Notes from September Meeting

Monthly Meeting 29.09.14

We welcomed new member Thom Sanders who has recently moved to Newham from Camden.

E-W Superhighway & CS2 Bow-Aldgate upgrade

We briefly discussed the proposals and the plans were circulated. Everyone was asked to at least support the principle of the proposals for the E-W Superhighway even if they didn’t have time to comment on them in detail, due to the rather vocal opposition from some businesses (in particular the Canary Wharf group).

Ken mentioned that he knew one of the people responsible for organising the campaign for the Canary Wharf group and has promised to discuss it with him. Much of the concern from them is in connection with increased travel time for people from Heathrow (this particularly relates to the Embankment section of the route).

Bill suggested that there needed to be a link between CS2 & CS3 this is something that could be commented on in the proposals.

Trustee Elections

We discussed the issue of Tony Martin (right wing activist) standing for election to the Board of Trustees. Ken gave some further information on him as he has come across him in the past.
LCC currently have no ability to prevent him from standing and are passing a Special Resolution at the AGM so that this cannot happen in the future.

Aldgate-Hainault Quietway

We discussed that Richard Wadey had not reported back on this following on from last month’s meeting. Sustrans have asked us to have input on the section of the route that comes through Newham, but we have not yet seen confirmed plans or had the chance to give any feedback.
We need to see details on how the route will be signed, how junctions will be dealt with (in particular Chobham Road/Gurney Road), what kind of speed bumps will be used on Capel Road in place of what is currently there etc etc.

Olawale said that local groups need to be actively campaigning for quietways and need to be prepared for opposition. (We need the full information in order to be able to prepare for this). LCC head office can provide support. We also discussed getting the support from some of the local councillors for the wards that the route passes through. The Quietway will provide a route for less confident and new cyclists, as well as families.

We agreed to be proactive on this item and to push for the info from Sustrans/Tfl.

Campaigner Awards

LCC have been chasing local groups for nominations for the Campaigner Awards at the AGM.
It was agreed that we should put our Tour de France ride forward for the ‘Best Ride’ category.

Newham Recorder

Last week Kerena was contacted by the Newham Recorder to comment on the removal of the section of CS2 on the Stratford Gyratory. This made the front page of the Recorder!
This week they have asked for comments on the proposals to change the Gyratory from a one way system to a 2-way road. We have not yet seen the plans for this (which Richard told us at the last meeting were only just being submitted for funding). A brief comment will be given to the paper stating that we have not seen the plans but are generally supportive as long as the proposals meet appropriate standards.

Communications

There was a question about communication/emails. Arnold & Kerena are attending a tutorial at the LCC office on the 8th October on the ‘Engaging Networks’ tool, which will enable us to tailor emails to different sections of the mailing list.

Thom offered help with website (his background is web development).

Leaway etc

Olawale & Bill had attended a meeting with Richard Wadey and TfL regarding the Leaway route, particularly the difficult sections around Silvertown etc. This is one of the strategic North-South routes through Newham. The budget is small, so some thought needs to be given as to whether it is more important to get the junctions right or improve the actual tracks. The consensus was that it was better to focus on the junctions.
The question was raised about routes for children to ride to school. The New City School route developed by Liz with Richard Wadey was discussed. We have not heard anything about this route recently, but it was agreed that this should be a key route as it takes in a large number of schools. We also came back to the 20mph limit and how this links with safer school routes etc.
There was some general discussion about the ward audits, contraflows on one-way streets etc. Bill suggested that these contraflows naturally create ‘quietways’.