Category: Readouts

Readout of July 2024 meeting

We rode from the Atherton Centre along the new Romford Road cycleways, and collected feedback from attendees. We then rode to Here East.

At the subsequent meeting we discussed:

  • The Romford Road cycleways –  generally we are very happy with the improvements  but have the following comments:
  • As we expected (and as we warned in our initial consultation response in January 2023) there’s a problem with the entrance to the cycle track after Woodgrange Road. The geometry is awkward and requires those cycling to take primary and then swerve to enter ’their’ lane.
  • The geometry of the ends of the cycle tracks makes it difficult for those cycling to re-join the carriageway.

We will ask for additional feedback via groups.io, and then send feedback to the Romford Road team.

  • Greenway closure for 18 months: we met with Newham Council (Highways and Sustainable Transport) and Thames Water earlier today and rode the proposed diversion. Our feedback was that Abbey Road is unsafe. It is possible that the road could be closed to traffic, and another possibility could be a diversion via Crow’s Bridge. We await feedback from Newham.
  • Excel – we received a complaint about cycling safety at Excel which we escalated. We have received a response from Excel which states that the waterfron route will reopen “in the autumn”. We will monitor the situation.
  • Proposed Silvertown and Blackwall tunnel tolls: we will respond to this consultation. We have already responded negatively to the ‘bike bus’ consultation and will continue to campaign for meaningful walking and cycling river crossings.
  • Woolwich foot tunnel Northern lift has been out of action for some time and one of our members has reported that there appears to be an impasse between Newham and Greenwich on cost of repairs. We contacted Newham Council. UPDATE: the councils have struck a deal to repair the lift .
  • TFL staff  questioning legitimate bike transport on the Elizabeth line, at Liverpool Street – this has been referred to LCC.

Please contact us through this site if you would like further information.

Readout of June 2024 meeting

24 June 2024: Seven of us gathered at a new venue for us, the Well Centre in East Ham (home of the Bonny Downs Community Association.)

There are forthcoming rides on Saturday 7 July (Greensted Church), and on 14 July (West Ham United-themed Newham Ride).

There will be Fix Your Ride stalls at Woodgrange School Summer Fete on 29 June, and at Forest Gate Festival on 6 July. The roster for 6 July is looking thin so if you are able to help that would be most welcome.

At some of our recent Fix Your Ride events, we have helped repair bikes which have been donated to refugees in our borough. These bikes typically require more attention than many others, and often more than we can offer at the Woodgrange Market stall. In some cases we have had to turn people away from the stall due to a lack of capacity. We discussed how to manage this situation, and have decided to explore some suggestions of how we can more effectively help refugees get their cycles roadworthy.

Infrastructure

  • Action in response to the 97 bus incident in Temple Mill Lane is ongoing.
  • There is a meeting arranged with the Romford Road Active Travel Scheme team. We reviewed progress to date and prospects for further progress.
  • We were pleased to attend a site visit of the in-progress Westfield Avenue scheme and meet with the engineers, project sponsors, and other stakeholders. This is a high quality scheme in which good progress is being made, and we are pleased to see efforts being made to retain safe pedestrian and cycle access throughout.
  • The Royal Docks corridor scheme, again high quality, is progressing.
  • We discussed the principles to be pursued at a forthcoming meeting with developers of a site on Stratford High Street.  This is an excellent opportunity to influence in favour of active travel at an early stage of this project.

Outreach

We discussed outreach.  There are 12 sign ups to the new discussion group; regular newsletters are being issued: we are rotating our meetings around the borough; we plan a QR code link to the sign up for the newsletter to extend its reach further; and discussed possible action at university Fresher’s Fairs in the area.

AOB

We have sent letters to candidates in the General Election for whom we were able to trace contact details.

If you would like further details on any of these matters, please get in touch.

Readout compiled by Arnold Ridout & Jonathan Rothwell.

Readout of May 2024 meeting

The meeting took place at the Olympic Park, post Freecycle ride.

Upcoming events and support required

8/6 Fix your Ride – people allocated. 29/6 school fete – do we have sufficient support for this? Forest Gate Festival 6th July  – people allocated – need to check if there is room for outreach (KF)

Planning meeting in November – items to complete

SOP for  our group – to provide visibility of roles and to allow others to take on roles.

