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.
There was a General Election in the UK on Thursday 4th July 2024. We wrote to many of Newham’s candidates in the election, to ask them to support active travel if they’re elected.
Newham Cyclists, as part of the London Cycling Campaign, is politically neutral and independent. As part of a registered charity, we don’t (and legally can’t) tell you who to vote for. But we can report on candidates’ policies and allow you to make up your own mind.
Our Asks
We asked our MP candidates to:
recognise the importance of cycling, in addition to walking and wheeling, and support it to reach London’s 2030 Net Zero target; also to support London in bringing forward the Vision Zero target to 2030
help the Mayor and the London boroughs complete the Strategic Cycling Network by 2028, ahead of the 2041 target—for which there must be more transport funding, and more of it ring-fenced for cycling
advocate in Parliament to move national policy away from new roads to active travel—because it’s not prudent to throw £billions after schemes like the PFI-funded Silvertown Tunnel, and other cities and towns across the UK can learn from London’s cycling success story.
Read the entire text of our email to the candidates here.
We’re Newham Cyclists, part of the London Cycling Campaign. We are volunteers who campaign for safer cycling in Newham for everyone, and to break down barriers that stop people from cycling.
Thanks for standing to represent [your constituency] in the general election. We’re asking you to support our mission if you are elected, by:
Recognising the importance of cycling, along with walking and wheeling (“active travel”) and supporting it. Active travel projects will help London meet its target of Net Zero by 2030. Of course, not all car journeys in London can be cycled—but TfL analysis suggests lots of them can, if the conditions are made right.
We also want to see the Vision Zero target brought forward to 2030—saving lives by eliminating serious crashes on our streets. We want you to support TfL and the boroughs in rolling out innovative, proven-safe junction designs; and support the police in renewing focus on reducing harm in road transport.
Helping the Mayor and every London borough complete the Strategic Cycling Network by 2028, ahead of the current 2041 target date, to help all kinds of Londoners everywhere to access cycling. To deliver this, London needs more transport funding, and more of it ring-fenced for active travel.
Advocating in Parliament to shift national transport policy away from new roads to active travel schemes. It’s not prudent to throw £billions of public money after schemes that shave minutes off car journeys (such as the PFI-funded Silvertown Tunnel.) By contrast, active travel projects are cheap, have a good return on investment, and help bring communities together. Other towns and cities across Britain can learn from London’s cycling success story. We want you to work with the Mayor and other metro regions to secure a future where walking, cycling, and high-quality public transport are viable everywhere.
Finally, we remind you that despite noisy opposition to some of the Mayor of London’s policies on active travel and reducing unnecessary car use, he’s been re-elected with a large mandate. Cycling is very popular, and candidates that deliver for cycling get re-elected.
No-one wins, least of all drivers, when transport policy is driven by culture wars. Active travel is cheap and convenient, and we truly believe that everyone can benefit if it’s taken seriously. From kids going to school, to retirees meeting friends, to shift workers going shopping after a long day—we ask you to fight for policies that help more people access cycling for more journeys. A cycling Britain is a stronger Britain.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts on our asks.
The Candidates’ Responses
We emailed the candidates on the morning of Saturday 22 June, and updated this post as we received responses.
There were also a number of candidates for whom we were not able to find email addresses.
This page was last updated on Sun 7th July 2024 at 22:57, to add a (post-election) response from Sir Stephen Timms, and to indicate which candidates were elected. The candidates appear on the page in a random order.
Stratford and Bow
Party
Candidate
Response
Conservatives
Kane Blackwell
[unable to find email]
Labour
Uma Kumaran [elected]
[no response received]
Green
Joe Hudson-Small
“I agree completely with your aims, and with ending the culture war against active travel.
We’d invest 2.5bn in new cycleways and footpaths including London and we would adopt Active Travel England’s target for 2030. If elected I’ll push for all of these things.”
[The candidate also supplied a link to the Green Party manifesto.]
Workers Party
Halima Khan
[unable to find email]
Liberal Democrats
Janey Little
[unable to find email]
East Ham
Party
Candidate
Response
Liberal Democrats
Hillary Victoria Briffa
[unable to find email]
Conservatives
Maria Higson
[no response received]
Labour
Sir Stephen Timms [re-elected]
[received on Sunday 7th July, after the election] “I apologise for failing to respond on this. I found I just didn’t know enough about the specifics to judge whether bringing things forward to 2028 from 2041 made sense, and I also have not opposed the Silvertown Tunnel. I shall, however, be very happy to support the work of Newham Cyclists, and please do let me know if you feel I can help at any time.”
