GREENWICH CYCLISTS
Notes of monthly meeting held at 7.30pm on Wednesday 1 August 2001 at Greenwich Forum.
Present: Barry Mason (chair), Paul Moss, Brian Hobbs, Jim Watkins, Colin King, Kate Horne, Lesley Forsdike, Irene Windsor, Greg Englefield, David Semor, Bill Green, Man Birdi, Roger Seaward, Liz Delap, Linda Pearce (minutes), Jim Cheetham, Maria Osborne, Eve Wade.
1 BM opened the meeting; new attenders welcomed, introductions, minutes agreed.
2. July Review: It had been an excellent month for rides.
3. Westminster Industrial Estate: Co-op taken over estate, refusing access to bikes. BM wrote strong letter arguing for opening. Success. Owners have agreed 4 days notice to open estate access at weekends for organised rides. Co-op also considering sponsorship for Car Free Day stunt bikers.
4. Greenwich Cycling Strategy: Now on web, feedback required. Aim to keep short and punchy.
5. Car Free Day: Closure of specific roads in Greenwich town centre agreed by Council – College Approach and King William Walk. Head of Tourism at Council has taken on as a tourism project. 50K available to spend on road closure orders, publicity, stewards, surveys (traffic displacement, local opinion, noise pollution). Could be a positive move towards pedestrianisation of the area in future. Local shops and restaurants will be encouraged to spill out onto the street. Sub-committee required to arrange events. Events arranged to date include Trinity College of Music performing all day, Japanese barbeque, Sustrans will have a stall and a large presence, BM organising rides between Car Free sites, Ken Livingstone invited to Greenwich. The day coincides with London Open House weekend which may encourage more tourists to the area.
6. Dome Path: Due to failure to open on 30 June 2001 GC have been campaigning to get it opened. This resulted in full front page coverage in the Mercury. English Partnerships have failed to open path on time despite legal obligations. Current reason given is drainage problems. Please write or email English Partnerships, they realise this could be a PR disaster and hopefully this will encourage a September opening.
7. Thames Path Progress: Current scheme to upgrade Tunnel Avenue this Autumn. College Approach; Royal Naval College concerned re safety of cycling through the site. Plan to upgrade path from Barrier to Woolwich Road. Sustrans considering a cycling flyover to avoid Woolwich Road, an engineering firm have been consulted. If plan goes ahead river route would be complete. Dome to Cutty Sark pub remains problematic, pedestrian route used by many cyclists but Sustrans discourage. Ideally a cycle route is required adjacent to the pedestrian route.
8. Membership: Communication with non-email members is problematic. Jim Cheetham offered to mail non-email members with essential information. It was agreed by the meeting that GC email should not be used for general chat but kept to announcements.
9. Money: Quite healthy, all events broken even or given us a return.
10. Rides: Schedule of rides in next Newsletter, rides every weekend through to end of September.
11. Relations with LCC: BM attended a meeting, Director Peter Lewis present. Concern expressed about local independent group members not subscribing to LCC. GCs view is that although membership is encouraged there is no obligation to join. Meeting agreed to feed some money back to LCC. It was noted that some of GC members live in Bexley, Bromley, Kent, should we therefore receive extra funding from LCC?
12. Xmas Party: Deferred to next meeting.
13. AOB: Greenwich Pride Grant: there is now no urgency to produce the map. We have 3 months following receipt of 1k cheque to produce maps. Better left to the winter months.
14. Next Meeting: Wednesday, 5 September 2001. 7.30pm. The Forum@Greenwich.
LP
8 August 2001