Leisure centres and swimming pools are shutting across the country while prices for football pitches have soared as a result of huge cuts to local authority budgets

New statistics from British Cycling reveal that almost 5,000 more people across the whole of Yorkshire are getting on their bikes at least once a week, compared to before the Tour de France came to Yorkshire.

A cycle shop owner in Richmond Yorkshire said he had seen an explosion of interest in cycling, both for leisure and fitness.

Let’s hope this happens in Northumberland to some extent at least after the Tour of Britain Cycle Race visits Northumberland and passes through the Tyne Valley this September.