Higham Lane North Academy and best cycle lane provision

THIS VIDEO
This ongoing Video Diary by myself John Neal, sometimes known as John Longcroft-Neal, as the whim takes me.

TODAY’S SUBJECT is another look at Higham Lane North Academy and first ride down the best cycle path in Nuneaton.

GENERAL STUFF
I am retired from two careers of primary school teaching when I was deputy head of a Middle School and Primary School, and as a self employed Chalkboard Artist from 2002 until I reached the grand old age of 65 in 2016. Since I retired it’s like a second childhood but with more expensive toys.

I have written a book ‘Cursive Handwriting for Adults’
published by Ulysses Press and can be purchased from:

AMAZON UK

AMAZON USA

Gear that I use:
DJI Mini 3 Drone.
Iphone 15 Pro for camera, generally front facing so I can see myself in frame. Super quality especially if I keep the lens clean.
Go Pro11
Sony IC recorder

Insta x3 360 camera

Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone

SE mini microphone to do voice over on computer
Video editing with Final Cut Pro X
Smatree Tripod / mono pod
Mono pod is a Manfrotto Compact MMC3-02 and is very useful for getting high angles that look like low flight drone shots and so easy to carry on my bike along with the mini tripod.

My bike is a e28.9 Estarli electric bike.

https://www.estarli.co.uk/

Money from ARTWORK SOLD will go to the MONA FOUNDATION
for details see https://www.monafoundation.org

I am a follower of the Bahá’i Faith and some of my philosophical ideas may show through in comments that I make, but, by and large, I’ll not make direct reference to my beliefs.

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/131048357093583
See www.bahá’i.org

I play guitar and write songs and have written about 14 songs for the local BBC radio station. I run a weekly (weakly) evening Acoustic session at a local pub and have been doing so for 14 years now.
Much of the music I use on this channel is taken from epidemicsound.com free to use on Youtube for a reasonable monthly fee, and sometimes I suffer you with my own music.

To hear my Bahá’i INSPIRED SONGS, (and others) GO TO:
https://soundcloud.com/jrwren/sets/bahai-inspired-songs

I now have three Facebook Pages
MUSIC
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574964972375

