WWCT (Walk Wheel Cycle Trust – formally Sustrans)
SUSTRANS has a new look, and a new name but they’re still the same charity making it possible for everyone to walk, wheel and cycle: https://www.walkwheelcycletrust.org.uk/
What do we do?
We work with others to keep the cycleways round Harrogate free from obstacles – leaves, overhanging and overgrown vegetation – and make them more enjoyable for cyclists and walkers. We usually meet on the second Tuesday of each month from 10.00am to noon and some of us go for a coffee when the work is done. Jon Beckett
We all get a great sense of achievement for a job well done.
Next Session: Tuesday October 13
The next Harrogate Rangers cycle path clean up will take place at 10am on Tuesday October 13th led by Jon Beckett. Please meet at the Walshford Bridge Hotel & Spa car park on the A168 (what3words morphing.yoga.detergent). We have permission to park there. Hope you can lend a hand, tools provided!
Our usual selection of tools will be provided and you are also welcome to bring secateurs, pruners, brooms etc. We can’t use power tools except for leaf blowers because of Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (formerly Sustrans) insurance conditions. We are in correspondence with them to enable us to use hedge trimmers and strimmers as well.
The Rangers are always looking for more volunteers. If you are not on the Rangers mailing list and would like to help, either regularly or occasionally, please let us know by emailing
Thank you
Malcolm
Reporting a Cycleway issue
You can report any issues here https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-travel/roads-and-pavements/cycle-lanes-and-routes – it’s easy and you can zoom in on the map.
This applies to bridleways and cycle paths too. Please report any issues – including overgrown vegetation. The more of us who report them, the more likely it is that the Council will deal with them.
Reports and Photos
Tuesday August 11 2026
Richard Bracey, who led the August Rangers session reports:
‘On 11th August, Richard Bracey led a team of 6 WWCT Rangers with 4 Rangers from SGCG (Starbeck Greenway Conservation Group) on a joint maintenance session along the mile long approx Starbeck to Bilton Section of The Greenway.
The prime objective was to sweep and blow away leaves and other fallen detritus on the Greenway, strim encroaching vegetation and cut back where possible, overhanging branches. The ability of SGCG to utilise power tools approved by their insurers was most useful and enabled a relatively small joint group to cover most of the pathway between The Avenue and Bilton Lane.
The high level of tree cover over the Greenway kept down the temperature for the Rangers on what would otherwise have proved to be a punishingly hot morning. The recently installed bench seats provided some welcome respite for approving passing walkers, wheelers and cyclists of whom there were many during the course of the morning.’
Tuesday July 21 2026
July’s Rangers session was led by Jon and Jen Dening who say:
‘”Thanks to everyone for a splendid effort. We made a real difference.”
Tuesday June 09 2026 – A168 Cycle Path
On Tuesday 9th June, seven Harrogate Rangers tackled the overgrown A168 cycle path around Deighton Hill. We had plenty of thank yous from both cyclists and runners on the track. Painted lady butterflies were out despite the odd shower. We are now in possession of new WWCT-branded high-vis jackets!
Tuesday May 12 2026 – Rossett Nature Reserve
On 12th May, Richard Bracey led a small team of Volunteer Rangers to clear the short foot/cycle path in the Rossett Nature Reserve area of Harrogate between Richmond Avenue and Arthurs Avenue.
This path has not been managed for some while and and on a cold dry day, encroaching vegetation and overhanging branches had to be tackled with some determination.
Our efforts appeared to be appreciated by some local residents as the path is quite popular with dog walkers, cyclists and wheelers.
Tuesday April 14 2026 – Greenway (Ripley end)
12 Rangers turned out with Jon Beckett leading on a sunny Tuesday morning 14th April at the Ripley end of the Nidderdale Greenway. Efforts were concentrated on removing excess vegetation and particularly brambles encroaching on both sides of the old A61 bridge. The National Cycle Network signs were cleaned too. The results were dramatic as per these before and after photos.
