Readout from January Meeting

Another healthily attended and lively meeting at Coffee E7:

  • Following the meeting with Councillors Gray and Paul before Christmas concerning the various issues surrounding Stratford High Street and gyratory we submitted a briefing note on which we are waiting a response.
  • There was a very open catch up meeting meeting with the Newham Council Sustainable Transport officer.  Headlines are:

    Designs have been submitted to TfL for the junctions of the northern Quietway.  Our view was that these were disappointing , and we indicated that we could not support a Quietway which had substandard junctions.  Better progress on upgrading the Greenway.  A small pilot lighting project will shortly be put in place.  Limited improvements are in prospect around Westfield (Stratford Place) as changes are made for taxis and coaches.  There are good designs on the shelf for the wider area waiting for the opportunity to be implemented.

    An cycle assessment of the main roads (but not junctions) has been undertaken which will form part of a proposed cycle strategy from the Borough along with an audit of cycle parking.

    There are further delays in establishing the Leaway between Cody Dock and Canning town.

    All current issues have been recorded for monitoring and it was decided to publish this on this website (to follow).  By way of  general follow up we have been told that Newham’s cycling mode share has increased again,according to the London Travel Demand Survey (Travel in London report 8), up from approx. 1.3% to 2.3% in 2012/13-2014/15.

  • A Greenway  users group is planned.
  • We noted that the work undertaken so far on the northern Quietway was heavily engineered and that there was still an issue of parking in Cemetery Rd.
  • We will be actively participating in stakeholder consultation on the plans for Stratford gyratory, a meeting taking place on 8 March.
  • We discussed our ride programme and in particular the forthcoming, and much anticipated, Hoo Ride on 14 February.  To ensure smooth practical arrangements (not least securing the cheapest train ticket to Gravesend), it would be helpful if anyone intending to come on this ride gave advanced notice (newham@lcc.org)

    We will be coordinating rides with a new Community group in Stratford City and we may also be joining in with a CTC ride around Witham in April.

  • We agreed to buy a further banner , some equipment for rides (tools/first aid) and some T shirts for ride leaders.
  • The current exhibition at the Design Museum was warmly recommended and there are still tickets for the talk by Emily Chappel at the Wanstead Tap on 15 February.
  • Richard Wadey will be talking at our next meeting on 29 February and then our AGM will be 11 April.
  • Funds are available from the Council for high quality on street parking bays.  Please let us know of good sites.
  • We decided to support, with a stall, an indoor car boot sale  on 20 February at the Field Community Centre, Station Rd.  If you are able to provide some time to man the store please let us know and we will be putting together a rota.

    Arnold

Ride Report – Greensted Church

By Steve Smith

Forest Gate to Greensted Church      10th January 2016

We were 13 at Coffee7 at 9am on Sunday morning which was an excellent turnout for the first ride of the year.   Perhaps the New year resolutions were applying some leverage. The weather was sunny and dry but after so much rain had fallen over the previous days the roads were still wet. The route followed suburban roads through Woodford, along the Roding Valley to Loughton and then out to Theydon Bois. We then found a few undulating and invigorating hills as we followed country lanes through Toot Hill to Greensted in the bright winter sunshine.

The church, claimed as the oldest wooden church in the world is charming, and includes the grave of a crusader and a lepers view hole. All these elements give the church a fantastic opportunity for imaginative stories about their origins and those visitors who were here long before us.

After restarting the ride we followed small lanes toward Navestock and Stapleford Abbots.   The lunch stop was at the two Brewers Chigwell Row was a busy pub/restaurant, this meant lunch consisted more of a refreshment stop with a drink and a few crisps and nuts for most. It may be a good idea to let the lunch venue know of our arrival on future rides, if we can estimate the number of riders

On the way back we followed the newly emerging quiet way from Fairlop to Wanstead and finished the ride where we started, outside a coffee7 under a darkening sky.

We had a few punctures which slowed our pace, however the group was well equipped and we were easily able to fix them.

More photos (taken by Robin Stephenson) can be found on Flickr

Greensted1