Green
Rosie Pearce
“I too am a local cyclist though not part of your organisation. I used to live in Groningen which shows a vision of how behaviour shifts can follow bold policy on cycling. You wouldn’t even take a taxi if you bought furniture there. Cycling in London is a bit scary often, and it varies a lot by borough. The green party is aiming for 50% of journeys within towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030. Investment in segregated cycle paths is a must, to achieve this, I think – most people won’t feel confident enough to cycle with current infrastructure and who can blame them!”
West Ham and Beckton
Party
Candidate
Response
Green
Rob Callender
“As a cyclist living in Newham, I fully support all this!”
TUSC
Lois Austin
[no response received]
Labour
James Asser [elected]
“As I am sure Newham Cyclists are aware I am a supporter of increasing active travel and giving people choice especially increasing opportunities to walk and cycle.
I hope my record as the Environment & Transport lead at Newham Council speaks to my commitment to deliver on that belief. I am very proud of the work we achieved and hope if elected I can support my successors in the continuing work.
I hope too that the work started during my time jn [sic] office on making our roads safer speaks for itself.
Tackling air pollution and dealing with climate change are going to be key issues in the years ahead and I am keen to play my part in driving forward the changes we need to make.”
Conservatives
Holly Ramsey
[no response received]
Newham Independents
Sophia Naqvi
[unable to find email]
Liberal Democrats
Emily Bigland
[no response received]
Where’s my candidate?
As volunteers who juggle campaigning with our other commitments (full time jobs, families, etc.) we simply did not have the time or capacity to approach every single candidate for MP—particularly where their contact details were not publicly available.
We sourced email addresses for the candidates on https://whocanivotefor.co.uk but only emailed addresses that were clearly candidate-specific, rather than general party inboxes. Candidates who were not listed here were welcome to approach us by email to respond to our asks.
We are within our rights not to seek a view from minor or “fringe” parties which advocate for policies not in line with Newham Cyclists’ or LCC’s terms of reference, objectives, and values. For instance, we would decline to engage with candidates or parties that espouse views that are clearly racist, or peddle conspiracy theories.
Newham Council are consulting on a long-term plan for cycling in East Village (the ex Olympic athlete’s village on the “new” side of Stratford). The designs are a step-change for the Olympic Park, an area whose cycling infra has been outdated from the moment it was built. The proposals include safer cycle tracks, continuous pavements for most of the streets in the area, and fixes for dangerous junctions.
We support the scheme, but would like Newham to do a little more to make sure everyone can benefit from it—particularly children cycling to school at Chobham Academy.
The consultation is open until Sunday 17th March: we recommend you support the scheme, but ask Newham to:
Deliver the scheme quickly, obtaining funding from the many housing and commercial developments in the area to do so.
Find a way for kids to cycle safely to school on Liberty Bridge Road over the railway line, where the designs currently dump people cycling out into the carriageway due to a width restriction. We’d like to see a bus gate, or an extension of the school street on Cheering Lane. Doing nothing is not an option.
Fix the Mirabelle Gardens-Elis Way-Cheering Lane rat run. Drivers leaving Westfield often use this as a shortcut to avoid the traffic lights on Celebration Avenue.
Remember: your own views and experiences will carry the most weight in consultations.
But it’s also not especially transformative: there’s already a cycle track here, and it already provides an important connection to the Royal Docks. Some of the changes will be nice to have, but they could’ve been better. One arm of Aspen Way roundabout on the north side, amazingly, still won’t even have crossings!
The bad news is that this scheme ties in to the Tidal Basin Roundabout and the Silvertown Tunnel. The Tunnel will bring much, much more traffic to the Lower Lea Crossing and Aspen Way. Maybe these changes to the Lower Lea Crossing cycle track are an attempt to mitigate these negative effects—but they’re nowhere near enough.
The scheme won’t really make a difference to the number of people walking and cycling in the area.
TfL should build crossings on all arms of the Aspen Way roundabout, and they should all be separated for walking and cycling (no shared areas please.)
In the medium term, TfL should look at grade-separating walking and cycling at the roundabouts, like at the Green Man Roundabout.
Where the cycle track is interrupted for servicing entrances, drivers of servicing vehicles need to be given adequate warning to watch for people walking and cycling.
The main problem in the area will still be the Silvertown Tunnel, a 1960s quality urban motorway scheme which shouldn’t have been approved. This scheme, combined with the threadbare bus network and silly cycle shuttle bus, comes across as a tick-box exercise to let the Tunnel’s promoters pretend they’re doing something worthwhile for people who don’t have a car, don’t want one, or can’t afford one.
