions of MCM.

 Best part of the weekend though was on the Saturday night, over a few pints with the organisers, managed to get them to agree to let MAG have a free pitch at the G-Mex bike show next year!

 

 

That’s all for now folks. Apologies that I cannot make the NC meeting this month, First one I have missed since being RR, but Mike Card will be in attendance to represent the NW Region.

Cheers,

Tony