metJuly08

NOTES OF HFCYCLISTS MEETING
Tuesday 1 July 2008, 7.15pm for 7.30pm

Held at 122c Edith rd, West Kensington, W14 9AP

Home of John Griffiths, corner of Edith road and North End rd.

PRESENT: John Griffiths, Julie Askins, Phil Lamond, Sophie Gisbert, David Marsh, Bill Ogden, Susie Gretz, Chintan Makwana.

APOLOGIES: David Balding, Stephen Burke, Paul Alexander, Bjorn Volk, Marlene Pope, Paul Saunderson.

GREENFEST:
General opinion is that it was the best GREENFEST yet and we should congratulate ourselves and definitely apply for grant for next year. We were impressed by the music, and the whole atmosphere, and by the enthusiasm of all the people involved.

Ideas for more activities at Greenfest include: circus skills workshop and stall, extend the manual lathe stall to include workshop. Have artists / sculptors showing their work and getting people involved.

David suggested contacting EMI or other studios about music for next year. He also had contacts for people organising crafts at Glastonbury and the Big Green Gathering.

John pointed out that we cannot have many more stalls in the area, but we can make sure we have the most interesting ones. On the music front there are a lot of groups and promoters contacting us, wanting to play.

It would be good to have more volunteers for the hfcyclists' stall. And to put more emphasis on getting people to join our email list so that we can widen our base.

Susie brought her map along where people at the festival had placed stickers showing problem places for cyclists and had collated their comments. Main hotspots brought up were Hammersmith Bridge, Hammersmith gyratory, and Kensington High street, Shepherds Bush Green and Holland Park avenue, and Du Cane rd. We will put this on the web soon.

TRAFFIC SIGNALS
Dr Pat Tookey has been pleading with officials to correct the problem with the signals on the A40 at Hilary rd, near Acton Circus. Apparently cyclists and pedestrians can be led to cross when the main A40 traffic is flowing. She would hope that the signal that is either wired wrongly or pointing the wrong way can be hooded or disconnected until the problem is properly sorted.

WESTFIELD:
John has recently sent to a document to some Councillors clarifying what he sees as problems with cycling and the Westfield plans for Shepherds Bush Green. The main one is expecting cyclists wishing to take a safe route around the Holland Park roundabout to exit the carriageway through the people waiting to cross at a crossing. Other problems are that it is unclear how many lanes of traffic there will be, and the width of lanes on a curve, where they should be widened.

Download the file as a pdf file [1.4Mb]
http://www.hfcyclists.org.uk/WestfieldPlanningComments.pdf

or as a Word doc [1.8Mb].
http://www.hfcyclists.org.uk/WestfieldPlanningComments.doc

John also wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly MP, believing that as the changes were being made to the Strategic Road Network, a special safety audit for pedestrians and cyclists should be carried out. However this may not be the case, as the highways work is being done under a section 278 agreement rather than through a planning application, however much the two may be entwined.

One result is that Cllr Nick Botterill has a called for a meeting of officers concerned on 3 July 2008 to see if things can be improved for cyclists and others.

A slight hiccup in all of this is that the dogs for the blind group are not very happy about shared use. If shared use is completely removed from the equation then there would be no off-carriageway safe routes, as parts of these are in places where it is too narrow to have segregated paths.

Rebecca Kent from the Gazette may be doing an article on cycling at Shepherds Bush Green that might appear this Friday.

Susie and John to do cycle count tomorrow [Wednesday] morning.

There is to be an open meeting of the Borough Partnership for community and voluntary sector groups on 9 July, 11am to 1.30pm. Bill is a representative on this panel through our group. It is a forum which the leader of the Council, Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, and other important people are discussing transport on this occasion. Bill is reading some of our notes, and let us hope he can effectively impress them with our message.

RAVENSCOURT PARK
Simon Franklin the LBHF Cycling officer has asked for our comments on introducing shared use paths in parks, and in Ravenscourt Park to start with. The wide main north/ south path past the tennis courts is the first suggestion.

At the moment cycling in Ravenscourt Park is tolerated everywhere. The group felt that if it was made officially shared use on one path, it is the equivalent of banning cycling on other paths. Julie pointed out that the north-south route on the west side of the park is used by cyclists, but is also narrow and has lots of children on it. Julie said you cannot possibly go fast on it, so there is no point in banning cycling there, which is what appears to be the likely outcome. A better approach would be to watch what is happening first, and if there appear to be no problems, make the whole park shared use. The main north -south path has narrow parts at the north if you want to actually go anywhere, rather than just turn round at the café. This approach would also be cheaper and involve less signs and markings.

Concerning other parks, suggestions for official shared use include:
Hammersmith Park [used a lot by cyclists, and looked at during the recent LCN+ route 73 CRISP]
Magravine cemetery,
Normand Park, and Nigel Playfair park, when they both are refurbished.

Susie pointed out that it would be useful to have large scale maps of the parks, and perhaps a meeting, or a cycle tour, with the officers concerned.

VOLUNTEERING

Opportunities at the following
Move it at the Manor Festival, Sutton - Sunday 13th July (12 - 6.30pm)
http://www.smartertravelsutton.org/festival
Tour de Hackney (Sunday 17th August) - marshals needed to help on a led ride around the borough during the Shoreditch Festival.
Freewheel (Sunday 21st September) - marshals and general helpers needed.

Contact: Julie Tublin /Volunteer Coordinator / London Cycling Campaign
t 020 7234 9310 ext 215 / julie@lcc.org.uk

EXPENSES
John had expenses for refreshments of £26.07

DATE AND PLACE OF NEXT MEETING
Tuesday 5 August, 7.15pm for 7.30pm at the home of Susie Gretz.
4a Eynham rd, W12 0HA
The meeting will be quite short, and will be followed by a party in the garden.

NOTES: By Julie Askins [Secretary] and John Griffiths

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