Hackney LCC meeting
Wednesday 5 March 2008
Venue:
Marcon Court Estate
Community Hall
Members
present:
Keir Apperley, Alan Coombs, David Farnham, Marian Farrugia (minutes), Jeremy Hill, Trevor Parsons (chair), Brenda Puech, Oliver Schick
Topics discussed:
1.
Matters arising
2. Hackney Living Streets relaunch
3. Olympic walking and cycling route
4. Victoria Park masterplan consultation
5. Stamford Hill Estate bike maintenance events
6. Millfields Park
7. AGM
8. Any other business
1.
Matters arising
Minutes from previous meeting unfortunately not available.
Back to the top
2. Hackney Living Streets relaunch
An inaugural meeting to revive the Hackney branch of Living Streets
is to take place on Wednesday 12 March at the Pembury Tavern, from 7.30
to 9pm. Everyone interested in improving conditions for walking
welcome. For more information ring David on 077486 465 30 or email
davidDOTfarnhamATgmailDOTcom
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3. Olympic walking and cycling route
Hackney
Cyclists have been involved in the consultation for a proposed new
route starting at Finsbury Park and (current plan) at Victoria Park,
and we have attended a route planning meeting and ride. Some Hackney
councillors have complained of not being informed about the proposal,
and have floated alternatives to a route-based approach eg spend the
money on improving problem junctions instead. We are sympathetic to
that idea, having always favoured the approach of restoring permeability,
improving junctions and engineering for lower speeds across the street network
as a whole, rather than designating a small sub-class of streets
as cycle routes. However, there may still be useful gains to be had from
continuing to investigate the route proposal, if the political will is there to deal
with some of the problems along the way, especially the one-way systems
around the Well Street area. New
proposed route changes have been sent to us by Jonathan Tan, LB Hackney
Streetscene department's Olympics transport co-ordinator. Trevor
presented these to the meeting. Concerns expressed by members included:
- Route is still going via parks which either aren't open (Clissold Park) or don't feel safe at night (Hackney Downs)
- Proposed route
changes are quite convoluted at the Clissold end, where a new dogleg
crossing Albion Road has been introduced. We prefer the original
routing via Milton Grove, Allen Road, Brighton Road, Farleigh Road.
- Valentine
Road area poses serious difficulties because of the one-way system.
Valentine Road needs to be made two-way for bikes, not just for the
proposed Olympic route but also for London Cycling Network 'Plus' Route
8. If the will is not there to
make the reductions in car parking to allow this, despite the council's
long-held policy prioritising walking and cycling high above residents'
car parking, we suggest changing the end-point to the East Marsh rather
than Victoria Park.
Actions: Trevor to continue linking with this consultation, and liaise with Clissold Park User group re: rumoured new bridge Back to the top
4. Victoria Park masterplan consultation
LB
Tower Hamlets is consulting on proposals for Victoria Park, associated
with a bid it wants to put for park improvements. It includes a
new walking and cycling link between the two parts of the park across
Grove Road, but not much is planned regarding the crucial points of
better cycle and wheelchair access. Discussions taking place in Hackney
and Tower Hamlets cycling community re: gate access, bike parking and
possible better park linkages. A Victoria Park Society meeting is
taking place on Saturday 8 March. Dave Tuckwell from Tower Hamlets
might go. LCC member Noel McDermott is co-ordinating responses on
behalf of the Hackney and Tower Hamlets LCC groups. Action: Brenda to liaise with Noel, Disability Hackney and Living Streets on responses
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5. Stamford Hill Estate bike maintenance events
Doug
Auld, a resident, has contacted us for help in setting up some 'Dr.
Bike' sessions at Stamford Hill Estate. Keir, who already runs various
youth-oriented cycle maintenance projects on housing estates, was
interested to hear this because he knows that Southern Housing would
like to generate a youth cycling project on the estate.
We
agreed that Hackney Cyclists would set aside up to £200 to cover the
costs of a weekend session or two of bike maintenance. We should to
take the opportunity to promote our workshop to residents
Action:
Trevor to put Doug Auld in touch with Keir to discuss working
together on this, especially on training young people in cycle mechanics
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6. Millfields Park
Concern
expressed from park users re: walking/cycling conflict on the main path
through Millfields Park, which is on the route of London Cycle Network
'Plus' Route 9. The path is subdivided visually with a stripe down the
middle and green surfacing for the shared-use cycling and walking side.
This leads some cyclists to assume that they have priority over
pedestrians on 'their' side, which is absolutely not the case. A
proposal of building a new separate path for cyclists has been put
forward, but we believe that this would be unlikely to work --
expensive, plus people would walk and cycle on both paths.
Action:
Tim Evans to suggest the removal of the dividing line and green
surfacing, to be replaced by shared use / pedestrian priority signs at
entrances to the park 7. AGM
We decided to hold our AGM on Wednesday 7 May, venue TBC.
Actions: Trevor to invite Susie Morrow to talk about Wandsworth LCC's Movers and Shakers project. Marian to liaise with Alan re: venue and food. Publicity to go out in an LCC insert
8. Any other business
- Hackney
Streetscene organised a very successful cycle pitstop on the Kingsland
Road on 23 January, following the model of the event we held there
during last year's Bike Week. We contributed payment for young trainee
mechanics to attend, as arranged by Keir. Excellent feedback from the
event
- Brooke Road 'DIY Streets' - workshop on 29th March
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Next
meeting
Wednesday 2 April 2008, same venue.
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