The school holidays will soon be at an end but hopefully we will still have some weeks of pleasant weather to enjoy before the leaves fall and the nights draw in.

Over the school holiday period the team have honed their skills by operating across a wider area with community first responders from other schemes in the New Forest, some of whom have just started. We have attended a number of cycling accidents on the Forest tracks and assisted crews to reach the casualty using our 4x4, we have helped police and ambulance staff in reaching and conveying a victim of crime from a remote location to the waiting ambulance, attended a range of cardiac and stroke related patients and the odd trauma case. And, of course, we have had someone on call covering Bransgore at the same time.

We are looking forward to attending the Bransgore Beer Festival on the weekend of 23-25th September where we will be running our usual competition. For £1 a go you stand a chance of winning a £200 Brittany ferries travel voucher by a kind donation from Brittany Ferries, a £50 Wightlink Ferries travel voucher courtesy of Wightlink, a grocery hamper donated by the Co-op Store in Bransgore and other prizes.

Like most, our team watched the Olympics and were on the edge of our seats watching the cycling events. Riding on roads that were closed to the public they could go as fast as they could manage and fortunately none of those who were involved in the accidents have injuries from which they will not recover. Congratulations to the medal winners. However, our local roads are not closed to all traffic when organised cycle events are held and are certainly not a Velodrome. We have previously written to local cycle clubs and cycle event organisers requesting that their participants do not intentionally block traffic coming from behind them. On occasions that traffic has been a community responder trying to get to a life threatening emergency, only to be deliberately obstructed by one or two cyclists who consider the whole width of the road to be their own.

We must all share the road and act courteously and within the law but the roads across the Forest are uneven and potholed and there is also the hazard of ponies and cattle, deer, pedestrians (and their dogs) who also use the lanes and who have priority over mechanically propelled vehicles AND cyclists. Our team have no exemption from traffic law and have no blue lights and sirens when on way to a life threatening emergency where minute count. We do though appreciate and try to acknowledge the courtesy of others who recognise our cars and what we may be attending and who extend the courtesy of precedence and allow us through or out at junctions.

Thank You