Bromley Cyclists Annual Meeting

Bromley Parish Church
St Peter and St Paul’s
Shortlands Room
Church Road
Bromley
Kent, BR2 0EG

Monday 13 March 2017 – 1930-2130

Members: 

 

Borough Coordinator…. Spencer Harradine (SH)

Chair…………………………………. Derek Mark (DM)

Secretary (Acting) …………….. John Wood (JHW)

Treasurer………………………. Linda Rampling (LR)

Rides Coordinator………….. Tracey Parker (TJP)

Communications…………. Richard Gibbons (RG)

Membership Officer………………. Eve Evans (EE)

Press Officer…………………… Tom Campbell (TC)

 

1. Open and welcome

The chairman opened the meeting and welcomed all present.

2. Apologies

SH and RG.

3. Approve the February 2017 minutes

The minutes of the February meeting were proposed by TJP and LR – approved.

4. Action grid and matters arising

There were no matters arising not dealt with on the action grid, which was updated (appendix).

5. Treasurer

There was no written report from the treasurer on this occasion. The treasurer reported verbally that Bromley Cyclists has £606.09 in its account. The cheque for the room hire has cleared. It was confirmed that the LCC has paid £180 for the 2016 FreeCycle ride.

The budget for this year is earmarked for hiring the hall for monthly meetings, producing leaflets and cards to advertise the group and to buy a projector. SH may still have some cards that we can get from him and put in bike shops for people to take. TP offered to take cards round bike shops.

6. Group Administration

Election of officers

JHW offered to become borough coordinator. EE seconded – elected.

TC offered to become secretary. LR seconded – elected.

Linda offered to continue as treasurer. EE seconded – elected.

The other posts will remain with their current holders, including TC remaining as media officer.

Sue Lambert had previously expressed an interest in taking on a “special projects” role liaising with residents’ associations and groups, but she can’t make Monday evenings. Several members of the ManCom said Mondays were really the only option for them, so it was agreed to stick with this night for ManCom meetings. It was not thought that Sue’s inability to get to the meetings would stop her from taking on the proposed role.

LCC Groups meeting is being held on Monday 20 March. JHW and TC to attend. This meeting will consider the LCC’s Liveable Neighbourhoods Trial Groups (LNTG) draft report. There is concern that the LCC is “rolling over” by dropping its Mini Hollands campaign and altering it to fit in with the mayor’s new Liveable Neighbourhoods policy, which also focuses on walking. There is a question mark over the mayor’s true commitment to cycling. The way the LNTG policy is worded, Bromley Council won’t be selected as the council to be lobbied by the LCC.

The meeting will also discuss the first meeting of the Women and Cycling Working Group. We aren’t sure we were ever invited. Our non-attendance was a shame as we do lots to support women’s cycling. Indeed, we are probably the best local group for this and have many ideas to contribute. EE should represent us at future meetings.

7. Rides

We’re looking to put on rides without clashing with the Bigfoot to Brighton training rides. We will run a Viking Trail ride on Sunday 19 March. EE to publish details.

The idea of running themed Weekly Wednesday Wanders was raised. And we will aim to rotate ride leaders over the year.

We have accepted the LCC’s invitation to lead a feeder ride to the FreeCycle ride on Saturday 29 July. We need ride leaders.

Jonathan Coulter suggested we ride to see some successful cycle schemes, e.g. the Mini Holland scheme in Walthamstow. This would probably only be for the committee (and a few other relevant parties) to see schemes and meet the people key to getting them up and running.

The February ride report is attached (appendix)

8. Communications

No report given, but we viewed the social media stats.

9. Projects – Targets

Adult cycling classes

Nine are signed up for the class on Saturday 18 March. One lady asked if she could borrow a bike. EE is to look into whether the Bromptons we believe belong to us are available. EE & TJP want to look after a Brompton each so they’re ready for us to use. EE will speak to Lindsey about the Bromptons to see if they can stay with us – (action). TP offered to pick them up.

TP asked that we say at the start of the adult cycling classes that we’re not formally trained trainers. EE said we should just say we’re ride leaders.

Increase membership numbers

EE emailed Matthew (LCC membership secretary), asking for the entire Bromley membership so she can work out membership numbers herself. No reply.

