Minutes of Camden Cycling Campaign Business Meeting on 13th August 2007
Present: David Arditti, Anne Boston, James Brander (chair), Stefano Casalotti, John Chamberlain, George Coulouris, Jean Dollimore, Vivien Gambling, Meade McCloughan (minutes), Dominic Tinley and Helen Vecht.
Apologies: Jane Boardman and Richard Fletcher.
Minutes/Matters Arising
• Cycle parking/storage in Housing Association properties: Christopher Nicola (LBC Street Policy) has written to Circle 33 – we don’t yet know what the outcome, if any, has been.
• Swiss Cottage: Stefano to follow up with Cllr Mike Green. Meade and Jean are meeting TfL etc there on Friday as part of the LCN+ Link 26 CRISP. Another cycle demo may well be in order – if so, we should leaflet in the area the day before – to discuss at the September meeting.
• Sustainability Forum meeting 11th July: Stefano attended this meeting about sustainable schools – not much about transport, but the issue was raised (esp. with respect to the new school at Swiss Cottage).
Hampstead Heath
• The earliest Simon Lee (Heath Superintendent) can come to speak is January. He would want to be paid, but we don’t yet know how much, and will not speak directly on cycling. We will leave this for a bit and see if we want to take up this offer.
• Jean and Matt Winfield (Sustrans) are meeting with English Heritage on the 31st August to consider the proposed new route by Kenwood. The aim is to go round the fenced-off area so as to avoid the route being affected by gate closures.
Gaps inside traffic islands – Guilford Street
• The current proposals for Guilford Street involve replacing the traffic island outside Corams Fields with a pedestrian refuge island. The northern lane will be 3.1m wide and the southern lane 4.9m wide.
• The London Cycle Design Standards say that 3m is only acceptable with traffic calming, but none currently features in the scheme (despite being a ‘local safety scheme’).
• It was agreed that we should ask for traffic calming both between Guilford Place and Lansdowne Terrace and to the east of Guilford Place (e.g. speed tables with uncontrolled pedestrian crossings).
• The issue should also be raised at WCRSAG (next meeting 16th October) and local political support enlisted if needed (e.g. Cllr Julian Fulbrook, Frank Dobson, M.P.).
Gaps inside traffic islands – Regent’s Park
• Stefano reported back on the meeting held to discuss the Outer Circle pedestrian refuge islands.
• The Royal Parks Authority’s consultant agreed that the white lines were a mistake, but his only proposed solution was to make them shorter!
• We have proposed putting in white hatching by the kerb – a kind of dummy kerb build-out – to narrow the lane and thereby slow traffic down. The consultant doesn’t like this as he says it would be ‘unprecedented’. Such white hatching is often used to narrow traffic lanes, but we’re not sure of any instances where it has been used through a gap between kerb and traffic island – to investigate.
• Another solution would be to take out parking bays so that cyclists had a smoother line to follow into towards the kerb. A taper of 1:10 has been recommended, we think in the IHT guidelines.
• In general, traffic speeds need to be reduced around the Outer Circle.
• Stefano and John to check the CPEC discussion and other sources and then Stefano to get back to the consultant (copying in Mark Camley, head of the RPA).
Regent’s Park – cycling on the Broad Walk
• Mark Camley, head of the RPA, has said that he has so far only heard complaints about cyclists.
• This isn’t suprising, but it would be good for him to get some positive feedback.
• Meade to invite responses from the newsgroup and forward these with a letter to Mark Camley.
• Committee members (and others) can write to Mark Camley (The Old Police House, Hyde Park, W2).
LCC Open Planning Day (8th September)
• Jean will definitely attend, Stefano may be able to and other members may want to attend themselves (one needs to register in advance).
• We should have a discussion on the newsgroup about what we think LCC’s priorities should be for the next five years.
• Various possible priorities were mentioned:
- 20 mph speed limit campaign;
- campaign against gyratories;
- Tour de France/Freewheel type events;
- LCN+ – getting it reviewed/properly implemented;
- local control of LCC by borough groups (more like how it used to be);
- getting LCC to exert more effective pressure on TfL.
• Stefano to e-mail the newsgroup with these ideas and get a discussion going.
Marchmont Street festival (8th September)
• Meade and James to staff a CCC stall at this event.
• James to book us in and tell Jean the times we will be there (for the website).
• Meade to update the useful information blue folder/information sheets and copy the latter to Jean for the website.
