Notes from Wheelers Meeting held on 13 August 2003
at Limehouse Town Hall, Commercial Road, E14
Present:
Owen Pearson (chair), Alix Stredwick (minutes), James Stewart, Keith Jones, Caroline Fenton, Steve Bradley, Gary Cummins
Apologies:
Dave Allison, Colin Waters, Tom Brenan, Alex Brenan, Steve Collins, Saul Albert
1. Introduction
James was introduced to all.
2. Actions from last meeting, 9 July 2003
All outstanding matters to be covered in following items.
3. Newsletter, Media & Website
Newsletter: deadline for articles for the September issue is 30 August, 14 September for October/November issue.
ACTION:
• Alix to produce newsletter.
Good media coverage of bike buddy launch. Get Moving event also featured as well as the workshop. Wheelers also are listed in the TfL/BBC Real London Open Air booklet and on their websites.
Website: now hosted on Wheelers own server package.
ACTIONS:
• Owen still to clear back log of events/ride reports/photos and press clippings.
• Owen to enable parts of the website (e.g. events/rides) to be easily updated by THW officers.
4. Finances
Awards for All application successful so we now have £4,749 more towards the bike buddy training scheme and related activities.
5. Rides & Socials
Steve's ride programme has been very successful, well attended and plenty of new people joining in. See Events/Rides page on the website for full details of the upcoming rides.
6. Bike Buddy & Cycle Training Scheme
Alix presented the stages a member of the scheme would go through starting with cycle training. She also has put together a list of tasks that will need to be shared out amongst volunteers to distribute the workload and get the scheme running efficiently. So far 14 people have made contact wanting to take part.
ACTIONS:
• Owen to send out task list to egroup asking for volunteers.
• Alix and Dave to work out training budget per scheme member.
7. Meeting Location
Due to other commitments Saul Albert is currently unable to guarantee that he will be available to host the monthly meetings at the Town Hall. This should only be short term and he would hope once his time frees up and also the future leasing arrangements of the Town Hall are finalised in the autumn that we would be welcome to return. The workshop is not affected by this.
ACTIONS:
• Find a suitable meeting location for at least September and October - that has cycle parking/storage.
8. Workshop & Bike Re-Cycling
Workshop continuing to go well. July's puncture repair session went well with several people getting some expert tuition. Agreed that another session would be held during the 27 September workshop.
Caroline asked if anyone was available for a bike fixing session on Sunday, 14th to get the bikes stored in her garage ready for sale and/or loaning to bike buddy scheme members. Owen and Keith said they would be available.
ACTIONS:
• Alix to publicise puncture repair session.
9. Borough Traffic Schemes
LBTH consultation in general: Owen outlined that Wheelers were currently only being consulted on schemes involving the borough's congestion charge 'complimentary measures'. Obviously there are other traffic schemes being implemented continuously outside of this project many of which it would be good for us to have input to. Before we request to be consulted on all schemes we need to be sure we can cope with dealing with the workload.
Several other borough groups have a dedicated council liaison/planning officer who co-ordinates this process - basic responsibility being to inform the group that a consultation request has been received, produce a response if necessary and to compile responses from any other members.
ACTIONS:
• Owen to email group and Alix to include in newsletter requesting any volunteers and/or suggestions to running this.
Home Zones: Alix gave an overview of the home zones concept and proposed that we should look to lobby for more such projects in the borough. Everyone agreed the challenge is to convince residents that a home zone will be beneficial to them. James suggested that with his links with East London Architecture School projects may be able to be setup to choose streets in the borough and for home zone designs to be produced. These could then be displayed and would be a relatively inexpensive way of highlighting their positive impact. Steve B suggested finding out which housing associations have control over their estates traffic schemes and approaching them.
ACTIONS:
• All to follow up suggestions.
Cable Street: A response to LBTH's pros & cons of the priority scheme options sent to us in May is needed.
ACTIONS:
• Owen to collect and compile responses.
10. Cycle Count for LBTH
About eight responded to the request for volunteers to carry out cycle and pedestrian counts on behalf of the council. This would involve the Wheelers group being paid for the work including producing a report. Ashraf Ali has asked for thirteen locations to be included carrying out the counts during the morning and evening rush hours. It was felt with the definite numbers of volunteers we would only be able to cover eight locations at the most.
ACTIONS:
• Owen to contact Ashraf Ali to discuss further.
11. Travelwise Week, 15-19 Sept
During Travelwise week, LBTH will launch their 'good going' travel awareness program. Thursday, 18 September is "cycling" day and they would like us to be involved in that specific launch. For that day they also will produce a special cycling edition of their 'good going' newsletter which we will feature in.
TfL in association with the LCC are planning on running morning "bicycle bus" rides from the boroughs to various central London locations where breakfasts will be provided.
It was agreed we would participate in both events although the 'good going' launch would need to be earlier enough in the morning for us to then do the 'bus' ride.
ACTIONS:
• Owen to inform Lyndal Peters and LCC that we will participate in the launch and bus ride.
12. Campaigns
Bikes on DLR: After the issue was raised on the egroup, a Wheelers member has volunteered to produce and co-ordinate a request to DLR from them to re-consider their bikes ban and to allow them on to trains during off-peak hours. This would be a joint request from Greenwich Cyclists and possibly Newham Cycling Campaign.
Limehouse Marina footbridge: Caroline to contact Sustrans to ensure that they are aware of the unacceptable placement of this bridge. Owen to find out from Ashraf if there have been any developments from the council.
Amenities Cycle Parking: Alix to use the Useful Places ride on 16 August to compile more amenities in need of such facilities.
Illegal Parking in Cycle Lanes: Discussion took place on mandatory and advisory lanes. Gary mentioned that when the advisory lanes on Mile End Road were installed, LBTH said that if successful they would be changed to mandatory after three years - that time has now arrived. Issue to be raised with Ashraf Ali/Lyndal Peters with Gary to provide background information.
13. AOB
• Bethnal Green Festival, Sunday 21 September - yes to attending and paying the stall fee as long as there are volunteers available.
• Community Health Event, 7-9 October - agreed to have a stall though not able to continuously manned as event is during the day.
• Wheelers Christmas cards: more information to be found on viability. Steve B to find out rough prices from when his organisation produced some - he mentioned it wasn't a profitable venture for them.
• Keith suggested that we should note down the Stepney Festival and Spitalfields Environmental Festival in our diary as events to consider attending next year.
The meeting closed at about 8.50pm and most headed off to The Grapes, Narrow Street.
Next meeting: 7.00pm, 13 August, venue tba.
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