Tower Hamlets Wheelers and Better Streets for Tower Hamlets Joint Meeting Minutes – July 2021
These monthly meetings are held jointly between Tower Hamlets Wheelers and Better Streets for Tower Hamlets.
Held online via Zoom
Wednesday 14th July 2021 at 19:30
Attendees – Dan, Keith, David, Neil, Juliette, Terry, Cllr James King, Iain
Apologises – Julie
Ropemakers Fields
- There is a consultation around cycling within the park along with some proposed improvements for the park.
- ACTION – we will share with our members who live in the area or use the park as part of their commute. We should look to encourage people to respond soon rather than later (within the next 10 days).
- ACTION we will provide the contact details for Wheels for Wellbeing to Cllr James King in order for the council to engage & ensure that any cycling measures are inclusive of non-standard cycles.
- Consultation proposals document https://mcusercontent.com/52573a2a5e46cd67db6192af7/files/3d82b095-fda6-...
- Design options document https://mcusercontent.com/52573a2a5e46cd67db6192af7/files/352d7df1-2a25-...
Young people and transport policy - Master's research request
- A master’s student at UCL is undertaking a research project to explore the low levels of cycling to secondary school amongst young people in London.
- They are looking to hold interviews lasting around 30-40 minutes with 18-21 year olds to understand their travel to school behaviours and how transport policy can better support young people.
- The first 20 participants would receive a 3 free e-scooter rides in return for their time.
- ACTION Iain to ensure details of this are included in our next mail out to members.
Transport for All’s Equal Pavements Pledge
- Transport for All have published an Equal Pavement Pledge consisting of 7 points. They are encouraging individuals and local groups to contact their local authority to ask them to sign up to the Equal Pavement Pledge
- See more about the pledge here,, https://www.transportforall.org.uk/campaign/equal-pavements-pledge/
- ACTION Email the pledge to the Mayor asking if he Tower Hamlets will sign up to the pledge.
Mum’s for Lungs
- Mum’s for Lungs are holding a London wide meeting this Thursday 15th July at 8pm to discuss the introduction of ULEZ. Please contact Dan if you are interested in attending.
Healthy Streets Scorecard
- The Healthy Streets Scorecard results were publish last week. Tower Hamlets fell from third spot in 2020 to seventh place this year.
- Highlights from the report include that currently 25% of the streets in the borough are part of a low-traffic neighbourhood, only 7% of roads in the borough have protected cycle tracks with nearly all of these being on TfL controlled roads.
- You can see the full report for Tower Hamlets here, https://www.healthystreetsscorecard.london/your_borough/tower-hamlets/
- ACTION – Email the results to your local ward councillors and the Mayor highlighting what they are doing well but urge them to press on with areas where improvement is needed.
Cycle Buddies
- We managed to pair up a further 6 new Cycle Buddies this month.
- We have received around 200 borough specific flyers from central office for use at events/workshop. These could also be distributed to local cycle shops.
- Find out more about Cycle Buddies here, https://www.towerhamletswheelers.org.uk/tower-hamlets-cycle-buddies
Local Election Manifestos
- The local elections for Tower Hamlets council will take place next year, it is worth us starting to think about what our manifesto asks will be as part of these elections.
- ACTION Dan to email around to set up a working group in order to start work on a manifesto.
Liveable Streets Update
- We understand that all schemes that have been consulted on already are likely to be completed or work started on before the next local elections.
- It is worth collecting before and after photos/videos within scheme areas which we can use as part of our campaign work.
Bethnal Green
- Ropley Street, a consultation on the closure of the street will be taking place soon.
- See https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/LSBethnalGreen for latest updates on the scheme including construction timelines.
Shadwell
- We believe the public consultation should be coming out in the near future.
LCC Campaigners’ Conference
- The LCC’s Campaigner Conference will be taking place in the Autumn and central office are looking for suggestions for workshop ideas from local groups.
- Examples of workshops previously have included social media training, how to engage with local councillors and officers and building relationships with other community groups.
- Please pass on any suggestions to Iain who will feed them back.
LCC Local Group Forum
- The next LCC Local Groups Forum is on Wednesday 21st July between 6-8pm. This is open to any LCC member to attend.
Rides & Events
- We now have to carry out a Ride Risk assessment and COVID risk assessment for our after-worker rides and pre-registration is required via Eventbrite
- We post any planned rides on our website here https://www.towerhamletswheelers.org.uk/diary
AOB
- Redchurch festival, we have been invited. Keith is willing to provide a Dr Bike, which is likely to be on the Sunday 1st August.
Next Meeting – Wednesday 11th August 2021, 7.30-9pm, The Cabin, St Margaret’s House, Old Ford Road, E2 9PL or via Zoom if lockdown is in place. Email or contact on social media to receive the invite link to the Zoom meeting.
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