Tuesday March 10 2026 – Harrogate High School path
Ten of us gathered at the Harrogate High School path on a bright sunny morning to continue the work of cutting back vegetation. Half a bag of litter was also collected, despite us having collected several bags last month.
The main focus was on cutting back the many brambles growing through the fence on one side and encroaching from the verge on the other side of the path. A huge clearance of undergrowth at the cattle grid entrance to the path was also achieved. Some more turning back of vegetation encroaching on the path was also carried out.
Session led by Jon and Jen Dening.
Tuesday Feb 10 2026 – Harrogate High School path
The Rangers’ session on Tuesday 10 Feb was led by Richard Bracey who writes:
‘On 10th February, Richard Bracey led a small team of 7 volunteer Rangers to clear the short but litterstrewn cycle/ foot path around Harrogate High School between Kingsley Avenue and Avondale Road.
The weather was overcast with drizzly rain but this couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the team whose efforts were warmly appreciated by several passers by.’
Tuesday November 11 2025 – Asda Path
Today’s Rangers session was on the Asda path led by Jon Beckett who says:
“A good job done today by 8 Rangers who put up with drizzle for the first hour. Please see attached view of the Asda path looking North from Grove Park Avenue. Well done all!”.
Tuesday October 14 2025 – Showground Greenway
Eleven Sustrans Rangers volunteers worked on the Showground Greenway path from the car park to Hornbeam Avenue on Tuesday. The group cleared the whole length of mud and leaves and cut back some overhanging branches, including part of a fallen tree that was encroaching on the path.
Sustrans Millennium Milepost Repainted
The Sustrans Millennium Milepost just off Bilton Lane has been repainted by local artist James McKay – artist website here
The milepost is one of 4 designs provided by Sustrans on Greenways around the UK. This one was found in a somewhat neglected state in a Sustrans depot. A few of us painted it blue before it was installed in 2017. This refresh was much needed.
Malcolm
Tuesday Sept 9 2025 – Starbeck Greenway
Richard Bracey led today’s session in the sunshine attended by 8 volunteers (plus 3 from Starbeck Greenway Clearance Group (SGCG). He says:
“A big thank you from passing cyclists and walkers on the Starbeck Greenway today to Sustrans and SGCG Rangers who combined on a warm, dry and sunny day to clear the one mile long approx pathway of leaves, encroaching vegetation and overhanging branches.”
Tuesday August 12 2025 – Greenway – Ripley End
The Sustrans Rangers session on 12th August was attended by 13 volunteers led by Mike Winterhalder who says:
‘A big thank you to all Rangers that worked hard this morning in very warm conditions. A great deal of work was achieved on the Ripley end of the Greenway, and received lots of praise from many pathway users.’
The next session will be on Tuesday 9 September.
Tuesday April 08 2025 – A168 Path Wetherby to Walshford
Nine volunteers managed to clear the path adjacent to the A168 heading South from Ox Close farm at the Cowthorpe road junction for a distance of approximately 0.5km. The very dry conditions helped rather than hindered our progress. However, there remains at least 1.5km before the North/West Yorkshire boundary is reached on the outskirts of Wetherby. If we are to tackle this later this year we will clearly need more helpers than today! Big thanks to all those who turned up, and were able to enjoy the near perfect weather.
Best regards
Jon B
Tuesday March 11 2025 – Bilton Lane to Starbeck Greenway
On a cold day of mixed sunshine and rain, about 20 Sustrans Rangers and Starbeck Greenway Conservation Group (SGCG) teamed up to clear the mile long Greenway path between The Avenue, Starbeck and Bilton Lane. Aside from leaf detritus clearance, volunteers removed overhanging branches and other vegetation encroaching onto the Greenway, together with an extensive litter pick.
During the session, some water sampling was undertaken along the beck by North Yorkshire County Council’s Community Engagement & Countryside Department to determine the DNA of the environment and assess the extent to which it can maintain wildlife.
