Minutes of Annual Meeting of Bromley Cyclists – 11th February, 2013
held at The Liberal Club, Orpington
Present: Spencer Harradine, Eve Evans, Andy Allsop, Melissa Cazzatto, Stephen Hardy, Paul Hardy, John Wood, Linda Rampling, Tim Rowe, Steve Watkin.
1. Nominations and election of officers: Nomination for Secretary Eve Evans, seconded by Paul Hardy; Nomination for Treasurer Paul Hardy, seconded by Eve Evans; Nomination for Co-ordinator Spencer Harradine, seconded John Wood.
2. Apologies: Glynn Alsworth, Andrew Fergar, Nev Medhurst, Jonathan Burns, Tessa Folkes.
3. Report of last meeting approved.
4. Financial Report by Paul Hardy, only expenditure in January was £291.60 for printing of business cards, current balance £625.90.
5. Matters arising from last meeting
• Cycle Bromley – idea is to link with other organizations so that me might have more impact. Bring together all the Sport, Leisure and Recreation issues and Travel and Infrastructure which affects cycling. Stephen Hardy and Eve Evans and John Wood and Melissa Cazzatto in an advisory capacity to take on more of the work.
6. Travel, Transport & Infrastructure
Presentation by Steve Heeley from LBB who updated us on the Biking Borough and informed us of the Tfl funding opportunities available. TfL’s Business Plan for 2013/14 to 2020/21 was outlined as well as the key outputs by to be delivered by 2016 including asset upgrade, new buses, new train fleets on the Overground along with the completion of the 12 Cycle Superhighways, expanded Cycle Hire and 70% of junction reviews completed for cycle safety. Longer term outputs include the Mayor’s 5% modal shift target by 2026 and the creation of a roads taskforce to balance the demands of the London road network.
£4bn of funding over the next 10 years is to be spent on roads with a further £913M to be spent on cycling. £2M per annum has been set aside for air quality initiatives which could include walking and cycling. Other funding streams to note include the public health responsibilities that transfer to Councils from 2013/14 and their target for increasing active travel.
A new Mayoral cycling vision is due to be published in March/April. This is expected to follow the announcement of the appointment of the Mayor’s new cycling ambassador, Andrew Gilligan. The vision is to carry three key themes, providing better routes for cyclists, creating safer streets for cycling and encouraging more people to cycle.
The Biking Borough programme will enter its third and final year in 2013/14. The programme has been successful in beginning to increase the awareness and promotions of cycling along with some positive infrastructure improvements in Bromley Town Centre. Whilst the borough was successful in obtaining £271k of funding over the three years, this is considered relatively modest in comparison to the ambitious step change required for cycling.
As part of the TfL business plan, £300M of the cycling funding will be made available to boroughs. A new cycling funding programme is to be launched for projects between 2013/14 and 2016/17. The first year overlap with the Biking Boroughs programme is in order to ensure necessary studies and strategies are up to date along with making sure adequate monitoring is put into place.
The funding for boroughs will be available through two bidding rounds under five funding streams. These are monitoring and strategies, better and safer routes for cycling, safer cycling, more people cycling, and outer London transformational projects. The latter being a substantial fund open to 3/4 outer London boroughs to make a real difference through a transformational project along the ‘Go Dutch’ principles. The first funding round will be in May-July 2013 to secure funds for small scale projects and monitoring. The second round will be in February/March 2014 and will be for larger infrastructure schemes on the road network and for the transformational projects.
Bromley will be actively engaging with stakeholders over the coming months to understand opportunities and idea for bidding. It is anticipated that stakeholder workshops will be arranged around March time. Members of Bromley Cyclists are asked in the meantime to begin thinking about potential ideas.
7. Events
• Schools Cycling Competiton. Stephen Hardy attended a meeting last week with Jason Cattermoule and members of the Council. The main item was the Inter Schools Cycling Competition on 6th June, 2013 which will run in a similar format to last year. This will be facilitated by British Cycling and Bromley Council.
• Cyclist of the Year. It was planned to hold Cyclist of the Year at the same time as the Schools Cycling Competion and combine the events, but this is unlikely to happen this year. It is however hoped that next year the two will be combined, with Bromley Cyclists being involved and perhaps taking out some family rides.
• Le Jog/Glades – teams from various schools taking part on 19th February.
• Camping Trip. All set for April 6th in Essex. Camping Friday and Saturday nights, two rides 45 miles Saturday, 30 miles Sunday.
• Mildenhall Rally. It would be nice to get some involvement there. There are some good local rides and lots of things to do.
• Fundraising Quiz. Discussion followed as to whether we need to raise funds for anything at the moment and if not then hold off on this event until later in the year.
8. Sport, Leisure & Recreation
• Rides Report. 71 people on 8 rides in January, similar figures to 2012.
• Future Rides Planning. Proposed that we have 3 rides on the last Sunday of each month for a two hour duration. Three ride leaders needed, three assistant ride leaders and at least two people to man the event shelter in Norman Park. Discussion followed re rides in general and Andy told us how he had taken groups of riders to London following contact via various forums. Flyers to be done prior to monthly rides, Stephen Hardy to organize.
• Ride Leader Course. 14 people attended the recent course at Bethlem Royal Hospital. Cross section of people from Penge Cycle Club, local schools, Bromley Cyclists and Bigfoot.
• Adam’s Challenge. 3 pre rides to the Brighton Ride. Details on website.
• Youth Velo Club. Going very well. Aim is to give the younger members in the group the opportunity to cycle on the roads.
• Bike Shop Rides. This needs to be followed up on.
• Sky Rides/Sky Ride Leader Course. There will be another year of local Sky Rides from June to September.
• Breeze Rides. Linda attended the course and said how good it was. Possibly the Breeze rides can be included following on from the Sunday Rides.
• Harris Hospicecare. Spencer has had a couple of meetings re the Charity Ride on July 14. They would like to do a pre-ride on May 12 at Goddington Park.
• Tour de Penge. We will support it but it will be run by Penge on 19th May.
• Historical Rides. It was suggested that Tim Rowe be in charge of these. John also has several architectural rides planned.
9. Go Ride/BGRRL
• Go ride clubs continue to do well with some of the older members now taking part in the Velo Club Rides on a Saturday afternoon.
• Young Ports. Old Portlians have agreed to start a young ports section.
• Bickley Park. After school club planned at Bickley Park, which Spencer plans to initiate. Marie may be persuaded to do her Level 2 Coaching Course and continue with the club.
10. Website. Going well. Lots of response from the registration form.
11. AOB
• LCC Policy Forum. Anyone can attend and Spencer asked people to consider this. There is also a local groups forum once every 6 weeks where we get together with other groups should anyone like to go.
