Notes of meeting 5 March 2003
Present: 20 attending.
1. Introductions
Introductions and welcome to all new members.
2. Note of previous meeting
Not available. Carry forward to next meeting.
3. Application to Dept of Transport
Kate will circulate to the egroup details of a proposed for, which we hope to achieve with funding from the DoT. Kate
The objective is to assess the extent to which cycling can be encouraged and sustained through intensive work in a Greenwich School. The main elements are professional cycle training for 12 years olds, in lesson time, backed by Dr Bike sessions for the whole school. There will also be a celebrity launch, featuring Team Extreme display cyclists, health authority, cycling police etc.; a trip to Manchester Velodrome; other rides at weekends (for parents and families too); bike parking at the school; and a big event at the end at Herne Hill Velodrome. We would need to provide a certain number of bikes through a general appeal and through sponsorship. The success of the whole event would be measured carefully with the assistance of environmental charity GEMS.
Key outstanding issues are the support and involvement of the Education Authority., interest from a school, involvement of other partners (health promotion etc) and potential 50% match funding. Kate, Hilary, Barry, Nick
The bid needs to be finalised and delivered before the end of March. Comments on the proposal are needed urgently by 10 March latest. All
4. Pedal Power
Circulated. Deadline for the next Pedal Power is Wed 26th March .
5. Women’s festival events
Low number of applications for the training. The publicity has not been as good as we hoped The Mercury will be covering the training on Saturday Morning.
Agreed to do an urgent Pedal Power drop on Friday morning Meet at 7am on Friday 7 March at Cutty Sark Gardens all
Need to do a ring round of people who have expressed an interest previously Hilary
6. Bike Week
Barry has put together a bid for approx £1500 form the LCC for activities to support our Bike week events, such as marketing, some training and support, plus marketing materials. Aimed at all-ability groups.
7. Thames Path & Sustrans
With the support of Groundwork, Rushton has collated a lot of the information about landowners along the Thames Path route. This will be handed to Sustrans who have undertaken to do some of the work to improve to the route and straighten out some of the 90 degree turns. Rushton
Adrian has organised a series of regular rides – open to all - along the route, on 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month. These will be fun and will allow us to do some ‘housekeeping’ on the route, in our group role as Sustrans Ranger. See website for details.
Thames Path issues are likely to come up at the next meeting of the Creekside Forum on 11 March, 6:30pm at St Nicks Church.
8. Cycling Strategy and LCN+
Councillor Brooks has asked council officers to meet with us but they seem to be ignoring him! Nick to chase. Nick
Charlton Time to Listen meeting reported that £40,000 had been spent on the LCN+ so far, and final spend was expected to be £130,000. An underspend of £57,000 – more than a quarter. It was also implied that some of the money had been spent on the route around the Thames Barrier and on Riverside traffic claming –neither of which are part of the LCN+ and it’s very questionable whether ‘traffic calming’ should come out of cycling budgets anyway.
The Council is hosting a conference on Public Transport on 15 March. Agreed that this is a good opportunity to raise these issues.
Agreed to write to Cllr Alex Grant asking to be put on the agenda as speaker and for a workshop on cycling. Nick
Also a number of people need to attend to make sure cycling integration is on the agenda. Teri, Nick, Rushton, Anthony, Tim + 2
Douglas said he was looking for examples of cycle-unfriendly traffic schemes, such as awkward sleeping policemen etc. to raise at the council Please send examples to him douglas.ellison@greenwich.gov.uk
9. Recycle
Barry has been co-opted onto the Board of Recycle, a charity that recycles cycles, some for domestic use, others sent to Ghana. They are looking for a central London depot, and he is working with them to draw up a proposal for a facility at the new Nathan Way centre, which would recycle and refurbish cycles.
10. Rides Programme
Programme is a mess – we’re in the lucky position of having too many! Barry appealed for people to be tolerant and make sure that they all go through him so that he can manage them better and avoid over-loading Doug.
Bala ride. Karen reported that 11 people had booked to go to Bala in Wales over the late August Bank Holiday weekend (featuring the Wild Wales ride). Contact her if you are interested.
11. Finances
Our balance is healthy £776 in the bank. We received a grant from the LC, purchased 2 cycles for training purposes, and paid for 2 years web hosting..
12. Any Other Business
One of our founding members, Jim died recently. Teri will notify the elist of the funeral arrangements. Their may be cyclists following the procession. Teri