Increase numbers attending our group [quarterly] meetings

No business

Asks

No business

Other

JHW raised the idea of posing more questions at council meetings. RG is great at this and may be best to lead on this. With a range of questions on something we want to hold the council to account over, we can gradually get politicians to acknowledge that they are responsible for what we want them to focus on. Possible topic ideas include: illegal air pollution across the borough; the Shaw Academy and its impact on Bromley South; and cutting congestion from the school run.

10. Transport, Traffic & Infrastructure

Street Talk briefing

JHW attended this talk by Will Norman, the mayor’s walking and cycling commissioner, and Val Shawcross, the deputy mayor for transport. He remains unconvinced how genuinely committed the mayor is to cycling.

11. Coordinator

JHW asked each ManCom member to produce a “SWOT analysis” for the next ManCom meeting of a couple of paras setting out what each of us is good or bad at. EE seconded – (decision).

JHW also asked the group to consider what topics we should focus on questioning the council over – (action).

JHW to buy a pen of up to £80 for SH.

12. AOB and close

At 9.20pm, there be no other business, the chairman closed the meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No.	Action	Owner	Start date	Progress	Completed by/date
46	Include links on BC website to any remaining social media channels where BC has a presence	RG/EE	11/07/2016	10%
56	Make list of stakeholders who might be interested in supporting a speed reduction campaign	RG	08/08/2016	75%
59	Send code to add widget under calendar on website	RG	12/09/2016
71	Approach Malcolm Wood at Mencap to ask if a permanent Bromley Cyclists banner/flag can be displayed at the lodge when operation is running	SH/JHW	12/12/2017
73	Develop a communications strategy	TC	12/12/2017	100%	Further work to be done when group’s 2017 strategy agreed
75	Adjust FB settings so items posted on our page are automatically shared to the group	RG	09/01/2017
76	Contact LBB to request they organise next Cycling Forum	SH JHW	09/01/2017
77	WWW ride reports to be added to the website each week	Team	09/01/2017	100%	Team, 13/03/2017
79	Now Ride Social has become Let’s Ride after change of sponsorship from Sky to HSBC we should add our WWWs to their website	RG	09/01/2017
80	Write to SH thanking him for his service to the group as our coordinator.	JHW	13/02/2017
81	Check content on meetings page on website	TC	13/02/2017	50%
82	Send minutes of group meetings to EE for posting on our website	TC	13/03/2017

Action grid

Liveable Neighbourhoods Trial Groups

Aim

The London Cycling Campaign aims to transform our city into a healthier, cleaner and happier place to live, where anyone who wants to cycle can do so safely and enjoyably.

One of the objectives that will enable us to reach our aim is ensuring the Mayor honours the promise made to LCC to enable every borough to have access to funding for a Mini-Holland scheme (aside from the ones that already have one). The new administration has moved away from the ‘Mini-Holland’ brand, and we believe that the new schemes will be called ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’ (LN) to reflect that the new schemes will fit within the new Healthy Streets framework.

Councils will be invited to bid for funding to create LN’s, and LCC intends to support 3 to 4 local groups (in the first instance) to engage with their councils to persuade and/or assist them to make a high quality bid for LN funding, which results in exemplar LNs for cyclists and pedestrians.

By focusing on a small number of Local Groups/Councils where the potential for achieving exemplar results is highest, we are aiming to make the most of our limited resources. Engaging successfully in the LN programme will also boost LCC’s visibility and reputation as a campaigning group that produces results on the ground, and we hope this will also boost membership numbers. In addition, but focusing in on boroughs where we have a high chance of achieving outstanding LN’s, we set the bar high for every borough in London to reach the same level of ambition with schemes that follow.

We’d like to encourage Local Groups to apply to be one of the trial groups for a Liveable

Neighbourhoods campaign. Lessons learnt from these groups will be shared and replicated in other boroughs, potentially in the 2018 election campaign, to ensure that the Mayor delivers on his infrastructure commitments made to LCC.

What we know about LN Programme so far

The programme will fund (we think through LIPs) large scale (total cost of £5m-10m according to our understanding) area-based schemes to deliver the Healthy Streets approach in London.