Ride calendar (in parallel with FYR and AAA dates if possible, to avoid calendar clashes). Ideally a range of people will lead a range of rides. We can ask people if they have a ride they would like to lead, or offer them rides which require leading. We will ask LCC for ride leader and Marshall training/youth opps /safeguarding training at the local groups meeting. Possible new rides – Cambridge – with Dunwich dynamo to Morton then back from Epping.

What is the best way to share documents? Find out if everyone can edit a google spreadsheet (JR)

Marketing

Bike flags we ordered – where are they? NC tabards – numbers and prices?Stickers?

Bicycle agony aunt – via the newsletter?

Cyclists breakfast – Greenway? Timing for this?

Infrastructure

The new Infrastructure group requires a separate mailing list – Chris Kershaw to organise.

Romford Road scheme – are the old bustops being taken away?

Salway Place – is this restricted now?

Temple Mill Lane – 97 bus bridge incident – approach:

  • letter to bus garage – who?
  • Approach TfL buses – Simon has a regular meeting with TFL buses, can we use this?

Readout from Annual Meeting of 30 April 2024

A pleasing and convivial turnout at Canning Town Library, a new venue for us.

We were entertained by  Shameem and Nasim from Cycle Sisters, an award-winning charity which inspires and enables Muslim women to cycle, who gave an inspirational talk on their cycling journey.

We elected the following officers:

·      Co-ordinator: Jonathan Rothwell


·       Treasurer: Bill Bremner


·       Secretary: vacant (role to be fulfilled by Co-ordinator
and others on the committee)


·       Deputy co-ordinator (with outreach portfolio): Karen Flanagan


·       Rides co-ordinator: Steve Smith


·       Infrastructure lead: Chris Kershaw


·       Olympic Park rep: vacant, potentially to merge into new
infrastructure working group


·       Community Infrastructure (Fund) rep: vacant,
potentially to merge into new infrastructure working group


·      Deputy Treasurer: vacant.

We approved the annual accounts for 2023 – 24 and the budget for 2024 -25 presented by the Treasurer.

We noted the Annual report for 2023 -24.

Our business included lively conversation local cycling issues, including the need to leverage benefits for active travel from the plethora of major developments in the pipeline, progress on the Romford Road Active Travel Scheme, improving our outreach across the whole of Newham, extending our partnerships, and a variety of forthcoming events – the Newham Green Fair, rides based on Lea Valley Nature Reserves and Essex Country Lanes, our participation in the London Freecycle and support for the children’s cycling club at Ambition, Aspire, Achieve.

Readout from 29 January Meeting

Our Ride Programme is now listed on this website and on LCC website.

In accordance with LCC changes to rides limited to 15, which is plenty for our local rides, there is a new  risk assessment template which requires both a leader and a backmarker to be named. We will indicate in advance that there is a maximum of 15 and first 15 who have signed in will be guaranteed a place.  Larger rides over 15 require the risk as assessment to be signed off by LCC Office.

Our next ride is the Women’s Freedom Ride feeder on 3 March for which marshals needed.

We are running a ride for the children of the Ambition, Aspire, Achieve children’s cycle clubs on 24 February.  At the moment there are not enough volunteers to run bike maintenance sessions for these clubs.  If you would be interested (weekends or weekdays) please contact Arnold

We anticipate running a Bike from Boleyn Ride in April/May

Fix your Ride will start again on March 9.

We agreed to participate in Green Fair run by Sustainable Newham in West Ham Park on 6 May and will look to provide some bike maintenance and outreach/information.

In respect of the Newham Cyclists bank accounts we are in the process of changing the signatories to reflect the current Committee.

In respect of Community/Public Engagement, there are 358  people connected to Newham Cyclists, either as LCC members in Newham, or via the mailing list or both, but 223 people on the mailing list. Karen will ask LCC to email the 125 members who do not receive our newsletter, and ask if they want to sign up.

She will also laminate a newsletter QR code so that people at Fix Your Ride and other events can scan if they wish to sign up.

There will be a separate meeting (1 hour, virtual) to discuss strategy for increasing and diversifying membership.  Anyone  I would like to participate should contact Karen who would also welcome contributions for a forthcoming planned newsletter

Infrastructure

  • Olawale met Newham Council’s Romford Road Active Travel Scheme team in January. The only new development was on the stretching of the phases of development, with separate sections within each phase.  The next section in planning will be the south side of Romford Rd between Dershingham Ave and Fifth Ave.  This will be considered by the Council Cabinet on 5 Feb. 

