Vote now for £50million for UK pedestrian/cycle routes

Sustrans has just sent us this information:

Online voting for The People's £50 Million Lottery Giveaway is now open until 10th December 07 at 12 noon .

If you have previously registered at The People's £50 Million Website and have your username you can log in now to vote here.

The complete online voting process
Designed to ensure total fairness - please do cast your vote because we need your vote to count!

1. Register on The People's £50 Million website so you can vote. Go to The People's £50 Million Website registration page and complete all the required details.
2. Enter your name and a valid email address
3. Create a username and password.
4. Follow the instructions to complete the process.
5. You will receive an email containing a link for you to click on to continue the voting process.
6. Click on this link to return to the website.
7. Log in with the username and password you created.
8. Vote (there is an additional security feature for your vote to be counted, just follow the instructions on screen).

Telephone voting process:
by landline and mobile phone over the weekend 7-10 December 07.

1. Enter your details at 'Remind me to Vote by Phone' on Sustrans website.
2. Include your phone number and you will also be sent the number by text message.

More info on the project:
Sustrans' Connect2 will also be the subject of a television programme on ITV1 at 11pm Tuesday 4th December.

Please pass this information on to as many people as you can.

Thank you for your support.

The Connect2 Team

Garden designs for keen diy landscapers

Practical designs for practical people - that sums up our garden makeover service. You supply the details, we supply the design and know-how. Then it's up to you how quickly or slowly you create your ideal garden. More details on Garden Makeover.

Congleton and trains

Well, just e-mailed all the Congleton Borough and County Councillors to ask if they can put pressure on the Dept of Transport and the train companies to improve Congleton services. Since the councils have signed up to action to reduce climate change, it'll be interesting to see who walks the walk. Watch this space.

Disintegrated train travel for Congleton

Passengers have just successfully reversed a decision by Arriva Trains to delete the 7.09 Congleton-Manchester service (apparently it was Virgin's decision to drop it) - now the next challenge is to persuade the government to insist that Cross Country trains continue to call at Congleton and Macclesfield, rather than increase the carbon footprint of travellers who will be forced into cars.

Apparently from Dec 2008, the Dept for Transport has decided these trains won't be necessary at Congleton. (The proposed hourly stopping train Stoke-Manchester won't help people needing to travel to Birmingham in an hour, as is possible now, or Stockport and Manchester in 20-40 minutes.)

The withdrawal of Cross Country services is a further erosion of choice for us in Congleton, and even if you don't need these trains daily for commuting, they are extremely useful for quick journeys or connections for business, shopping or hospital trips. It doesn't help that there are numerous invisible passengers - those who are able to dodge fares due to lack of ticket checks on trains and at some stations, including Manchester.

There's a specific petition regarding southbound trains on this link below - sign up before 29th Nov to make your voice heard. Protest can and does make a difference:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/congletontrains

You could also let these people know your views about their proposed further downgrading of our train service:
Ruth Kelly, Dept of Transport - kellyr@parliament.uk
Tom Harris, Rail Minister - tomharrismp@parliament.uk
Anne Winterton, local MP - awinterton@riverside14.fsnet.co.uk
Dorothy Littler, Anne Winterton's secretary - littlerd@parliament.uk
Arriva Trains - gordonf@arrivatrains.co.uk

Oh, and you could join East Cheshire Line Railway Users' Group (ECLRUG) - details on local train timetables.

Let's make a difference - if it's only to keep things the same!

Stuck for gift ideas?

We usually think of a great gift idea too late, once the occasion has passed and after we've had to rush to get something that has usually not been quite right. And at Christmas, with lots of people to think of, it really can become a headache.

So that's why we've put a list of ideas for presents on our Gardening Masterclass site - they're all garden related but not necessarily for gardening. For children, for garden lovers, and for pondkeepers.

Also there are more ideas on Photobox where this company creates prints for framing, calendars and other items using your own photographs or other people's, including Alec's landscapes.