Hackney LCC meeting
Wednesday 1
February 2006
Venue:
Marcon
Court Estate Community Hall, E8
Members present:
Tim
Evans, Marian Farrugia, Sally Haywill, Jed
Keenan, Therese Kilpatrick, Vicky
Lack, Richard Lewis, Charlie
Lloyd, Melissa Martin, Trevor Parsons, Brenda Puech, George
Solomon
Apologies:
Topics discussed:
1.
AGM
2.
Cycle training
3.
Local elections 4th May
4.
The Bike ProjectTM
5.
Earlier meeting time
6.
Stoke Newington gyratory meeting
7.
LCN+ CRISPs: status report
8.
Burns Night feedback
9.
Any other business
1. AGM
Richard
has enquired of Satu Vaisanen at Hackney Council about booking a
room for the AGM. The alternative is still the Hothouse, but this
would cost £250 - £300. Sally wondered whether we
could approach a school eg Gayhurst. Tim reported that the Round
Chapel was not available, and likewise Marian reported that the
church hall in Stoke Newington she'd been researching also wasn't
free on that date.
We
debated doing something on 'naked streets', viz reducing speeds &
increasing caution by removing the differentiation between
footway and carriageway. Kensington and Chelsea deputy leader
Daniel Moylan was suggested as a possibility to speak about that
borough's excellent de-engineering work on Exhibition Road. We
should also get a panellist who is sceptical. (Oliver mentioned
the idea of 'bottom loop bias' and risk compensation. John Adams
not available.
Some
discussion of de-engineering ensued, including reference to Hans
Monderman. Apparently he thinks 15% of motor vehicle
operators will ignore naked streets.
Perhaps
try Alasdair Hanton and Lyn Sloman. Invite LB Hackney engineers.
Roger Geffen could be good as well.
Sally
suggested that the format of the evening could be rejigged. Split
into interest groups for example. Tim disagrees: the last two of
our AGM/seminar meetings have been full of good stuff which you
would have missed if split into groups. We'll see what speakers
we get. Richard, Jed, Vicky, Oliver and Trevor delegated to sort
it out.
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to the top
2. Cycle
training
Good
news that similar levels of funding will, unexpectedly, once
again be available to support cycle training for the 2006/7
financial year. Money will have to be bid for very quickly. Steve
Walker has asked if STA Bikes can put in for £150K. Some
discussion about adult cycle training. Some regard it as not
politically popular. OK, then put a 'family' spin on it. The
current year's spend on adult cycle training has been £17K.
We should go for at least that in the coming year.
20+
schools doing training, plus 6 more in development. Lots of
ideas, but need organisations to deliver eg to workplaces.
Richard:
let's find out what organisations have travel plans. Trevor:
council still hasn't got a travel plan, and is reluctant to call
for other organisations to get one until it has sorted itself
out. Organisations in need of a travel plan include Hackney
Community College, Homerton University Hospital and the St
Leonard's NHS site.
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to the top
3.
Local elections 4th May
What sort of
campaigning should we do? Perhaps come up with five suggestions
for Hackney. Need to be short & snappy. Could include:
permeability
project
bike centre
x% of all
schools having cycle promotion projects
a residential
bike parking target
20mph for all
non-strategic routes
cross-lea
access (v poor - documents presented by EDAW, towpath closures
planned, exchange of land not looking good. 'maintain access for
cycling & walking plus full restoration of eastway'. We
should make sure they keep their promises).
Charlie's view was
that the main advantage of election work for us is promotional..
George is standing
in Queensbridge ward (for Respect).
Back to the top
4.
The Bike ProjectTM
Therese
recapped on the idea of The Bike Project, viz cycle training,
maintenance training, recycling, and establishing a cycle centre.
One year on we have some people committed to work on it and will
soon be constituted. So far have had about three meetings. Still
looking for a site but difficult to fundraise until constituted.
Fellow Hackney LCC member Simon Hughes is East London area
manager of St Mungo's, the homelessness charity. They have a new
site on Mare Street. Mungo's have been in court with the previous
tenant and that is still a live issue, which is holding things
up. Oliver has names of Mungo's contacts from Simon that Therese
should speak to.
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to the top
5. Earlier
meeting time
There
was a proposal for an earlier meeting time. It was felt that
earlier could be better. Agreed to switch to 1930 from
April.
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the top
6. Stoke
Newington gyratory meeting
Hackney LCC member Robert
Lindsay is coordinating SSNOWS, the Scrap Stoke Newington One Way
System campaign. He is holding a public meeting on 22nd
February at St Paul's church at 8pm. Jed said that the next
return to two-way due to be funded will be Tottenham Hale, then
Stoke Newington. We think that a study is being pencilled in to
next financial year's spending plan as an aspiration? Jed feels
that many
residents may be lining up against the idea but let's see.
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to the top
7. LCN+
CRISPs: status report
The LCN+ 'CRISP'
process is still progressing very slowly in Hackney, due to the
amount of work required on our part to produce comments on the
four draft CRISP reports produced by consultancy Mayer Brown on
routes 8, 9, 10 and 16. Some leeway can be granted to the
consultants because Hackney was the first borough to go live with
the CRISP process, but even so the draft reports produced
following route inspection meetings were of a rather poor
quality, with many confusions, errors and omissions. We have
produced comments on routes 9 and 10, which took days of work to
produce. We have yet to find time to comment on routes 8 and 16,
but intend to soon.
Charlie suggested
that Nick Morris TfL's network management group might be
interested to hear about this. Oliver: let's ask for decent
re-drafted CRISP reports to be produced incorporating our
comments. An important problem with the current drafts is that
they don't contain many genuine options. This integration of our
comments must be done before we have a Stage 3 meeting. This is
the proper procedure. However it is now extremely urgent for us
to produce responses on the other two drafts.
Charlie and Brenda
expressed their interest in learning more about the CRISPS.
Trevor and Oliver, who have done most of the work on these
responses, said they would welcome involvement from anyone else
who was interested in pursuing this detailed and painstaking
work.
The current
consultation on the Hoxton 20mph area was raised. Ralph Smyth had
given comments on this, concerned that the proposed frequency of
traffic calming features such as tables on Pitfield Street would
slow cycle traffic. Hackney's cycling officer Olu Soyoye has
raised similar concerns. Trevor has spoken to Chris Proctor of LB
Hackney Streetscene about this issue. Chris says that the
frequent tables are justified by the number of collisions on this
stretch of road. Perhaps getting rid of the 1970s roundabout at
the Britannia junction will help to reduce speeds on the
approaches.
8. Burns
Night feedback
All
in all this year's Burns Night was considered to be a great
success. Some had worries about crowding on the dance floor, but
Tim thought there was plenty of room to dance. The one major
problem this year was Brenda and fellow volunteers working in the
kitchen were severely overworked. We must solve this next time.
Brenda reported that we think we have made about £1400 from
the event, which is good.
9. Any
other business
None.
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Next
meeting
Wednesday 1 March 2006, 8pm, meeting place TBC
(special location for AGM).
Back to the meetings
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