 

We believe that the aims for the programme will be:

 

• To increase the number of people choosing active travel options (ie. walking and cycling)
• To reduce the number of people making journeys by private motor vehicle
• To make our roads after by reducing the risk of collisions for vulnerable road users
• To increase the number of people making local journeys and improving the local economy
• To reduce air pollution by encouraging modal shift

 

What support would the trial groups get?

We could offer:

• Training package to support their campaign. Five masterclass sessions over the year, mostly in the evening, one or two at the weekend. Based on the learnings from the existing three Moni-Hollands, these could include (depending on the actual needs of the groups concerned):

o Building a campaign plan for a major cycling project:

• Power analysis
• Campaign timeline planning
• First steps and tactics
• Facilitation skills o Best ways to communicate your campaign:
• Building alliances with other groups
• Holding public events to engage local residents
• Data gathering for local businesses
• Building great campaign emails o How to make the most out of you group:
• Best ways to recruit volunteers for the campaign
• How to manage volunteers for the campaign
• How to collect and manage email addresses o How to lobby your council:
• Organising a led ride with councillors
• Holding a public meeting
• How to support cycling officers o Supporting consultations in your borough:
• How to access and share information on Cyclescape
• Best ways to get residence involved

• Potential design support to create visual mock ups of an ideal LCC Liveable Neighbourhoods plan for their chosen area
• LCC campaigner support at strategically important meetings, either with council or other orgs.
• LCC campaigner time at events (including speaking requests)
• LCC props (i.e gazebo) for events

Criteria

We want to be transparent about how we decide which groups will be part of the trail. A working group, made up of Terry (Vice-Chair of the Board and head to the Campaigns and Active

Membership Committee), , Fran (Campaigns Coordinator), Simon M (Infrastructure Campaigner) and a member from Waltham Forest/Enfield (i.e a group that wouldn’t need to be part of this trail). We’ll ask local groups to submit answers to a few short questions to help us understand group capacity and council engagement, and then the group will add the strategic level understanding to arrive at the final list of groups.

The criteria will be:

1. Groups have the capacity: they are engaged and active:
   • They have regular, well attended meetings
   • Committee posts (coordinator, treasurer and secretary) are filled
   • They hold connections with other non-LCC local groups they can engage (I.e pedestrian groups, health groups, universities etc.)

There is evidence of engaging on infrastructure issues with their council.

 

2. Council are willing: the council are pro cycling, or are on the tipping point of investing more in cycling:
   • There is a Borough Cycling Officer
   • They have been open to altering infrastructure plans based on input from LCC groups or consultation responses

 

3. Strategically important: wins in these boroughs will be strategically important to LCC:
   • Links up well with the existing and planned London cycling grid
   • Vulnerable council seat in the 2018 elections
   • There is potential to recruit lots of new LCC members in the boroughs
   • Potential for the council to work with the projects team
   • Mix of inner and outer London groups

Rough timeline

March	Present to Local Groups Forum on 20th Refine after comments, and send to BC yahoo groups and in Friday Post on w/c 27th
April	Ongoing support for any existing campaigns
May	Submissions for LNTG by mid-May Mid-May – decide on 3 to 4 groups to take forward Mid – late May run the ‘build your campaign’ workshop with the groups selected for the LN trial
June	Report back to the board on progress so far
July	Run ‘ Best way to communicate your campaign’
September onwards	Run other training sessions every 2 months or so.

 

Promotion

• Initial introduction at Local Groups Forum
• Send to BC Yahoo group
• Send email inviting submission to the Friday Post list (although not through Friday Post) Submission questions

A little about you:

1. Name:
2. Email:
3. Group:
4. Position:
5. Who are on the current committee? Please share their names and positions.

Tell us a little about your group:

6. What are you particularly proud of as a group?

For example, have you had any major campaign wins? Led regular and well attended rides? 

 

7. Are there other local groups that you work with?

Either other LCC local groups, or others such as Living Streets, Friends of the Earth etc. 

Tell us a bit about your council:

8. What is your relationship like with your council? Do you have regular contact with councillors/cycling officers? Do they proactively contact you about new schemes?
9. Have you come across and anti – cycling (or ambivalent) councillors? What’s the best way your group has found to challenge and change their position?
10. Are there any other decision makers (ie, people within TfL or the GLA) that you are in contact with?

