Minutes of Camden Cycling Campaign Business Meeting on 11th October 2004
Present: David Arditti, Jane Boardman, James Brander, Stefano Casalotti, Jean Dollimore (chair), Paul Gasson, Daniel Glaser, Meade McCloughan (minutes) and Helen Vecht.
Apologies: John Chamberlain and Paul Gannon.
Christmas Party
• With the Stag closed and pubs generally smoky, what about going for a meal instead?
• Daniel suggested ‘Silks and Spices’ nearby.
• Jane to ask for more recommendations via the newsgroup.
Speakers for future meetings
• It was agreed to have speaker meetings in February and April next year (and if possible every other month thereafter), this sequence being designed to give members sufficient notice via the newsletter.
• Jean needs to know in time for the December newsletter if we have a speaker for February.
• There are two transport experts at UCL whom it would be good to invite (names?).
• Stefano and Daniel to liaise and invite at least one of them, offering both Februrary and April dates.
• We also talked about inviting Stephen Joseph of T2000.
LCN+ Route 5 Draft CRISP Report
• David and Jean reported on the consultants report on proposals for the LCN+ route (Kilburn to Edgware).
• The consultants have expressed support for David’s western route but appear to be sticking with the A5 route as the recommendation for the LCN+ route.
• If the western route is not given LCN+ status, it would have to be funded via (Brent’s) Borough Spending Plan.
• The pros & cons of the A5 route and the facilities being proposed for it were discussed.
• We discussed whether CCC should support David’s route as the LCN+ route, but were unable to reach any conclusion.
• The report will be discusssed at a meeting next Tuesday (19th October) at Camden Town Hall (David and Jean to attend from CCC).
• Jean to contact Patrick Rogan (Brent LCC) and ask if CCC can represent Brent LCC at this meeting.
• Jean and David to seek clarification as to which route is being recommended for LCN+ 5, ask for further work to be done on the western route (e.g. a supplementary CRIM, investigation of the practicality of the route north of the Welsh Harp?) and ask for more details wherever possible.
CRISPs
• Oliver Schick had been invited for 7pm to advise us about CRISPS. Although the LCN+ Route 5 discussion took up all the available time, his explanations and interventions were helpful in this context.
Minutes of Camden Cycling Campaign Main Meeting on 11th October 2004
Present: as above, plus Andrew Conway, Anne Boston, Oliver Schick (co-ordinator of Hackney Cyclists), Cllr Gerry Harrison, Sela Yain, Martin (…), George Coulouris, Doug Amer (Camden Council) and Christopher Nicola (Camden Council).
Apologies: as above, plus Mayer Hillman, Colin Murphy and Lionel Shapiro.
• George had brought along a box of bottles of beer which provided welcome refreshment!
Future cycle routes in Camden
• Doug Amer (Head of Street Policy at Camden Council) and Christopher Nicola (Traffic Planner within Street Policy) were welcomed to the meeting.
• Doug is optimistic as to TfL’s promise to complete the 900 km of LCN+ cycle routes by 2009.
• He reported that next year’s LCN+ program (2005-2006) includes a budget for planning link 27 (Tottenham Court Road to Tufnell Park, via Kentish Town Road). This news was very well received; we will now be able to start thinking about the details of the route so that we can feed into the LCN+ process when it starts.
• The next LCN+ route to be tackled would probably be 50.
• Christopher Nicola then spoke about the work he is doing putting together Camden’s programme for cycling over the next five years, including bids for non-LCN+ improvements. Any ideas we have for small schemes which do not involve red routes (as these are run by TfL) should be forwarded to him. Christopher has already incorporated a number of ideas put forward by CCC.
• Doug added that although red routes are generally out of bounds in this respect, opportunities do occasionally present themselves for the Council to make minor changes, and so CCC may sometimes be able to recommend improvements.
• George asked whether the Camley Street proposals could be advanced as part of this programme. Doug felt that this would be politically controversial, and that the Camley Street plan could only be progressed as part of a general development of the area, i.e. as part of the King’s Cross scheme.
• David spoke of the need to get the old LCN and Camden Cycle Network routes back on the map – even when finished, the LCN+ will only provide a basic skeleton of routes.
• Doug suggested that we put forward proposals for local links between LCN+ routes (ideally ones already in place) which could then be developed incrementally. This was welcomed as a way, for example, of getting a Kilburn to Somerstown route started.
• Gerry mentioned Bob Spellar’s back-streets cycling to school guidance routes which Bob is developing with the Council.
• Christopher said he would look again at the responses CCC made to the Council’s consultant’s ‘cycle audit’ two and a half years ago to see if there were ideas which could be included in his programme of improvements.
• We will at some stage be consulted on the draft text of the Local Improvement Plan (LIP), probably early in 2005.
Next meetings
• Monday 8th November – speaker Patrick Field (London School of Cycling).
• Monday 13th December – meeting + party?.