At the end of the session, Wheel Easy presented SGCG with a cheque for £500 which will enable them to purchase various equipment items to maintain the Greenway throughout the year.
Richard Bracey
Sustrans Rangers and SGCG volunteer
Tuesday Feb 11 2025 – Showground Path
Seventeen volunteers turned out on a damp, cold but dry morning. Due to this number we were able not only to clear the path of leaf detritus but also to cut back to the wooden edge, the encroaching grass in other areas. An early finish meant many of us warmed up afterwards in Indulge.
The next session is on Tuesday, 11th March.
Jon and Jen Dening
Tuesday Jan 28 2025 – High School Path
Delayed due to snow, this session was re-arranged for Tuesday, 28th January.
A big thank you to the 10 volunteers that turned up this morning to clear the High School path and worked very fast to clear it all, the before & after pictures show the hard work. Mike W
Tuesday Dec 10 2024 – Greenway
Tuesday 10 December saw the Harrogate Sustrans Rangers turn out in record numbers to clean up the Ripley end of the Nidderdale Greenway. We had 18 volunteers attend, so were able to split into two groups and cover a mile of track by starting from opposite ends and meeting in the middle. A highlight for some was the unblocking of a land drain underneath the path!
Best regards and hope you have an enjoyable Christmas!
Jon Beckett (Session Co-ordinator)
Tuesday Nov 12 2024 – Knaresbrough Hill Cycleway
The latest part of the Harrogate area to get the Sustrans treatment was the cycle path up from High Bridge Knaresborough to the golf club. That should help on the next ride up the hill …………
An excellent turnout coupled with good conditions saw the whole length of the path tackled on Tuesday morning. It was good to see included in the work party were some members from the Knaresborough Cycle Club (K.C.C.)
Tuesday Oct 08 2024 – Showgound Greenway
20 volunteers turned out on a damp dreary morning to spruce up the Showground Greenway – one of our regular sites. The excellent large turnout was in fitting tribute to Steve Wright, our late group coordinator. Volunteers comprised WE members, village friends from Whixley and several others who had joined the group under Steve’s leadership. Also visiting us was Sarah Donnelly from Sustrans, our Volunteering Development Manager. Our merry and willing band, armed with a variety of tools – domestic and industrial – set to and cleaned the entire path from the Pavilions to the Hornbeam end. Photos show the before, during and after states of the path. We were thanked by many path users and, I hope, WE regulars assembling for the Wednesday rollout were impressed, despite the rain’s efforts to undo our work. The morning concluded with a long coffee and chat session in Indulge, culminating in a short ceremony where Dee Wright presented a cheque from WE to Sustrans to recognize Steve’s contribution to the charity. A very productive day, if a little poignant.
Tuesday Sept 08 2024 – High School path
Thirteen of us worked on the High School path on Tuesday, and as you can see from the photos below, made a tremendous difference for the better. It was a particularly rewarding morning’s work. We restored the path to its full width, got rid of the dangerous brambles and other intruding vegetation and collected 4 bags of rubbish. On top of this the local Councillor, Chris Aldred, is providing funds (from his council locality budget) for a contractor to cut the denser vegetation back further with a tractor and flail. As you can see below we have also received a thank you letter from the school’s Head, Mr. Gill.
The path, which has been an eyesore and a health hazard for many months, should for a while at least be in first class condition. The aim is to keep it that way, with the help of the council and the school.
Tuesday Mar 19 2024 – Walshford Path
Didn’t we do well! Thank you team.
0.96 of a mile is a long way when you’re cutting back vegetation.
The plan today was to cut back any hedges encroaching onto the path and that’s what we did – all the way from Walshford to the bridge at Ox Close Lane . We will go back in a couple of months and remove moss and any brambles that we didn’t catch this time.