• Everyone with stocks of TfL maps, esp. #10s, to drop them round at James.
• If necessary, Stefano to collect more maps from LCC.
Review of attendance at festivals and and other public events this summer
• Primrose Hill: we should continue to attend, but ask for a different place for our stall.
• Kilburn: not worth attending again.
• Swiss Cottage: is worth going to.
• Covent Garden: not sure why we did this, as it is in Westminster, and not much going on anyway.
• Green Fair/Bike Fest: definitely worth continuing with.
• Dr Bikes (West Hampstead): bit patchy, but generally successful – to continue.
• Peripherique ride: good – Cllr Braithwaite has said he will do this again, and we
should support it.
• We could still really do with a Bike Week Coordinator and should continue to try to get one.
Freewheel Ride, 23rd September
• We need to organize feeder rides for this event (see http://www.londonfreewheel.com/ )
• The nearest ‘hubs’ are Gladstone Park and Finsbury Park, but it obviously makes sense for us to proceed direct to the ‘Freewheel’.
• As with the Tour de France, we will start from Swiss Cottage, leaving (we think) at 11 am. James has offered to run a stall/Dr Bike there.
• From there we should proceed down to the Outer Circle, joining there the route from Gladstone Park (which will have marshalls somehow assisting cyclists).
• Some cyclists may want to be accompanied back to Swiss Cottage, and we should offer to do this.
• John, Stefano, Meade, Dominic (probably) and Anne volunteered to steward our ride.
• We should also get people to volunteer to assist with LCC recruitment stalls in
the Freewheel itself (as we are not participating in any of the ‘hubs’).
• Details to be finalized at the September meeting.
King’s Cross development
• Anne reported back on the recent meeting of the King’s Cross Development Forum she had attended.
• Specific planning applications are now starting to come through; the one relating to the ‘University of the Arts’ is due soon.
• There was supposed to be a specific sub-committee dealing with transport; we haven’t heard any more about this. Anne and John to investigate.
• Anne to attend the next Forum meeting (20th September) and keep us posted of developments.
Pancras Road
• A Traffic Order has just been issued making Pancras Road, from Goodsway/Camley Street to Euston Road, one-way (northbound) for all vehicles. This is supposed only to operate until 2012, when the two-way cycle access we have been promised is meant to be implemented.
• This will massively inconvenience southbound cyclists, obliging them to go round the new gyratory, and will in particular make access to the railway stations difficult.
• Unfortunately, Camden Council has little leverage in this area, as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project can more or less do what it likes.
• Jean is due to be meeting Laurie Baker (London Borough of Camden) in early September and will ask for temporary arrangements to allow southbound cycling.
• We should find out what is happening to the pavement and what impact there will be on pedestrians.
• Buses will clearly have to be re-outed, and the boroughs may take a dim view of that. We should find out from Cllr Braithwaite who the Camden representative is on the joint boroughs public transport committee.
• We should be prepared to take things further once Jean has met with Laurie Baker, for instance by asking Jenny Jones to put pressure on the Mayor.
Future meetings
• For the October meeting, Jean to try for (in order): (i) Koy Thompson (new LCC director); (ii) Ken Worpole (writes for London Cyclist) ; (iii) Trevor Parsons (Hackney Cyclists).
• The short films we were shown last December were successful – perhaps another film showing?
• The Paris ‘velo libre’ scheme would be a good subject for a presentation.
• Jean to chair the September meeting; Anne to chair the October one.
Meeting venue
• It was felt that the new meeting venue was not proving as much of a lure as we’d hoped and that we should make greater efforts to publicize our meetings.
• Anne to have another go at getting our meetings in the CNJ’s ‘What’s On’ section.
• Jean to e-mail Mick Hudspeth, Primrose Hill Community Association, with notices for him to put up.
• We should revive the practice of taking copies of our newsletters to bike shops. Helen to e-mail all committee members with pdf/doc versions (with LCC membership details inserted) for them to print/copy and circulate 10-12 copies to bike shops:
- Anne: Simpsons
- Jean: Chamberlaines
- James: Cycle Surgery (Chalk Farm Road)
- Meade: Cycle Surgery (West End Lane)
- Stefano: Bikefix, Condor Cycles, Evans (Grays Inn Road)
- John: the second-hand bike shop by Mornington Crescent.
Any other business
• The Council is organizing Dr Bikes from the 18th August; James to e-mail the details he has to Jean (for the website), copying to John so that he can check against the leaflet he’s received.