This is part of the new Silvertown Tunnel scheme, a new crossing for cars and lorries (with a piecemeal bus network) that will run from the Royal Docks to North Greenwich. We oppose this scheme as it stands, and this—presumably intended to say the scheme does something for cycling—is frankly embarrassing. There are many reasons it won’t work:
Larger cargo cycles unlikely to fit (meaning deliveries by car or van would enjoy an unfair advantage over zero-emissions last mile freight)
Adapted cycles are unlikely to fit—especially if the bus eventually looks like a minivan with a trailer
Unpredictable journey times
Low capacity that doesn’t allow for large volumes of people cycling
No clarity on what form the service will take, frequencies, operating hours, or whether a fare will be charged
The physical awkwardness of dismounting and loading your cycle into racks when getting on/off. We find it hard to believe the Silvertown Tunnel would’ve been approved if drivers had to load their cars onto car transporters to be driven through the tunnel
We can’t support the cycle bus scheme because it’s not viable as a 24/7, step-free, accessible cycle crossing that people will be able to use independently.Historical precedent suggests it is doomed to failure. It’s a box-ticking exercise that allows the promoters of the Silvertown Tunnel to pretend they’re doing something for people who don’t have a car, don’t want one, or can’t afford one.
Because of this, we have no confidence in TfL or the current Mayor delivering a viable cycle crossing east of Tower Bridge—despite the fact we desperately need them. We would love to be proven wrong, so invite TfL to seek funding for and commit to things that would actually work, including:
Increasing frequency and operating hours on the Woolwich Ferry, and removing the need for cyclists to dismount on the ferry decks
Abolishing fares on the Cable Car and extending operating hours
A new ferry at Rotherhithe, which TfL’s own modelling suggests could be very popular
Pedestrianising the Rotherhithe Tunnel, or the Blackwall Tunnel’s original Victorian bore (by TfL’s own omission, not suitable for high volumes of motor traffic, and built with a bend to prevent horses from bolting)
Building new fixed links—be that new cycle-only bores for the existing foot tunnels, or reviving the Rotherhithe Bridge proposal
East London is crying out for actual river crossings that don’t require a car
A bus service that allows people to bring bikes as luggage is fundamentally flawed & won’t meet that demand
TfL should be prioritising high-quality crossings that would actually scale to large volumes of cyclists—ferries at the very minimum, and fixed crossings in the longer term
Huge thanks to everyone who came along (all 53 of you!) to our annual feeder ride to RideLondon Freecycle on Saturday 28th May. Thanks also to our marshals (including Robin Stephenson for his photos, as always) and to Steve, our Ride Leader, who kept everyone safe on our gentle pootle from Stratford to the Bank (via Vicky Park, London Fields, and Shoreditch.) Thanks are also due to our friends from Waltham Forest and from JoyRiders who joined us for part of the journey there and back again en-route to Leyton!!
If you came along for the ride, and if you’d like cycling to be safe, easy, convenient, and fun every day of the year—why not join the London Cycling Campaign? Members get loads of benefits. Liability insurance and legal advice if you’re ever in a crash. Discounts for bike shops and insurance. A quarterly magazine. You can join as an individual or for everyone in your household, and over-60s, under-25s, and unwaged people get a discount. And right now (as of May 2023) you’ll also get a FREE bike pump if you join by direct debit!
Joining the London Cycling Campaign helps us in our campaign for safer streets for everyone. If you join LCC and you live in Newham, you automatically become a member of Newham Cyclists too.
LCC and Newham Cyclists exist to break down barriers and help people of all ages, all races, all genders, all abilities, and all backgrounds benefit from cycling as cheap and convenient transport. Unlike some other organisations, we aren’t bankrolled by fossil fuel firms; we don’t insist on fancy helmets or branded lycra or put people into categories. We believe cycling should be for everyone, not just the fast and the brave.
We oppose the Tunnel in general, and also specifically oppose these proposals.
They do not provide anything like a sufficient bus network to mitigate the effects of opening a new urban motorway funnelling traffic into Newham—only one of the new bus routes even serves Newham, and the other is an express from south east London to Canary Wharf.
We would like to see the Tunnel re-tooled as a crossing only for a more substantial public transport network, along with walking and cycling—for which 24/7 step-free links east of Tower Bridge are desperately needed but currently sorely lacking. The mooted cycle-bus trial is also missing from the consultation—so with the Silvertown Tunnel, active travel modes get absolutely nothing.
