There have been several false stories about Bespoke spread on social media recently. One of them is that Bespoke was set up and funded by the Eastbourne Liberal Democrats.
We asked the original founder of Bespoke and its current co-chair, Felicity Goodson, to explain in her own words what really happened.
Felicity writes…
“I was teaching my yoga class at Bannatynes. Susan Morris, who had attended my class for some time, and realised my passion for cycling as a way to tackle green house gas emissions, improve health, empower all people what ever age or income, and my rantings on the lack of action nationwide and locally for safe cycle paths, said I should consider setting up a group to work towards it.
Susan was a Lib Dem Councillor for Tourism later on. That was it. I knew her as a friend interested in yoga.
I thought about it, and then spoke to Jay (McNally) and other like-minded souls. I came up with the title Bespoke, and a large gathering heralded the first meeting with Jay and myself presenting the idea of Bespoke as a cycle campaign group.
There was no political party involved or funding and to begin with, we used our own money and efforts to make things like mass rides and bike sheds happen. We were parents and grandparents, trying to cycle our children to school. It was all a case of finding our way as we were all novice lobbyists and campaigners from all walks of life.”
