Ambition, Aspire, Achieve

We have led two more rides for AAA’s Saturday children’s cycling club – on 5 May and 2 June.

The first was a jaunt along the Greenway (first braving a traffic jam caused by a funeral in the West Ham Cemetry) and through Three Mills Green.  Notably we got a disability bike along the Channelsea Path linking Three Mills to the Greenway.

There was  very positive feedback from the eight children participating.

Duly inspired, and with a group of six slightly older children, our second ride ventured from the Greenway along the Lea towpath to the Olympic Park.  This gave us a chance to focus more on cycle  skills as well as taking some of the children to a part of Newham they had not been to before or had little knowledge of.

A great pleasure and success for them and us.

We are therefore trying to fit another ride in before the summer shut down.  If you might be able to help between 10.15 am and 12.45 pm on either Saturday 30 June or Saturday 7 July let me know at newham@lcc.org.uk

Arnold

 

Newham Ride 27 May 2018

A goodly band, including a contingent from south of the River, set out  without any expectation of avoiding at least one thunderstorm.

In the event we were blessed (as usual) with good weather and those that lasted to the end finished hot, but dry; all without mechanical mishap.

The ride was just over 16 miles around Newham with one small diversion to Trinity Buoy Wharf on the Tower Hamlets side of the mouth of the River Lea.

The intention was to pick up on some of the places of interest missed out in previous local rides.  What was remarkable was the scale of development along the Thames, from City Island to Gallions Reach.  Indeed  the new developments at Thames Barrier Park made it a difficult task to thread our way to the park.

Lets hope Newham ends up with a proper Thameside path!

Arnold

Readout from May 2018 Monthly Meeting

This was held on 21 May to avoid a bank holiday.  In the evening sunshine we took a quick ride around the rat runs of Manor Park,  between the Romford Road and East Av/Plashet Grove, either side of High Street North, leaving time for discussion in the garden of the Golden Fleece afterwards.

On Manor Park, Adam suggested how through traffic could be stopped by point road closures leaving groups of streets accessible (each group shown as the same colour on this map):

We decided to-

  • discuss the problem and possible solutions with Newham Council’s Sustainable Transport Officer and Newham Living Streets;
  • invite ideas for possible solutions.  If you have ideas or would like to participate in developing ideas please get in touch, by 10 June, to newham@lcc.org.uk and ratrunningssshm@gmail.com);
  •  continue to raise awareness of local residents, schools etc;
  • inform the new local councillors.

We discussed how to run our Freecycle feeder ride on 28 July.  We are looking at a new route.  Marshals are needed.  If you can help and have not already indicated please let me know on newham.lcc.org.uk  again by 10 June.

We were not impressed with the plans for Q6 Temple Mill Lane/Leyton Rd jucntion and will be renewing our objections.  It is imperative that the quietways reach an decent quality.  otherwise they will waste public money on infrastructure that will not attract cyclists.

We decided to run a programme of Councillor Rides to reinforce with our new Council the potential of and benefits from cycling in Newham.

Out third cycle of bike maintenance and ride with Ambition, Aspire, Achieve goes ahead over teh next two Saturdays.

Arnold

May Monthly Meeting

This will take place a week earlier than usual to avoid a bank holiday, on 21 May.

We will be doing a short fact finding ride of some rat runs in Manor Park

Start at the golden Fleece, Capel Rd at 7.30 pm and we will return there for discussion of our findings and other current topics – weather permitting in the garden.

Arnold

Readout from Annual Meeting

A lively Annual Meeting, with refreshment, was held at the East Ham Working Mens Club on 30 April 2018.  A turnout of 24 members and guests heard an interesting presentation by Dr Rachel Aldred, an LCC Trustee, on cycle safety.  She has undertaken a study which examined the various factors contributing to cycle safety such s the nature of the roads, the amount of traffic, the presence of bus lanes, speed limits and the number of cyclists.  One of her findings was that safety improved with a 20mph speed limit irrespective whether it was enforced or not.

This finding was complemented by Jeremy Leach from Living Streets London and 20’s Plenty who provided an optimistic view of recent developments including forthcoming speed limiters for buses.