The London Legacy Development Corporation is consulting on highway designs for Carpenters Road, due to re-open with the East Bank/Stratford Waterfront development. The planning references are 22/00256/AOD and 22/00249/NMA and can be checked on LLDC’s planning register.
We have been consulted throughout the design process for this as part of LLDC’s Sustainable and Active Travel Group, and this early engagement has been welcome.
We support the principle of a cycleway on Carpenters Road, but are concerned about the details of the proposals. In particular, we worry that they repeat mistakes made elsewhere in the park (e.g. on Montfichet Road) and don’t adequately deal with speeding and rat-running, which was a major problem before Carpenters Road closed for construction (over 80% of vehicles exceeded the 20mph speed limit.) We think that a longer term solution must involve serious measures to reduce traffic, which would then unlock space for better walking and cycling provision.
For a long time, Westfield Avenue has been one of the worst places to cycle in our borough. Pedestrian lights across tiny crossovers. Surprise obstacles. Pavement parking. Crossings where you’re expected to wait up to four times on caged traffic islands for the light to turn green. It’s an embarrassment to the Olympic Legacy.
We’re thrilled that the London Legacy Development Corporation and Newham Council are consulting on a brand new design for Westfield Avenue, which they hope to start building next year and finish by 2025. This is unlike anything we’ve seen in the Olympic Park before: a high quality, best-practice design from the start, with people walking and cycling taking priority over motorists. It’s been 10 long years, but this is much better late than never!
WESTFIELD AVENUE PLANS: Convenient, comfortable, at a human scale
LLDC and Newham need to know that local people want it. If you visit Westfield or the London Stadium, or if you live nearby at the Carpenters Estate, or in Hackney Wick, East Village, or International Quarter—tell them “yes please!”
Say “Strongly Agree” for widened pavements, widened crossing points, improved lighting, and location of bus stops
Say “Strongly Agree” for a 3m cycleway separated from the road and pavement with crossings, relocation of bus stops and loading bays, additional cycle stands and e-bike charging, and additional Santander cycle hire facilities on Westfield Avenue
Say what you think of the idea to move the Aquatics Centre cycle hire stand to Westfield Avenue, and also the locations of the motorcycle parking, taxi rank, loading bays, and the crossovers and side roads (e.g. at Glasshouse Gardens and Turing Street.)
On the “Additional Features” page:
Say “Happy/Love It!” to the seating, trees, and planting on Westfield Avenue
Say what you think of the redesigned Stratford Walk (the bridge between Westfield and the Aquatics Centre)
If you have time to write any more…
Support the new one-way southbound on Olympic Park Avenue—this will eliminate a rat-run through residential areas and allow a continuous cycle route across the railway line
Ask for further work in the future to redesign Marshgate Lane junction, to separate all modes and reduce speeds
Ask for a smooth, flat cycle track that’s accessible to all kinds of cycle (including tricycles, wheelchair clip-on hand cycles, recumbents, etc.)
You can read our response to the consultation here. We strongly support the proposals, but suggest additional changes to the Marshgate Lane junction in future to fully separate all modes.
We have written to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to ask him to refuse planning permission for the MSG Sphere when it is referred to him. You can read the text of the letter here, or see the PDF we sent to the Mayor and Dr Will Norman (London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner) at the bottom of the page.
Dear Sadiq,
RE: Please refuse the MSG Sphere planning application (approved by LLDC)
We are Newham Cyclists, part of the London Cycling Campaign.
We are writing to ask you to direct refusal of the planning application for the MSG Sphere (19/00097/FUL) in Stratford, and insist the applicant makes changes to the proposed venue’s transport strategy and public realm design.
The MSG Sphere scheme as approved by the unelected members of LLDC’s planning committee:
Locks in a 0.44% mode share for cycling and potentially thousands of extra car trips to each event
Builds an important new cycle link that would be heavily used by schoolchildren going between East Village and the London Aquatics Centre—only to then routinely close it at peak times (including school run times) to allow ingress/egress to the Sphere
Endangers local people by proposing a highway design for Angel Lane that constitutes at least two “critical fails” according to the Government’s LTN 1/20 standard, locking out safe cycling on Cycle Future Route 7 for potentially decades and building in community severance
May overwhelm Stratford station, an already dangerously-congested station which is a critical link for many people (particularly key workers, who have to travel no matter what.) The Sphere proposals only include one extra entrance to the station, and propose nothing to fix the congestion in the platforms and subways
Provides no legal mechanism for Newham Council to stop the building operators from showing obnoxious or distracting advertising on the building’s surface that could propose a safety risk, by granting an advertising consent for illuminated video content on the Sphere’s surface for a quarter of a century