Tell us also about your borough:

11. Are you aware of an area in your borough already identified as being a potential LN?
12. Is there an area or areas within your borough that you have already identified as being ripe for LN-style investment?

One last question:

13. Why does your group want to make LN your major campaign over the next year? What would a LN do for your borough?

Additional information to be to be taken into consideration by the panel:

• Number of cyclists in borough
• TfL projections for cyclist numbers in borough
• Long term potential for cycling

Kings College London air pollution data

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women and cycling working group

First meeting: 2nd February 2017 Attended:

Jane Davis: coordinator, Lewisham CC, Ruth-Anna MacQueen, Hackney CC, Rachel Aldred, trustee and Hackney CC, Talia Hussain, Islington CC, Terry Patterson vice chair LCC and Tower Hamlets Wheelers.

Apologies:

Amy Foster, trustee LCC, Mariana Carvalho, Hackney CC, Helen Ashcroft, Tower a Hamlets Wheelers

We need to standardise and professionalise our organisational practice in order to meet the inclusion agenda.

Much of the points raised below addressing gender under-representation could also address under-representation of other groups.

Points raised in meeting:

1. High quality infra attracts women.
2. LCC needs to push for a greater presence at community events- fairs, festivals, council and housing association etc
3. Policy- remember to ensure consultations consider women’s safety e.g. at night some QWays not suitable . Is route suitable for slower less confident riders?
4. Membership- two key aims

– make meetings more attractive

-make communication outside meetings more relevant and inclusive for those who can’t attend. The meeting is not the whole membership!

5. Ask borough groups to consider inclusivity at their meetings. Meeting in dark, inaccessible, noisy or cold venues, often in pubs which many possible members feel uncomfortable in.  Meeting process -are new people welcomed, asked questions? Included in discussion?  Is adequate easily viewable info provided e.g. clear maps
6. What are borough groups doing well – let’s find out and share….
7. Website- nothing on family friendly cycling. Nothing on Kidical mass which should be core to

LCC

8. Breeze- how does LCC interact or signpost to these v successful rides

Actions for staff/Board

1. Family cycling and utility cycling – let’s have articles in London Cyclist
2. Products that are more advertised to/with/for women rather than sports cyclists – “reviews with discussion of minute difference in bikes all costing more than a grand!”
3. Membership / household membership fairly meaningless – why not junior/kids? A page in London Cyclist for kids? Free gifts like stickers and packs of spoky dokies.
4. Do we have data on child membership ?
5. Data on schools using e.g. Bike buses ?
6. Signposting to e.g. Bike ride training
7. Info we need
   • Membership gender split by borough-staff action
   • Committee members split by gender- staff action
   • Data on how many LCC women ride leaders/ how many have gone on to actually lead rides
   • Lcc should map where women led rides are taking place- action for staff
   • Can we survey our women members quickly and ask them for views / survey monkey?
8. Better use of tech between meetings- FB, Skype, Slack (Hackney)- action to find out what is working well
9. CycleScape for all consultation discussions so that meeting becomes just a decision on options that have already been seen .
10. Consideration of roles for committee that don’t depend on meetings e.g. outreach officer, inclusion officer
11. Job sharing committee roles/ consultation officers (Hackney)
12. Rides that work well for women – (without ignoring the many women doing huge distances in sport) family rides, park rides, rides to cafes, cycling for shopping, to friends, on a sunny day….
13. Is there a q about women and cycling in the annual survey of members? If not why not?
14. Lcc needs to be more outward facing and involved in community
15. Clusters- trustee led – get info through these to find out best practice and implement change

Actions for working group members

1. Jane- will look at BG coordinator handbook to see if key messages there/how it can be updated
2. Ruth-Anna- to look at best practice for meetings and how to reach out to members who can’t attend
3. Talia- to look at childcare- Islington model
4. Terry- any useful info on gender from the indep consultancy membership and marketing report

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ride report

February 2017

 

 

 

Date	Ride	Mileage	Riders	Men	Women
1/2/17	Ww Anglesey Arms	12	9	6	3
8/2/17	Ww white Lion	12	7	3	4
15/2/17	Ww Black Horse	11	10	6	4
22/2/17	Ww Freelands	12	7	5	2

 

 

 

 

Points for Discuss

 

 

Leaflets

To Bike shops, Churches, Council Buildings.