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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.


Silvertown cycle bus: Embarrassing

TfL are consulting on a long-awaited and much-needed new crossing of the Thames east of Tower Bridge. The bad news is, it’s not the bridge that got cancelled, or even a high quality RoRo ferry like the ones in Amsterdam. Why have an actual cycle crossing, or even a ferry you can cycle onto, when you could have… a bus with some bike racks?

A rendering of a bus stop with a futuristic-looking bus shelter, next to a single decker bus with bicycle racks on it and middle doors. Someone on a hand cycle is negotiating the entrance (although it's not clear how she'll be able to turn around once inside.) A commuter type wearing a tie, hi-vis jacket, and helmet, waits to load his bicycle on behind her. A woman sits on the bench holding a helmet, presumably waiting for other people to get onto the bus.

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

Tell TfL to stop making excuses & do better

There’s a consultation open until this Sunday (10th September) where you can tell TfL what you think of these proposals. We’ve posted our response below in case you need inspiration, but we recommend telling them:

  • 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
Tell TfL to do better than the embarrassing cycle shuttle bus
Newham-Cyclists-Silvertown-Tunnel-cycle-bus-response

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.

Readout from meeting of 26 June 2023

Following a pleasant and instructive ride around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park we held a brisk meeting and discussed the following.

  • Fix Your Ride has been busy at Woodgrange Market and will be held as part of the Forest Gate Festival on July 8th.  This  will be busy so volunteers as fixers or simply to discuss cycling in Newham with festival goers welcome.
  • The Freecycle feeder rides from and back to Stratford was well attended and successful.  Our feedback has  been given to LCC HQ.
  • The Brewery Ride due on 1 July has been postponed to 16 September.
  • We are planning to support a Kidicle Mass ride, likely to be 22 or 23 July.
  • 16 July a number of us are planning to participate in the London to Southend Ride.
  • On 12 August Bexley Cyclist are organising a Family Cycle Fun day in Greenwich Park and welcome visitors.  We will consider if a feeder ride is feasible.
  • The refreshment and modernisation of our website is underway and work will continue in liaison with LCC.
  • A local charity, the Renewal Programme, based at High Street North Manor Park, has bought a couple of electric cargo bikes in order to collect food for its foodbank. It is seeking volunteers for this project.  This is the role description.  

As usual a lot going on in respect of infrastructure

  • We have submitted objections to the formal planning application for Crown Wharf.
  • We have written to the Council urging progress on LTN’s 5 and 6 (Woodgrange and Capel) given that funding for this features in the Council’s capital spending list.
  • We have been pursuing with the Council instances where road works have involved unnecessary blockage of cycling and walking.  There is a need to keep up pressure on the Council and its contractors.
  • Our FOIA request has revealed that the appalling bus priority scheme for Prince Regent Lane was undertaken without reference to the Cycling Level of Service tool in LTN 1/20, contrary to TfL’s and Newham’s own best-practice standards. The excuse given was that the preliminary design for the scheme was undertaken prior to 2018/2019, but this does not hold water: if the scheme does not meet modern standards, it should not have been funded and built in 2023 as a “Healthy Streets” scheme and should’ve been redesigned. We are considering with LCC HQ how to bring pressure to prevent TfL causing detriment to cycling through motor traffic capacity schemes masquerading as “bus priority.”
  • TfL has been adding route signage to the Newham portion of Cycleway 16. We have objected to this route in the past due to junctions that range from substandard and confusing to outright dangerous, including the infamous Temple Mills Lane bus bridge. We are pleased to hear that Newham Council understands these deficiencies and is proceeding with design work to look at longer-term fixes, but our view remains that this route should not be marketed as a Cycleway in its current state and risks damaging the brand. TfL’s own Cycleway route assessment for C16 (which we have obtained via FOIA) appears to be little more than a tick-box exercise that outright ignores many of the key issues on the route.

As always, do get in touch if you would like further information on any of the matters mentioned here.

Freecycle feeder ride 2023

A large group of people cycle towards camera on a two-lane road with grass and greenery on either side and no other traffic.

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!

Join the London Cycling Campaign today!

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.

