Blog

20 of us gathered virtually for our Annual Meeting. Given the circumstances we focussed on essential business and our reaction to the Covid-19 crisis.

The following were elected Officers:

Co-ordinator – Arnold Ridout

Deputy Co-ordinator – Kerena Fussell

Secretary – Kate Byrne

Treasurer – Bill Bremner

Ride Co-ordinator – Steve Smith

Infrastructure Rep – Olawale Ajibola

Deputy Infrastructure Rep – Chris Kershaw

QEOP Rep – Jonathan Rothwell

The Annual Report, Accounts for 2019-20 and the Budget for 2020-21 were approved. Steve’s Ride Report and an album of Robin’s photos are now available. We hope to arrange for cashless donations at Fix Your Ride sessions when they resume..

In response to the current crisis we encourage members as individuals to lobby their Counsellors on the immediate advantages in promoting cycling and walking and, once the lockdown is eased, to take the opprtunities to maintain the impetus given to sustainable transport and better air quality in the face of an anticipated flight to motor vehicles. A number of templates for this are avaiable including that of Living Streets and British Cycling and those already used have propmpted some responses. We will also provide a template. Other London local authorities are known to be actively looking at how to exit the lockdown by exploiting the opportunities to promote sustainable transport.

We agreed to supplement important individual effots with a Newham Cyclists submission to the Council to remind it of the opportunities available now and post lockdown. This should take into account that the Council’s enforcement officers are presently stretched, but include for the longer term: 20mph, liveable neighbourhoods and ensuring that future road proposals provide good quality provision for cycling – especially given teh anticipated “flight back to cars”.

We also agreed to collate and pass on members suggestions for temporary improvements as part of this exercise. These suggestions should be sent by e-mail – newham@lcc.org.uk

We are in the process of putting together some good cycling routes which we shall publish if we can.

We were warned of increased cycle thefts including breaking open of cycle hoops.

Finally we agreed to keep our next (virtual) meeting to our regular last Monday in the month slot despite this falling on a bank holiday.

Arnold

This was our first attempt at a virtual meeting which, despite glitches, was judged a success by the 15 who participated.

We discussed the operation of the group during the current Covid 19 crisis and the various ways in which we could help.

We decided (a) to hold a virtual, short form Annual Meeting next month; (b) to subscribe to Zoom; and (c) to investigate further with LCC the approach by Newham Council to relaxation of parking enforcement, in the light of the opportunity to exploit the benefits of active travel. For example, there was an opportunity for some temporary cycle lanes on some of the very worst roads within the QEOP.

We agreed the broad lines of next year’s budget, which should enable us to keep about £500 in reserve to meet LCC’s suggestion to local groups to avoid spending their reserves at present. We decided not to press for the usual payment from LCC based on membership given the circumstances.

There was a general infrastucture update and focussing on the light phasing at Stratford Town Centre.

Keep well

Arnold

14 of us gathered at the Velodrome after the successful Greenway Ride which also featured the participation of Newham Community Dogwalkers.

• There has been positive engagement from all the Newham Councillors we had contacted following the previous meeting and also Mr Desai, the London Assembly Member for the area and Chair of its Police Committee The only non-response had been from Will Norman, London’s Walking and Cycling commissioner.
  
  Newham Councillors reported from a meeting earlier on 24 February that police action had led to a significant downturn in incidents. We decided to take up offers of meetings with Mr Desai, and James Beckles, Newham Cabinet Member for Crime and Community Safety, and discussed a number of steps that could be taken to ensure that crime is prevented in the future.
  
• We decided to respond positively to the forthcoming consultation by Newham Council on its emission based scheme for charging for parking permits. Whilst this may not go as far as we would have liked we believe our support as an organisation and individually is the best way forward on a matter we ourselves had raised with the Council last year.
  
• We looked at our forthcoming rides and activities. 29 February and the 7 March see our first round of support for the AAA children’s cycling club in Canning Town. 14 March will be our first Fix Your Ride in Woodgrange Market. The Much Hadham Ride is on 22 March. Bike from Boleyn will now take place on 2 May.
  
  We discussed the practicalities of the proposed new Newham Parks Ride on 24 May, during Newham Heritagae month. Also, in the light of their awkward timing we felt that our participation in the Forest Gate Festival may need to be limited; and that we were unable to organise a Stratford Feeder Ride to the Freecycle event on 15 August.
  
  A series of “Zero Vision ” walks of the Romford Rd is being undertaken by TfL and Newham Council this week to assess what improvements in ennforcement could reduce accidents. On Monday we were the only community group to attend this.
  
• On infrastructure, our next catch up meeting with Newham Council officials will be on 6 March. Members are invited to raise any concerns they have which could be addressed at this meeting. We decided that we could respond to a consultation on the shortening of the 101 bus route insofar as it related to our overall aim of promoting active travel and insofar as it raised particular cycling issues.
  
• Views were canvassed on the LCC policy on charging motor vehicles using East London Bridges in anticipation of an LCC Policy Forum meeting on 27 February and on the Crossrail improvements in response to an academic study.
  
• We were reminded of the “Heathy Streets Scorecard” on the CPRE and LCC website which was being revisited this year, and invited to contribute views on how the metrics of this survey could be improved for the purposes of a forthcoming update.