An event drawing attention to the danger and difficulty of moving between villages along the Aberystwyth to Machynlleth travel corridor was held last week.

Over 200 people attended an event, in the grounds of Y Plas, in Machynlleth, on Sunday, 19 September.

Our Community, Our Climate was a day focusing on the danger and difficulty of moving between villages along the Aberystwyth to Machynlleth travel corridor, without resorting to vehicles.

In the grounds of Y Plas, people had the opportunity to try out electric bikes and cars as part of the new shared electric bike scheme and the new electric car club for the town.

Attendees also got involved with safe cycling, local food, health, climate change and other community issues at the many stalls on the lawn.

Additionally, events at Plascrug Leisure Centre in Aberystwyth and Cletwr in Tre’r Ddol encouraged people to feed into Ceredigion and Powys County Council’s Active Travel Mapping consultations, to inform investment priorities for improving or creating safe routes.

Powys County Council and Ceredigion County Council announced plans for new walking and cycling routes in the county, including a joined up plan to link Machynlleth and Aberystwyth.

The Ceredigion consultation is now live and can be viewed online at https://ceredigion3.commonplace.is/

The Powys County Council consultation can be viewed at https://atnmpowys.commonplace.is

Following on from the campaign day, Ecodyfi and Coed Lleol will follow up through the Trywydd Iach, or outdoor health, project, which will see bike maintenance sessions organised as well as other events that help people have their say about how to make cycling and walking easier and safer.

Eleven people cycled the whole route from Aberystwyth to Derwenlas, including Aberystwyth mayor and county councillor Alun Williams.

A family ride and walk from Derwenlas to the event in Machynlleth “celebrated what’s possible when government, agencies and communities succeed in building safe dual use paths”.

The community events coincided with the start of an electric vehicle tour of Mid and North Wales by Climate Cymru as part of the ‘Great Big Green Week’.

They collected people’s stories and messages about the urgent need for government action on climate change, sending them to the crucial international COP26 climate event in November.

Cllr Williams showed a picture of himself on a bike from the 1990s, which demonstrated the start of a long campaign. He pointed out while a lot has been achieved since then, “a great deal more still needs to be done”.

“The routes don’t go far enough and they don’t always link up. The longest paths have been designed for tourists and leisure rather than for people to incorporate cycling into their daily lives.

“To be fair, in recent years Councils have been limited to just two funding applications to Welsh Government for new sections of path per year.

“So it’s therefore wonderful to hear of the Welsh Government’s new-found commitment to active travel. We’ll see what it amounts to, of course. But it does make it doubly important that as many people as possible take part in the public consultations currently taking place in both Ceredigion and Powys.”