Many thanks to the 12 volunteers who came out today. It was perfect weather for it too.
Once again we were all too keen to get started so no-one took any photos of how it looked before. Here are a couple of photos of how it looked after we had done it.
Tuesday Feb 13 2024 – Panhandle and High School Path
13 of us completed both the Panhandle and the High School Path. Many thanks to all who turned out. Both jobs took a little longer than I expected but we all finished by 12pm after some serious exercise.
The first two photos show the before and after on the Panhandle (the cycleway between Stonefall tip and Morrisons). 6 people did the whole length of it. It was a bit sludgy but look at it now. And we picked up some useful contacts.
The others show the High School Path which was a disgusting mess before 7 of us started on it. I’m in contact with North Yorkshire Council and Harrogate High School about how it can be made better in the future. It needs the bins emptying more often and a local band of litter pickers would make a massive difference. We picked up litter and cut back the brambles before clearing the leaf sludge.
It looks almost perfect now and I had some great compliments from a couple of regular users.
Tuesday Jan 09 2024 – Starbeck/Greenway Link
Thank you to all 26 helpers who came out today to clear the whole of the link from Starbeck to the Greenway plus about 400 yards of the Greenway from Bilton Lane towards the Nidd Gorge viaduct – about 1.3 miles. Marvellous job!! We had 2 teams – one working from Starbeck and the other from Bilton Lane.
Today we we had extra help from 6 people from the Starbeck Greenway conservation group. Jill deWitt, who leads the group, has written a lovely note of thanks. If anyone would like to join that group, please ask me and I’ll let her have your details. They have great plans to improve the area alongside the Greenway, restoring a pond, clearing out the beck and hopefully installing at least one bench.
We also had help from Sarah from the Newcastle Building Society in Knaresborough who was given time off to do voluntary work. Thank you to her and her employer.
And finally thanks to Shirelle from North Yorkshire Council who came out to thank us all for what we do. She came with her powerful blower and chopped down a tree.
Great teamwork.
Tuesday Dec 12th – Beryl Burton
Now here’s a shock. For the first time ever we managed to tidy up the whole of the Beryl Burton Way. 15 of us turned out today, including Sarah from Sustrans Head Office. Thank you all for coming out. It was a misty day but stayed dry all the time we were there. There was a lot of running water on the path but we paddled through it. We got rid of all the sludgy leaves and cut back the hedges and vegetation so it will be a pleasure to cycle again.
Tuesday Nov 21st – Greenway
Thank you to the 12 helpers who made such a great job of the Ripley end of the Greenway this Tuesday. This was rescheduled from last week because of the torrential rain. The path was a real sludgy mess but is now clear and, more importantly, safe. In our enthusiasm to get started, no-one took any photos of how it looked before we started. If you cycled that way recently you will know how bad it was.
Here is an ‘after’ photo
Tuesday Aug 8th – Harrogate – Greenway Asda Cycle Path
The part of the Nidderdale Greenway which runs from the back of Asda to Grove Park Avenue/ Dragon Bridge. There were 10 of us working on the Asda path 0n Tues 8th Aug. We widened the path considerably. Another great job completed by the Sustrans Rangers, thank you. We managed to complete a large section but didn’t make it as far as Asda. Many thanks to Jon Dening for the photos
Tuesday July 18th – Knaresborough – Starbeck Cycle Path
9 volunteers had a very fruitful morning on the cycle track up from Knaresborough and half way to the golf club. Just look at the photos. Sorry I couldn’t join you. Great job folks.
Tuesday June 27th – Greenway – Balsam Bashing
Thanks to all the 9 people who turned out today – despite the poor forecast. I told you it’s always wrong.
It was noticeable how much less balsam there was than last year because of the work we did then. So it’s definitely worth it. Let’s hope that this year’s work will mean that we have controlled it sufficiently that we can work on another site downstream next year.