Gerard Bailey, Chairman of Bike from Boleyn, thanked us for our contribution to the successful ride of thee previous day.

In addition to the matters raised in the report (see earlier post):

  • Newham Cyclists and Living Streets Newham jointly   met with the (now) Mayor of Newham, at her invitation;  she  subsequently pledged to submit a bid to TfL for a Low Traffic Neighbourhood.
  • Some residents in Manor Park are now wanting to take action against rat-running .  We will seek to assist.

On the business side the following Officers were elected for 2018-19:

  • Joint co-ordinators, Kerena Fussell and Arnold Ridout
  • Treasurer, Bill Bremner
  • Infrastructure Rep, Olawale Ajibola
  • Ride co-ordinator, Steve Smith.

The Accounts for 2017-18, the Budget for 2018-19 and the Annual  Report (see earlier post) were all approved.

Arnold

Bike from Boleyn Ride 29 April 2018

Our crack team of marshals was out in force to guide 70 riders (including a large contingent of children and their parents from Central Park School) from the Boleyn Statue to the London Stadium and back.   Some used dockless bikes provided by Mobikes.

Stephen Timms MP was amongst the riders as well as local councillors.

Most children also enjoyed a  session of football training from the West Ham Foundation at the Community Track.

The Newham Recorder has a full page spread (not yet available on line)

Unsolicited feedback was extremely positive.  A very successful event in partnership with the Bike from Boleyn organisation which demonstrated the value of the Greenway for getting around Newham.

Thanks also to Newham Council for providing a Dr Bike, facilitating the dockless bikes, and opening the big gates on the Greenway.

Annual Meeting this coming Monday

A reminder that our Annual Meeting takes place on Monday 30 April at 7.30pm at the East Ham Working Mens’ Club, Boleyn Road.

Interesting guests, interesting speakers, and there will be light refreshments.

In order to help get the formal business concluded as soon as possible and to stimulate discussion here is a

We hope to see you there.

Readout from meeting of 26 March 2018

A turnout of over 20 , including 2 Council Officers and two prospective Councillors participated in an interesting meeting:

  • Murray Woodburn, currently Head of Highways and Traffic  at Newham Council and Richard Wadey, Sustainable Transport Officer, presented Newham Council’s new Cycle Strategy (see earlier post) and answered a wide range of questions on it.  This discussion will inform further analysis planned for the annual report to be presented to the annual meeting on 30 April.
  •  This discussion also informed our further discussion on Living Streets where the emerging priorities (which, for this exercise combine practicality and political attraction) are for areas without through traffic in (a) the north of the Borough, (b) the Freemasons Rd/Custom house area, and (c) Green St area, plus enhancing corridors  (a) the Romford Rd, (b) Barking Rd, (c) Leyton Rd, and (d) A117.
  • The Council’s next LIP bid (for funding for transport projects) is due to be submitted to TfL in September  and there will only be a short time for this to be consulted upon.
  • A follow up audit ride of Stratford Gyratory will be organised.
  • We approved payment of £238.10 for the rebuild by Bill of our “Fix Your Ride” trailer.
  • We had a preliminary discussion of what next years’ budget may look like.
  • Francois Donnard presented the cycling offer  that Decathalon at Beckton was making involving supply of bikes and spares as well as training.  This looked a promising avenue to explore further.
  • Newham council have announced that their partnership for dockless bikes (a pilot of approximately 6 months schemes in West Ham and Royal Docks) will be with Mobike. This is not the LCC preferred supplier.

Arnold

 

 

Ride Report: COYI 4 March

Throughout the cold spell the dream of the “Come on You Irons” West Ham United themed ride did not fade and die and  we were rewarded by starting off the ride in the usual Newham Cyclists balmy weather conditions.  Things did take a turn for the worse with thicker cloud cover and being too early for the coffee stall at Cody Dock.

Undeterred the band of 11 continued through quiet back streets and off road routes to visit 4 of the five sites where West Ham play(ed) and the site of the Thames Ironworks.

Refreshment having been taken in the Royal Docks were were joined by three more for the last leg to the Boleyn Statue commemorating West Ham winning the World Cup

Here was a welcoming party from our partners in Bike from Boleyn, including Bobby Seagull.

Arnold