    Implementation of the scheme and opening sections, including public engagement events,  has been slow and there are issues such as puddling on some of the sections built.  However the Council has a good project engineer and an experienced project manager has recently been appointed.  There remains issues TFL and the omission of major junctions.  Olawale invited comments and suggestions for consideration be the Committee.
      
  • Newham council are promoting a cycle route via Osborne and Hampton Rds – running parallel to the Romford Rd –  by stencils on road and minimal signage.  At the moment it is considered unsuitable s and it was agreed that we should ensure that this was not an alternative to improving the Romford Rd.  Both routes need to be safe.
      
  • Council proposing making existing bus lanes 24/7 on New Plaistow Rd-Plaistow Rd-West Ham Lane. It is encouraging that there is acceptance that the bus lanes should be 24 7 given the reluctance of TfL to follow their own policy at the awful Greengate St/Barking Rd junction and Prince Regent bus priority schemes.  However there should be continuous bus lanes on both sides of these roads as they are part of  Cycle Future Route 7.  This is especially important especially between Plaistow Station and Barking Rd. 
  • The proposals contained in Traffic Orders for the Beckton Walking and Cycling Scheme – essentially Tollgate Rd and south part of Woolwich Manor Rd look good but don’t cover the whole of Tollgate Rd and do not address the linking A13 and Tollgate Rd. Newham Cyclists responded to these proposals in 2022 and there will be a supportive response to the Traffic orders. 
  • Councillor Tripp looking for comments on transport side of the proposal for use of the Capel Rd Changing Rooms especially in light of reopening car park, which could impact on Cycleway 16.  Comments can be offered direct to her via Kerena.
  • East Village Connections proposals are going to consultation next month. The main features are 2 way cycle tracks on Celebration Ave and Penny Brookes St and improvement of Liberty Bridge Rd.  These proposals link to the northern section of Cycle Future Route 7.  Issues include: International Way being descoped for present due to development and no space for segregated tracks on Liberty Bridge itself.  A bus gate or bringing this within the existing school street  are potential alleviating measures –  the former by preference.
  • Work on the excellent   Westfield Ave scheme has started.
  • Work on Honourlea Ave mostly complete and funding is now available for the long awaited drop kerb and parallel crossing suitable to facilitate cycling into the park area. to facilitate crossing into park at west end for parallel crossing.
  • TfL are to consult on changes to the Lower Lea Crossing.  The proposals look very cumbersome and scanty given the pressure to come (and the finance available from) the Silvertown Tunnel.   Any suggestions on what is needed in this area can be made to Jonathan.
  • Planning permission has been granted for the Crown Wharf development without taking on board Newham Cyclists suggestions for a pontoon path under A13 to link to CS3.

Any Other Business

  • It is proposed to hold the AGM on 22 or 29 April.  All posts are up for re-election. 
  • The LCC Local Group Forum link includes notes on the LCC strategy plan for the forthcoming mayoral election.
  • A Cargo Bike celebration event on 28 January 2024 was a timely  demonstration of parking for cargo bikes and adapted bikes.  It would be good for Newham Council to promote this type of facility  forward, consistent with its active travel, health and climate change policies.

Next meeting 26 February.

Readout from 27 November 2023 Meeting

Ted Maxwell, representing the informal group Save Our Safer Streets, spoke about the removal of the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Tower Hamlets even after being made permanent. The meeting was supportive of the campaign. Ted outlined ways in which Newham Cyclists could provide practical asistance .

There has been one Newham Ride since the last meeting, on 12th November 2023. Next ride is the Christmas Lights Ride on 10 December 2023. There was discussion on improving the link with the LCC website and providing a GPS link of our rides.

The ride for the Ambition, Aspire, Achieve (AAA) children’s club proposed for 2 December 2023 will not go ahead because AAA are engaged with their toy delivery then. A new calendar will be put together for maintenance and rides in the New Year.

Fix Your Ride (FYR) has now finished for 2023. It will start again in 2024.

