Category: Meetings

Readout of Newham Cyclists’ Monthly meeting, 1st December 2025

Romford Road update (see diagram below)

Design work has started section A.

The south of section B is now surfaced. Awaiting opening date for B and D, subject to blue paint at junctions.

Section F is expected to start in early January.

Section H has been completed

Section I – temporary lights to be removed within 2 weeks. Awaiting opening date for H and I, subject to blue paint at junctions.

J3 – Works on Richmond Road have commenced. There is currently a consultation on TfL queries about J3.
 

Other infrastructure latest

In year funding has been sourced for Louise Road/Manbey Road crossing. Work is expected to start January 2026.

CFR7 – issues with levels were holding up work at Liberty Bridge Road/Leyton Road but have been resolved. Work is expected to move south after Christmas. A topological  survey is due 10th December – this would cover the Greenway diversion stretch of CFR7. There is sadly no firm date for spades in the ground. The plan is to build the permanent design with temporary materials in the first instance.

Jake Russell Walk should be upgraded next year.

Other potential projects were discussed. 

Rides planning – the Greenway closure between Channelsea and Upper Road will restrict our use of the Greenway for rides.  We discussed which rides could run, and whether we could start rides in other places in Newham.

Social planning – KF to contact the treasurer with questions.

Readout of Newham Cyclists Monthly Meeting 27th October 2025

Readout of Newham Cyclists’ Monthly meeting, 27th October 2025

Greenway campaign latest – JR shared the letter sent to Thames 17th October. Still no closure date from Thames. JR/KF to contact MPs again; permissive paths should become public rights of way

Romford Road latest – JR shared the update from Martina. Query about cycle parking by Forest Gate police station.

May 2026 elections – We discussed the LCC ask for all candidates.

Suggestions for sharing information included an implementation plan for candidates, and inviting candidates on a ride.

AOB

Mechanic still required for AAA bikes

Check Zoom access – review how link is shared

Readout of Newham Cyclists Monthly Meeting 29th September 2025

This meeting took place at Forest Lane Park Lodge.

Greenway  – JR shared the latest closure information and Newham’s plans for a diversion with temporary materials. A comment was made that the materials should be armadillo wands or similar, something that cannot be crushed. Possibilities for protest activities include a ride on Sunday 26th October, a static protest somewhere public, a protest letter signed by stakeholders. JR will contact LCC to see what support they can offer.

AAA – AR discussed issues with available mechanics for maintaining AAA bikes. Requirement is 2hrs, 3 or 4 times a year. KF will ask if anyone has availability at the same time as RS and AR, on a Saturday.

Dangerous junctions – no movement expected on improving Stratford High Street’s most dangerous junctions  for some time (save for a trial section from the roundabout to Marshgate Lane) – LCC will publish latest Dangerous Junctions info in November – this may be used to focus some minds, depending on Newham rankings.

Readout of March 2025 meeting

Readout of Newham Cyclists’ Monthly meeting, 31st March 2025

This meeting took place at the Cart and Horses, Maryland. 

Greenway  – JR shared Caroline Russell’s response from Thames Water, indicating that the Greenway could be closed for longer and additionally other areas could be closed. We discussed further actions and  raising the profile of those affected by the closure. Romford Road – Newham have received the LIP funding that they asked for which should cover some of the cycleway junctions.

Temple MIlls Bridge – CK has made some contacts with TfL buses. JR and KF will pass him a summary of events for use in his follow-up.

Ride Calendar – we have sufficient marshalls to cover upcoming events.

Fix Your Ride – it was agreed that we cannot cover the Green Fair, but we have sufficient people to cover the Forest Gate Festival if a quieter stall becomes available.

AAA (Ambition, Aspire, Achieve) – AR will be organising an AAA ride for May 17th and would like 1 more person to support

Silvertown Tunnel – LCC are looking for people to work with their photographer w/c 7th April


Next meeting – AGM with guest speakers Frames of Mind – all Newham LCC to be invited – we discussed additional invitees.

Readout of July 2024 meeting

We rode from the Atherton Centre along the new Romford Road cycleways, and collected feedback from attendees. We then rode to Here East.

At the subsequent meeting we discussed:

  • The Romford Road cycleways –  generally we are very happy with the improvements  but have the following comments:
  • As we expected (and as we warned in our initial consultation response in January 2023) there’s a problem with the entrance to the cycle track after Woodgrange Road. The geometry is awkward and requires those cycling to take primary and then swerve to enter ’their’ lane.
  • The geometry of the ends of the cycle tracks makes it difficult for those cycling to re-join the carriageway.

We will ask for additional feedback via groups.io, and then send feedback to the Romford Road team.

  • Greenway closure for 18 months: we met with Newham Council (Highways and Sustainable Transport) and Thames Water earlier today and rode the proposed diversion. Our feedback was that Abbey Road is unsafe. It is possible that the road could be closed to traffic, and another possibility could be a diversion via Crow’s Bridge. We await feedback from Newham.
  • Excel – we received a complaint about cycling safety at Excel which we escalated. We have received a response from Excel which states that the waterfron route will reopen “in the autumn”. We will monitor the situation.
  • Proposed Silvertown and Blackwall tunnel tolls: we will respond to this consultation. We have already responded negatively to the ‘bike bus’ consultation and will continue to campaign for meaningful walking and cycling river crossings.
  • Woolwich foot tunnel Northern lift has been out of action for some time and one of our members has reported that there appears to be an impasse between Newham and Greenwich on cost of repairs. We contacted Newham Council. UPDATE: the councils have struck a deal to repair the lift .
  • TFL staff  questioning legitimate bike transport on the Elizabeth line, at Liverpool Street – this has been referred to LCC.