ART WORK
https://www.facebook.com/Johnnealartist/

Well, good morning. It’s John here. It’s Friday, the 18th of July, 2025, and I’m back. [Music] I say that almost as if uh I thought you’d miss me. Actually, one or two people I bumped into in town in here in Niton have said that they’ve watched the videos and they’ve enjoyed them and that I haven’t done one recently. Yeah. Well, it’s great to bump into you all and um thanks for for stopping by and saying hello and uh and for any comments that you have to make on any of the videos as well. Yes, I have been busy uh for the last two weeks at least, if not more. We’ve had visitors from the USA. my son, his wife and their two grand, my two grandchildren uh turned up for uh nearly uh two weeks and we did a lot of things and uh but I did have to do two major points. Uh that was to one teach them how to play cricket and secondly had to say the word tomato. Don’t forget this tomato back here which they’ve I think managed to do and I had spend about 5 days going through all the videos and photos to make a sort of a a family only video of all that. So, that’s done. Back on track. And I’ve got some good news actually because um uh about cycleways. Well, it’s partly good news. It’s a move in the right direction. But I’ll I’ll show you in a minute. By the way, if you can hear the road works outside, they’re finally cutting up Hyim Lane uh with road works because they’re putting a new electricity cable apparently from a substation in the middle of Neton right the way up to the top of Heim Lane. Uh because they need extra supply of electricity to the new houses up there. And they’re doing that for about six or so weeks. Um they got it quite quickly but yeah is finally properly being cut up because it was retarmarmaced about 10 years ago and it was absolutely wonderful and thought how long before they cut it and uh mess up the surface. Well, I think today’s the day. Anyway, uh let’s press on and let’s go to the top of him lane and I’ll show you what I found. [Music] [Music] Well, as you can see, there is a long black mark a line where they put this electric cable down the middle of the road. And uh ah interesting enough there’s a a water leak here as well. Look. Oh well, give me a chance to just uh tell you about what I’ve seen. Oh, by the way, if you hear a clicking, that’s part of uh the bottom bracket on mine starting. I’m trying to sort that out. I have since fixed it. The pedal cranks were not tight enough on the bottom bracket axle. They didn’t move, but they could have been tightened up a bit, particularly on the non-drive side. So, problem solved. at the top of the road here where they built the new school. Um they built uh along the road, there’s a major road really which going from Him Lane here and will connect through to um Weddington Road. And I’ve been in correspondence with the W County Council about provision for cycleways because I’m a bit disappointed that despite the fact there has been millions of pounds put aside to make cycleways, they are very reluctant to put um a reserve lane on the side of the road, which I thought would be easy. um they want to actually dig up the road and make a complete new cycle way, which would be great, but for the most roads, there’s nowhere to put it. They can’t do it. So, they’ve stopped, they’ve paused, and I have got a very wordy letter back from them, which is very good of them, telling me what the situation was. But um the roads that we have at the moment are not going to be adapted to take cyclists. And here I am now going up and down the dodging the potholes and the road work pieces uh on the same road as the as the traffic. Anyway, so what’s happened up here though is something quite interesting. Let me show you. I mean, look at this. Wow. Let me pull over. Oh, and rejoice in this uh provision for cyclists. Who would have thought it? It’s a cycle way. It’s not only a cycle way. It’s got a white line down the middle. So, you can uh for going this way and that way. Um and that is separate from this which is a foot path the cycle way and then the road the best cycle way I’ve seen in the neaten anywhere. So I’m really pleased. Uh it clearly shows here that when you come from home lane and turn onto this road which I don’t know what it’s called actually but it’s the connector between him lane and Weddington but the speed limit as you can see is 30 mph and I think this will be the route to go to the school but the speed limit on him lane is 40 mph. an hour, which seems a bit much really. And there’s considerable comment that it should be brought down to um 30 mph. And I would totally agree, 40 mph, because there are people coming from uh Milby School over there and coming along this way and no doubt going up and down Home Lane. Why it should be 40 on there, not sure. Right, let’s move on a bit. And uh yeah, I’m just uh quite impressed. By the way, there’s this um raised section here which is um separating the pedestrian area to the cycle way. Can’t believe it. And I tell you what else I can see, and that is and I’ve thought about this for a while. They got solar panels on these houses. but built in. They’re not all over the roofs, so I can only presume it’s enough to uh be effective. Wow. But solar panels built into the roof. Why they don’t do that all the time, I don’t know. Here’s another thing. Back in the day in the old terrace houses in in Coventry where I used to live, you used to be able to see water tanks on the backs of the terrace houses above what would be a sort of an extension but there’ be a wash house. So all the water from the roofs would be collected in a big tank and it would be soft water as well. So it’s very suitable for washing with. Why they don’t incorporate a collection of water in the new houses, I don’t know. Because with the climate change and the the drought that we’re having at the moment and uh water hose bite bans, um it seems silly that we don’t collect the rain water that falls on the houses so that they can use it to water the garden. And why not have a system where that water untreated of course but just generally rain water why it doesn’t get um used for the toilets. It seems silly. We get clean fresh water and throw it on the garden and chuck it down the toilet and now we’re running short of the stuff because it’s uh getting warmer and warmer. So anyway, we’ve got some uh solar panels on there, which is which is it’s a start at least anyway. Right, let’s move on. Let’s go down to uh the school and have a look because it’s going to be open this September which in a couple of months time [Music] So, here we are at Himl Lane North Academy. Or is it Himlane Academy North? Oh, I don’t know. Anyway, this is it. Look. And it’s nearly finished. There’s still a big big crane there. Apparently, it’s going to be open in September, which will be excellent and exciting that uh such a facility is coming to Naton cuz Hy Lane South is very successful. My two sons went there and they’ve both done well and uh yeah, lovely. I tell you what though, for me having been um a signw writer, I’d love to see the name of the school on the building somewhere. And I I got a fair bet that’s going to happen. We’ll see. Still, should we have a a look from higher up and see what it all looks like? Yeah, let’s do it. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Now, let’s go further along the road that joins Hyam Lane to Wellington Road and see how they get on here as well. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Well, that’s enough of that. Let’s do a quick 180 and head back towards the new school. [Music] [Music] Well, since we have this fine facility, I might as well um cycle away from the traffic [Music] in perfect safety. I wonder if I’m the first person who has cycled along here yet, but there’s a lot of traffic and yeah, this is excellent. Sorry, it’s a bit noisy now. So, I think I’ll uh I’ll sign off here and uh say thanks for watching and uh yeah, we’re back on track. More videos to come and uh yeah, you will see me next time. Okay, bye-bye. [Music]