We removed or trimmed an enormous amount of balsam between the cycle path and the river. We don’t normally stray much from cycle paths but we are trying to control this invasive species and it’s necessary to go a bit further into the undergrowth.
Well done folks.
Steve
Tuesday May 9th – Walshford to Wetherby Cycle Path – Part Two
We had another good morning’s work on the Walshford to Wetherby cycle path. We had great weather. If anything it was too hot. Just 7 of us this time because of holidays and caring for family members. There is still a lot to do on this path but it will probably have to wait until next year now. We will get back to our usual patch. A consistent comment from helpers this time was the number of bikes who came up from behind without bells and without saying anything – why?
Thank you all for coming
Tuesday April 11th – Walshford to Wetherby Cycle Path – Part One
Many thanks to the 9 volunteers who joined me today on the Walshford path.
It was such a rewarding job to do. I believe it’s about 5 years since the path had such a serious haircut.
In some parts we tripled the width of the path – as you can see from this picture which shows where we finished and where we will start next month – 9th May.
Great to see Sarah from Sustrans and to welcome Paul to the group.
Thank you everyone.
Tuesday March 14th – High School Path and Knaresborough Hill Cycle Path
Thank you to all 12 of you who came and helped today. The photos below show what a great job we did. Sorry, there are no photos of how they looked before but they were in great condition afterwards.
This time, we split into 2 groups. Mike Wills, Denis and I cleared away all the sludge and leaves on the High School Path
Everyone else made a real difference to the cycle path up Knaresborough Hill to the Golf Club. The edges were cut back to reveal a wider path. We managed to do over half – so a trip back later in the year might be a good idea.
Tuesday Feb 21st Showground
Thanks to Malcolm, Denis and Mike for coming out today and to Mike for the photos
It needed doing but wasn’t as bad as usual. It was a dry day which made it much easier.
Tuesday Feb 14th Starbeck Link
Thanks to everyone who came today. 14 of us turned out to clear the 1 mile stretch between Bilton Lane and Starbeck known as the Starbeck Link. We welcomed 2 new helpers this month – Ian and Richard.
This was a tough one because it had not been cleared for 4 years and the dirt was caked on. Snow shovels were not up to the job and we really needed more scrapers.
We still managed to complete the whole path and made a pretty good job of it.
Thanks for sticking with it. Hopefully the rain will wash the rest of the muck away now that we have given it the Sustrans treatment.
Thank you from Starbeck Community Group
Sustrans head office had a very nice message of thanks from Starbeck Community Group. They were thanking us for our work on the Starbeck link to the Greenway last month. It’s great to be appreciated. They may be able to help us next time we do that path.
Steve
Tuesday January 24th Beryl Burton Way
Yesterday – thanks to all 11 who turned out. We did a fantastic job on most of the Beryl Burton Way – and a pretty good job of the rest all the way down to Knaresborough. What a team! Thank you.
Thanks to Jon Dening and Mike Wills for photos.”
Steve
Tuesday December 20th Greenway from Dragon Bridge to Bilton Lane
We had to cancel the planned date of December 13 because of ice. Considering it was Christmas week, we did very well to have a good turnout of 8 yesterday. We made a decent job of the Greenway from Dragon Bridge to Bilton Lane – although it took a little longer than our usual sessions at about 2 and a half hours. Many thanks to you all for coming out.
Once again, thanks to Mike Wills for the photos.
Tuesday November 8th Killinghall end of the Greenway
Thank you to the 11 people who turned out today. We managed to clear leaves from over a mile and a half of the Killinghall end of the Greenway.
You all did a great job. Please cycle it before the leaves fall again. We will be going back there in a month or so to tidy up.
Photos from our chief photographer, Mike Wills.
Showground Woods – October 11
12 of us came out and cleared the whole path from the Sports & Fitness Centre through to Hornbeam Business Park
High School Path – September 13
Round the back of Harrogate High School from Kingsley Drive to Avondale Road
9 of us were out on that day
