metMarch05

Notes of hfcyclists Meeting

Tuesday 8 March 2005 , 7.30pm in the Info Centre

PRESENT: John Griffiths, Louanne Tranchel, Paul Alexander, John Smits, Rebecca Van Klinken, Jonathan Gurney, Roger de Freitas,

APOLOGIES:, Mo Morgan, John Gilbert, Bill Ogden, Chris Tranchel, Alan Rowden, Chris Bainbridge.

RIDES OVER THE COMING WEEKS

We have some rides over the coming weeks. For further details see
www.hfcyclists.org.uk/rides.htm

Sunday 20th March
Parks and Canals ride / will be 12 miles, using a mixture of main roads, side roads, traffic-free paths and the canal towpath.
Meet outside Hammersmith Town Hall at 10:00 [Jonathan]

Sunday 3 April 2005,
Short CYCLE ride to the monthly Car Boot Sale at the Chiswick Community School, and Farmers Market nearby. Meet 10am beside the river at Furnivall Gardens, [John]

Sunday 10 April 2005
Family CYCLE ride with picnic to Richmond Park
Meet 1pm beside the river at Furnivall Gardens, [John]

Sunday 17 April 2005
Wild life photographic CYCLE safari.
Meet 1pm beside the river at Furnivall Gardens, [John]

Also on Easter Sunday 27 March John G is organising a barbecue to watch the boatrace. at 1.30pm at milepost. See web as above for details.

Rebecca and Paul indicated that they would be involved in rides.

Jonathan has also booked on a CTC train outing to Rugby - perhaps he will give details

RIDING AROUND CHINA

Rebecca going of to China at end of May. To cycle for 5 days on a charity ride for Mencap. Something like 100 km / day.

REPRESENTATION AT LCN+ NW sector meetings

[Sorry, this is all a bit technical, but we want to be in the loop of what is happening, not just to hear about things after they are being implemented, glossary below]

Our relationship with the Council has been going well recently. For example, John Griffiths has been to a LCN+ CRIM meeting and a LCN+ CRISP meeting, both concerning Shepherds Bush Green. The hfcyclists group has started having successful liaison meetings with Chris Bainbridge and others. John Griffiths has attended a confidential planning discussion with Phil Nichols and Chris Bainbridge and engineers concerning the future of King Street.

However there has been a set back in that John Griffiths as a representative of the LCC, and Jeremy Parker from Barnet as a representative of the CTC, have not been invited to a recent meeting of the LCN+ NW sector. We have been attending regularly over the last year or so and are upset that this avenue for high level and early communication appears to have been cut off.

LBHF is the sector leader and gains financially from this privileged position. Simon Franklin is the lead Officer. These are planning / organisation meetings attended by the Borough Cycling Officers from the boroughs in the sector, LCN+ personnel and consultants working on LCN+ schemes.

John Griffiths has written to Simon Franklin on 7 March, and Tom Bogdanowicz, the LCC Campaigns Manager at head office, has written to Festus Agwu-Jones at LCN+ on 8 March, hoping to have this situation reversed.

We will wait until 14 March to hopefully be informed that we will continue to be invited to these meetings in the future. Should this not happen, the group resolved to send a letter to the leader of the Council, Cllr Andrew Slaughter. John had produced a draft letter that the group approved. We hope that if the previous attempts fail the Leader may be able to resolve the matter.

LCN+ London Cycling Network plus
CRIM Cycle Route Inspection Meeting
CRISP Cycle Route Implementation and Stakeholder Plan
LCC London cycling Campaign
CTC Cycle Touring Club

WHAT IS HAPPENING AT SBG - Will they leave the traffic signal in the middle of the cycle track?

The planning at the Wood Lane / Uxbridge rd junction at Shepherds Bush Green is not something to give you great confidence. A cycle track that went into a brick toilet. They move the cycle track and a traffic signal is planted in it. All the pedestrians and cyclists going to and from the green are squeezed between a large plane tree and the toilet block. By the Barclays bank a cycle path cuts straight across the pedestrian route on the island. At that point there is not a dropped kerb where pedestrians would naturally want to cross. They widen the road coming up from Hammersmith to make a race track, and then put a feeder lane into the Advanced Stop Line on the right hand side. Not clear why it is not on the left hand side. Cyclists from Goldhawk rd would have to cross 3 lane to get into it, and then cross another 2or 3 to get back to the left hand side of the Uxbridge rd going into town.

A few days ago John G stopped to chat to a couple of yellow jacketed men looking at this traffic signal post. They came from the Traffic Signals lot, rather than the Council They just shook their heads. Will they move the post, or move the cycle track?