Joining LCC helps us continue our community outreach work; keeps our Fix Your Ride stalls alive so people can keep their cycles roadworthy; and helps us hold authorities and developers to account in eliminating danger from our streets. You can help us make cycling a mainstream, inclusive, and convenient mode of transport for everyone in Newham and beyond by joining LCC today.

Join the London Cycling Campaign today!
Lots of people with bicycles standing on a paved area (separated from the road by bollards) waiting to set off.

Readout from Annual Meeting 24 April 2023

The meeting was held at the AAA ARC in Plaistow (“in-person” format)and via Zoom (“virtual format”).

Many thanks to Arnold, Jonathan and Bill for getting the Zoom set-up done.

The readout from the last Newham Cyclists Annual Meeting (27 June 2022) meeting was agreed, as were the NC Accounts for 2022-23, and the NC Budget for 2023-24 (including a sum for website hosting) after a good discussion and deliberation session on these financial documents.

We decided that we would ask for the annual LCC Grant but deferred on the question whether we would donate any payment for running the Freecycle feeder back to LCC.

Bill Bremner and Thom Sanders were thanked for their work as Treasurer/Deputy Treasurer and their particular work on producing the NC financial statements/documents on time.

The following Officers/NC Committee members were elected having been duly nominated and seconded:

  • NC Co-ordintor: Olawale Ajibola,
  • NC Deputy Co-ordinator and Olympic Park Representative: Jonathan Rothwell,
  • NC Secretary: vacant,
  • NC Treasurer: Thom Sanders,
  • NC Deputy Treasurer: Bill Bremner,
  • NC Rides Co-ordinator: Steve Smith,
  • NC Infrastructure Representative: Chris Kershaw,
  • Communications and Outreach Co-ordinator: Karen Flanagan,
  • NC Community Infrastructure (Fund) lead: vacant.

On stepping down from the NC committee (i.e. Better Streets for Newham liason post), Karena was thanked for her work for Newham Cyclists over the years.

The following “Any Other Business” items were raised:

  • We agreed to look further into providing teaching on bike maintenance to the AAA children’s cycle club and a Fix Your Ride stall to the local Community at the ARC. If you would like to participate please get in touch.
  • We have committed to provide a feeder ride to the Freecycle on 28 May. Before then there are many opportunities for training as a marshal. If you are interested in training please get in touch.
  • We agreed to support (but not run) a Kidicle Mass event in the QEOP on 2 July.
  • We agreed to participate in a forthcoming podcast on the QEOP.
  • We agreed a system of rotating chairs for future meetings.
  • Our next meeting will be Monday 26 June 2023 and potentially include an evening ride (weather permitting).
  • We will publicise this and provide other publicity material at the Forest Lane Park Green Fair in Forest Gate on 1 May.
  • We established a working group to refresh the website.

Arnold

Essex lanes ride 23 April

The weather forecast was rainy although the morning started bright as we met at Leytonstone station to catch a train to Epping to start the ride

We were six setting off from Epping station finding the quiet ways through the spring green countryside.  The route tracked north east to Toot Hill taking in a few hills to warm up.  After crossing the A414 at Bobbingworth the roads grew quieter with fewer hills.  We went through Moreton, (1st stop on the DunRun), towards Matching Green.   

Given the weather I took a detour, via Little Laver, to avoid the Ford which can become impassable in the wet.  Ironically Robin and Jonathan took a chance on the Ford and it turned out to be drier than the detour….So we rendezvoused at Matching Green,  some of us with wet feet. Turning left off Downhall Road led us past the pretty church of St Mary’s where we stopped for a photo

We continued on the bridleway past Matching Hall and to our lunch stop at the Fox in Matching Tye. Refreshed we took the lovely Faggoters lane south towards High Laver and back across the A414 at Tyler’s Green, avoiding the busy roundabout

Taking the back route into North Weald we detoured to the old railway station to see how public transport used to look  

The route back to Epping was a reminder of how many B roads are less pleasant for cycling, we we even close passed by a police car.

Below is the route and statistics for this ride.  The next ride is the Newham Nature Reserve Ride on 14 May, put it in your diary