On infrastructure:

  • The opening of phase #1 of the Romford Road Active Travel Scheme (RRATS) scheme will happen when the Council is satisfied with the safety. The regular NC dialogue (which is good on this particular project) will continue. There will be a further liaison meeting in December 2023 when there should be information on Phase #2. Public engagement events are planned by the Council for December 2023.
  • Implementation of the borough-wide 20mph speed limit will be implemented in #4 Phases , northern part of the borough to the southern part. The traffic order for Phase #1 has been published. Liaison will continue with the organisation 20 is Plenty and other interested organisation in case of problems in implementation and to ensure enforcement.
  • A response has been submitted to the Bromley-by Bow Gasworks (BBBG) planning application raising the fact that some of the critical roads for local Active Travel connectivity are currently designated as “private roads” i.e. not adopted or controlled by LB Newham so don’t .
  • The Mayor of London (MoL) has rejected the planning application for the MSG Sphere (to be located next to Stratford railway station), to which Newham Cyclists had objected.
  • LB Newham Liveable Neighbourhoods team have proposals for complementary measures for Low Traffic Neighbourhood/LTN 2 (Odessa) includes proposals for complimentary measures. The exact nature of these are not clear from the Council’s website.

There was feedback from the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) Campaigning Summit. A key message was that campaigning by ‘personal witness’ stories was more effective that reliance on ‘dry data’ (to promote and support cycling). There were also tips on improving outreach through partner organisations and cycle shops. A strategy could usefully include means to attract younger activists. A consolidation of mailing lists increased the numbers by 10%. The suggestion of a separate meeting of the interested to develop an outreach strategy was favourably received.

Other business:

  • London Cycling Campaign (LCC) Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday, 6th of December 2023.
  • Voting ends on 29 November for the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) Board of Trustees interest/Board elections 2023.
  • The Newham Cyclists Christmas Social is scheduled 11 December 2023 at the Boleyn Tavern. For those wanting the Christmas menu the choice of dishes needs to be given to Arnold by 3 December.
  • The suggestion to look into the activities of the Safer Transport Team of Newham Police command, if it exists, will be looked into.

Readout from 25 September 2023 Meeting


Newham Cyclists are now using the registration facility for our social cycle rides on the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) website.

The next social cycle ride will be the Bike from Boleyn Ride on Sunday 8th of October 2023 from the ‘Champions Statue’ (opposite the Boleyn Tavern) to the London Stadium to coincide with the West Ham United FC (WHUFC) home English Premier League(EPL) match. If you are available to marshal please contact Arnold.

NC are putting together an autumn programme of maintenance and a ride for the children’s cycle club at the charity Ambition, Aspire, Achieve (AAA) with whom we have been partnering with for some years.

The NC September 2023 cycle maintenance event Fix Your Ride (FYR) stall was not as busy as the previous month but there were nevertheless generous donations.

NC have had regular monthly meetings with the LB Newham council team working on the Romford Road Active Travel Scheme (RRATS) improvements. At the September 2023 meeting it was stated that the completion of phase 1 has been pushed back to December this year (2023) and phase 2 (at the Ilford end of the scheme) will not now start until the New Year (2024). A current project recurring ‘issue’ has been the need to secure approvals from the Transport of London (TfL) bus team with regards to the existing bus service enabling infrastructure on Romford
Road, but LB Newham plan to seek approval for the whole RRATS project from TfL by July 2024.

The LB Newham RRATS team are planning a further public engagement event next month (October 2023). A very important point was made at the meeting which was that what had been constructed/installed and planned so far was good, but there needed to be more publicity and explanations of the overall plans to provide reassurance and continuing support for the project and final aims. Delays on the implementation of RRATS caused by TfL ‘issues’ were a concern and if this jeopardised the current scheme (for which time limited central government funding is at stake) then an earlier Newham council plan based on making existing Romford Road bus lanes 24 hour operational and and existing cycle lanes mandatory could be deployed. It will be useful to engage with London Cycling Campaign (LCC) HQ on these issues.

There was a NC Catch Up meeting with Richard Wadey (the new LB Newham Head of Transport Policies and Programmes) on the Tuesday, 8th of August 2023.

The Catch-Up meeting discussion centred around the financing of LB Newham’s sustainable transport developments for which there was £5m from the capital budget for the 2023/24 financial year. Highlights of the Catch Up meeting were :

1 A LB Newham borough-wide 20mph speed limit on borough adopted roads had been approved by the LB Newham cabinet on the 5th of September 2023.

2. A programme of installing bike hangers (aka on-street secure cycle parking
storage units) was progressing. The council wanted these storage units spread across the whole borough.

3. 4 more Healthy School Streets (HSS) were proceeding taking the total up to 25 (out of a possible 84 borough schemes).