Please contact us through this site if you would like further information.

Readout of June 2024 meeting

24 June 2024: Seven of us gathered at a new venue for us, the Well Centre in East Ham (home of the Bonny Downs Community Association.)

There are forthcoming rides on Saturday 7 July (Greensted Church), and on 14 July (West Ham United-themed Newham Ride).

There will be Fix Your Ride stalls at Woodgrange School Summer Fete on 29 June, and at Forest Gate Festival on 6 July. The roster for 6 July is looking thin so if you are able to help that would be most welcome.

At some of our recent Fix Your Ride events, we have helped repair bikes which have been donated to refugees in our borough. These bikes typically require more attention than many others, and often more than we can offer at the Woodgrange Market stall. In some cases we have had to turn people away from the stall due to a lack of capacity. We discussed how to manage this situation, and have decided to explore some suggestions of how we can more effectively help refugees get their cycles roadworthy.

Infrastructure

  • Action in response to the 97 bus incident in Temple Mill Lane is ongoing.
  • There is a meeting arranged with the Romford Road Active Travel Scheme team. We reviewed progress to date and prospects for further progress.
  • We were pleased to attend a site visit of the in-progress Westfield Avenue scheme and meet with the engineers, project sponsors, and other stakeholders. This is a high quality scheme in which good progress is being made, and we are pleased to see efforts being made to retain safe pedestrian and cycle access throughout.
  • The Royal Docks corridor scheme, again high quality, is progressing.
  • We discussed the principles to be pursued at a forthcoming meeting with developers of a site on Stratford High Street.  This is an excellent opportunity to influence in favour of active travel at an early stage of this project.

Outreach

We discussed outreach.  There are 12 sign ups to the new discussion group; regular newsletters are being issued: we are rotating our meetings around the borough; we plan a QR code link to the sign up for the newsletter to extend its reach further; and discussed possible action at university Fresher’s Fairs in the area.

AOB

We have sent letters to candidates in the General Election for whom we were able to trace contact details.

If you would like further details on any of these matters, please get in touch.

Readout compiled by Arnold Ridout & Jonathan Rothwell.

Readout of May 2024 meeting

The meeting took place at the Olympic Park, post Freecycle ride.

Upcoming events and support required

8/6 Fix your Ride – people allocated. 29/6 school fete – do we have sufficient support for this? Forest Gate Festival 6th July  – people allocated – need to check if there is room for outreach (KF)

Planning meeting in November – items to complete

SOP for  our group – to provide visibility of roles and to allow others to take on roles.

Ride calendar (in parallel with FYR and AAA dates if possible, to avoid calendar clashes). Ideally a range of people will lead a range of rides. We can ask people if they have a ride they would like to lead, or offer them rides which require leading. We will ask LCC for ride leader and Marshall training/youth opps /safeguarding training at the local groups meeting. Possible new rides – Cambridge – with Dunwich dynamo to Morton then back from Epping.

What is the best way to share documents? Find out if everyone can edit a google spreadsheet (JR)

Marketing

Bike flags we ordered – where are they? NC tabards – numbers and prices?Stickers?

Bicycle agony aunt – via the newsletter?

Cyclists breakfast – Greenway? Timing for this?

Infrastructure

The new Infrastructure group requires a separate mailing list – Chris Kershaw to organise.

Romford Road scheme – are the old bustops being taken away?

Salway Place – is this restricted now?

Temple Mill Lane – 97 bus bridge incident – approach:

  • letter to bus garage – who?
  • Approach TfL buses – Simon has a regular meeting with TFL buses, can we use this?

Readout from Annual Meeting of 30 April 2024

A pleasing and convivial turnout at Canning Town Library, a new venue for us.

We were entertained by  Shameem and Nasim from Cycle Sisters, an award-winning charity which inspires and enables Muslim women to cycle, who gave an inspirational talk on their cycling journey.

We elected the following officers:

·      Co-ordinator: Jonathan Rothwell


·       Treasurer: Bill Bremner


·       Secretary: vacant (role to be fulfilled by Co-ordinator
and others on the committee)


·       Deputy co-ordinator (with outreach portfolio): Karen Flanagan


·       Rides co-ordinator: Steve Smith


·       Infrastructure lead: Chris Kershaw


·       Olympic Park rep: vacant, potentially to merge into new
infrastructure working group


·       Community Infrastructure (Fund) rep: vacant,
potentially to merge into new infrastructure working group


·      Deputy Treasurer: vacant.

We approved the annual accounts for 2023 – 24 and the budget for 2024 -25 presented by the Treasurer.

We noted the Annual report for 2023 -24.

Our business included lively conversation local cycling issues, including the need to leverage benefits for active travel from the plethora of major developments in the pipeline, progress on the Romford Road Active Travel Scheme, improving our outreach across the whole of Newham, extending our partnerships, and a variety of forthcoming events – the Newham Green Fair, rides based on Lea Valley Nature Reserves and Essex Country Lanes, our participation in the London Freecycle and support for the children’s cycling club at Ambition, Aspire, Achieve.