The Highways department hope to demolish the toilet block, which houses an electricity substation, in perhaps nine months to a year's time.

AND ELSEWHERE? KING STREET

John G has been to a confidential planning meeting about changes that may happen to King Street. John asked Chris Bainbridge what could be said about the plans.

"The cycle lane will be retained, but will be repaved (so that it will be easier to keep clean). Alternative strategic routes via the A4 and Glenthorne Road will also be developed and improved. The scheme is seen as "upgrading through maintenance" so there won't be a formal public consultation but hfcyclists, as a key stakeholder, is welcome to come in and discuss with Highways. Intention is to start works in April"

John G and Roger perhaps may arrange to discuss the plans.

John G is surprised that if a cycle shed in a front garden is contrary to planning regulations, what appeared to be a major change to the layout of King street can slip through as "redecoration". However we welcome the plans if they are satisfactory, and improve the nature of King Street.

About the right turn if you are coming from Chiswick and want to turn right in front of the Town Hall into Nigel Playfair street. If it were to be a recommended route, the right turn should be made easier by having some way of slowing the westbound traffic in King Street that you have to cross. And the pavement along the A4 is not very satisfactory for cycling.

We talked about Lyric Square, which we accept is not going to be a formal cycle route.

WEST LONDON GREEN FESTIVAL

On 19 June. John has paid £40 to the parks dept for use of the park. There are planning meetings for this every 3 weeks or so. If you would like to be involved please contact John G.

LONDON to BRIGHTON

Paul keen to get a group together to enter the London to Brighton charity ride. This is on the same day as the festival alas, the 19 June. Suggest Paul sends an email to the group about it

INVOLVEMENT

John Smits hoped that at the next Liaison meeting with the Council more of us would turn up. Rebecca said that she would hope to come along. John G said that we need to publicise ourselves more. John will get some leaflets and posters together. Rebecca will put some somewhere.

CLEM ATLEE ESTATE

Paul worried that permeability to bikes reduced by barriers. From North End Road, if you enter Coomer Place and try and continue, a problem. Roger thought put in to stop pizza delivery. We will get to look at it.

OYBIKE

Not much activity seen. Apart from trying to give someone an ipod for visiting the website and filling in a questionnaire. Now over. Roger, in his sense of public spiritedness, regularly empties the basket of his local static machine.

John S said he thought the idea good. Paul said that public money that could have gone to other cycling causes should not have been spent on this enterprise, dressed up as not for profit for the trial.

John G thought the idea of using a mobile phone to hire a bike good. However he thought that the adventure was technology driven rather than demand driven, and was not based on what potential customers would want. Much more effort appears to have been spent on creating a system for placing advertising on the street than on satisfying user requirements.

A LOOK AT THE DRAFT LIP
[LOCAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN]

This is a very impressive document, over 300 pages long. Full of policy, cross references to the Mayors plan for London, etc.

John had marked up several passages in it, but it was thought that the best course of action would be for John to send an email with his comments to the group. You can obtain a copy of the draft LIP from by contacting Johanna Gibbons on 020 8753 2377 or
johanna.gibbons@lbhf.gov.uk We will then make a formal group response.

The LIP and the LDF [local development framework] are on the agenda of the ERSP [environment and regeneration scrutiny panel] on Monday 14 March 7pm at the town hall. If you want to learn more about these things it is recommended. Free coffee and biscuits as a draw.

Some initial thoughts on it-[hopefully correct, but not totally guaranteed]

Nothing about putting an emphasis on parking control to keep cycle lanes clear
Nothing about dead bikes being removed from stands/railings, and what might happen to them.
Nothing about 20mph on Hammersmith Bridge, or making it safer,
Nothing about co-operation with us, as opposed to consultation.

Many little points, like the proposed bridge at white city, advantageous for pedestrians, neutral for cyclists. [I thought this bridge over the motorway spur was going to be for pedestrians and cyclists]

Please get a copy of the draft LIP so that you can contribute. Remember this is a draft document, it is on a computer and can easily be added to / modified.

On a scale of 10, one could assign marks for
a) presentation [very good]
b) content
c) reality ie what actually happens when these laudable aspirations are turned into concrete as at SBG, and you have to put your life on the line.

EXPENSES

£40 for park fee for festival
£15.52 for refreshments, one bottle of wine left for next time.

DATE FOR NEXT MEETING

5 April / 3 May at 7.30pm in the info centre.

John Griffiths [chair / co-ordinator]
020 7371 1290 / 07789 095 748
john@truefeelings.com
OUR WEBSITE www.hfcyclists.org.uk