5. Consultation was proceeding on the TfL Cycle Future Route (CFR7) [Leytonstone to Stratford section] – a high cycleway quality scheme. However there were no plans announced for the section of CFR7 from Stratford Town Centre southwards towards Plaistow and Barking Road A124 along the current A112 alignment.

6. Early work had started on the proposed Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN 8) area scheme (south of the Romford Road A118 alignment). NC plan to accompany council officials on a planned audit ride on 26th of September 2023.

7. Work was under way on improvements to the environment within existing LTNs with regards to new Public Realm schemes around the filter location areas.

8. No further progress to report on the proposed LTNs 5 (Woodgrange) and 6
(Capel). The sense of the meeting was concern at the lack of progress given the
money already spent and allocated to these schemes in the near future. If the
problem was primarily with proposed LTN 5 scheme then the council should be
urged to implement the LTN 6 scheme separately where their seems to be better
political and general support for implementation. The closure of Balmoral Bridge to ‘cut through’ or ‘rat running’ motor traffic (including from residents of LTN 5) would be a ‘step change’ improvement.

Other infrastructure news:

There are tours of the proposed development at the Bromley by Bow Gasworks
(BBBG) mentioned and continuing engagement on the development’s Active Travel modes intention and provision.

NC have been active in consultation response on the Beckton Riverside proposals. These include much needed improvements to Tollgate Road and Woolwich Manor Way for Active Travel modes. We were pressing for Active Travel mode facility improvements within the development area itself.

NC have submitted a highly critical response to the Silvertown Tunnel Active Travel proposals.

AOB:

The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) Volunteers and Campaigning Summit will take place on Saturday, 18th of November 2023. We discussed the NC Social Media strategy. It needs to become more active and be aligned with that of the LCC itself.

improvements within the development area itself. NC have submitted a highly critical response to the Silvertown Tunnel Active Travel proposals.

AOB:


The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) Volunteers and Campaigning Summit will take place on Saturday, 18th of November 2023.

We discussed the NC Social Media strategy. It needs to become more active and be aligned with that of the LCC itself.


Readout from 31 July 2023 Meeting

The rain relented to allow a short ride to look at the first short section of the north Woolwich Rd upgrade. It is promising. At the meeting which followed:

  • Bill Bremner was elected as Interim Treasurer.
  • The Fix Your Ride at Forest Gate Festival on 8 July was very successful in terms of number of bikes looked at and donations to the group (in excess of £110). Our next Fix Your Ride session in Woodgrange Market will be 12 August.
  • We marshalled the Kidicle Mass Ride based on the QEOP and Stratford Town Centre on 22 July. It was great fun and established some useful contacts amongst the 25 or so participants. Our next rides are – Greensted (10 September), a Brewery Ride 16 September – this may be proceeded by assisting Woodcraft start their Lea Valley Ride) and Rainham Marsh (24 September). Details to be confirmed on our website.
  • We had not yet received any payment for marshalling the feeder ride from Stratford to the Freecycle Ride.
  • The website update is proceeding with new frontpage giving information about the group which will allow better links. We are considering how to make best use of our various means of communication, in particular the LCC mailing list and our own discussion Group.Io. We are seeking to make the website more robust by paying for hosting and looking into updating our branding.
  • Consultations:

    McGrath Rd Bridge was left to individual responses. it looked OK.

    Express Bus Superloop has few implications for cycling.

    The Silvertown Tunnel Active Travel Bus will have an official Newham Cyclists response. The discussion pointed to this being a fundamentally unserious provision to alleviate the many problems arising from the Silvertown Tunnel. We will liaise with Greenwich Cyclists and prepare some campaigning material.

    The consultation in respect of the Jupp Rd Bridge widening will have an official Newham Cyclists Response.

    A major planning application on land adjacent to North Woolwich Station is an opportunity to press for funding to improve retrospectively TfL’ s recent poor project for the Pier Rd approach to the Woolwich Ferry.

    We attended a workshop in respect of a possible Low Traffic Neighbourhood between West Ham Park and the Romford Rd. The general response was encouraging.
  • We have asked for reinstatement of the monthly meetings with Newham Council on the project to upgrade the Romford Rd and also to resume the catch up meetings following changes in Council officers.
  • The mood music for proceeding with the proposed high quality Westfield Avenue (retroactive) upgrade is good
  • There will be no meeting in August and we will confirm the arrangements for a meeting in September as we are examining alternatives to the regular last Monday of the month.