Agenda item

1.       Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

Cllr Rosenstiel asked whether any progress had been made on the ‘No Entry except Cycles’ signs, particularly with regard to  the Adam and Eve Street / Burleigh Street junction where the ‘no entry for motor vehicle’ sign was routinely ignored by motorists.  CJR stated that this was something the Bike Friendly Cities project was funding and that Brian Stinton was supposed to be organising site meetings to look at increasing the number of one-way streets opened up to 2-way cycling as well as replacing the ‘no entry for motor vehicles sign’ with no entry except cycles signs

Action: CJR to contact Brian Stinton for update

 

 

2.       Promotion Grants

·       Report from Healthy Walks

 

The mid year report had been received from Healthy Walks and the group agreed to fund the remaining £2,020 funding for the project. Cllr Rosenstiel added that information about walks organised and identified by the Ramblers should be included so as not to duplicate work.

 

·       Presentation from You Can Hub project

 

The project is all about helping people with disabilities to access cycling. There are no projects like this currently in the area. The team visited Bikeworks in Finsbury Park London to try out different bikes and benchmark what they are offering. The project had already secured £2000 funding from the City Council in October, and money from a collection at the local Waitrose Store.

 

The project team were recently at ‘Park Life’ in Milton Country Park promoting the service. The team have just completed two days of instructor training and are putting on an event on 4^th April also at Milton Country Park where people can try out bikes and get involved in the scheme. They also plan to be at the Big Weekend event and the Sports and Art event. They are currently talking to local businesses about promotion opportunities to secure further funding. As well as helping those with disabilities to cycle using adapted bikes it has also shown to encourage care workers to start cycling.

 

Cllr Al Bander asked about the current uptake of the service. Currently there are 100 people interested which are on contact lists that have been built over the last 4 years including supported housing and other networks. There are 15 regular clients that have signed up to the scheme.

 

Funding of £4,936.62 was agreed for this project.

 

·       Cycle Obstruction Hanger

The Cycling and Walking Liaison Group had identified a need to try and reduce the number of parked cycles which cause a serious obstruction to pedestrians, particularly those who are visually impaired or use a wheelchair. In liaison with the City Council’s Access Officer CJR has worked up a design for a card hanger notice(similar to the do not disturb hangers used in hotels) which can be placed on the worst offending cycles by City Rangers.

 

Members agreed that the remainder of the grant could be used to fund the cost of these hangers.

 

·       Travel for Work

Travel for Work are looking for funding to offer match funded grants of up to £2,000 to businesses who are setting up scheme to promote walking or cycling and using this as an incentive for companies to join TfW and produce a travel plan. It was suggested that companies should be funding such schemes themselves and questioned the usefulness of funding this given the grant would not be able to fund many schemes in total.  Members agreed that they would need more information before deciding whether this was something that they were willing to fund.

 

·       Application Form

The group were generally happy with the form. It was agreed that the grant should now be promoted on the City website and through a press release. Members asked that this grant be sited with information about other city grants and that Area Committee Chairs were also made aware of the grant.

 

Action: CJR to add to the Grants Page of the website and inform area committee chairs.

 

                                    

3.    EU Bike Friendly Cities/ Cycle Projects Update

Cycle Projects

 

·       Downhams Lane

Work is progressing on adopting this as a right of way. It is due to go to committee in June. If it is adopted the Council will be able to resurface and provide better lighting.

 

·       Perne Road/ Radegund Road Roundabout

The proposal is to reduce the size of the roundabout, improve crossing points and slow all vehicular speeds. This is out to consultation until 16^th March. Currently local residents are 60/40 in favour and other respondents are 70/30 in favour. CJR has the data on whether the consultees were cyclists or drivers and this will be included in the committee reports.

 

CJR informed members that a stakeholder meeting was taking place on Friday including CTC, the Cycling Campaign and County Officers to review the feedback and decide on how to progress the scheme.

A report is due to go to Environment committee in June and then to the Area Joint Committee. This project will act as a trial and could be rolled out to other roundabouts if it is a success.

 

·       Green Dragon Bridge

CJR attended a site meeting with County officers and Members in February. It was agreed that officers should progress the removal of car parking in front of the bridge on Water Street to reduce conflict between pedestrians and cyclists by improving visibility. There were also proposals for making Water Street a shared place but local Members were less supportive of this idea. A proposal to make a wider ramp on the Stourbridge Common end of the bridge to reduce conflict was discussed. In order to put any hard surfacing on the Common it would be necessary to go through Section 38 of the Commons Act for which local support was important, so it was agreed that local members would approach the ‘Friends of Stourbridge Common’ regarding this proposal.  

 

Minor schemes:

·       Chesterton Road Advisory Cycle Lane

The County are looking to provide an advisory cycle lane on Chesterton Lane which CJR considered could be a good project to fund from the minor scheme pot of the Joint-funded Cycleways budget. It was suggested that another useful location for a cycle lane would be on Gonville Place where an approach lane would help cyclists travelling towards the Fire Station to get past queuing traffic.

 

·       Brooklands Avenue Resurfacing

CJR informed members that it was intended to use this year’s minor scheme budget to fund resurfacing works on the remaining part of the off-road shared path on Brooklands Avenue that was missed when the length of the path was upgraded several years ago.

 

·       Castle Hill / Magdalene Street

CJR informed members that there have been discussions about providing a trixy mirror at the Castle Street / Magdalene Street junction to improve safety as most of the buses turn left there and most cyclists go straight on.  Cllr Rosenstiel questioned the need for a mirror at this junction and it was suggested that the bus companies be contacted for their views of safety at this spot.  Any installation of a mirror on the Highway would be the decision of the County Council.

 

 

 

 

EU Bike Friendly Cities

CJR gave a quick update on the project:

·       The first meeting of the Ely Cycle Forum took place recently as a result of questionnaires at the recent promotional event at Ely Station.

·       Work is progressing with the high capacity cycle parking racks to be placed on Mill Road and outside Sainsburys on Sidney Street.

 

4.       EU Electric Bike Hire Proposal

 

The County are keen on a new project that has been proposed to offer electric bike hire and also electric buses in Cambridge. Electric Bikes have improved a lot in the last few years. This would involve automated bike hire open 24hrs and offered in a day hire scheme. Ourbike have produced a prototype. The bike would be leased for a trial period and would be promoted for offering longer distance journeys. They could be placed at the Station, Park and Ride stops, Addenbrokes, St Ives Bus Station and the Science Park. The County were also interested in the electric bus element of the proposal. The bid deadline for this is May.

 

4.              Any Other Business

 

·       CJR informed members that £500,000 had been allocated by central government to provide cycle parking at the station. CJR said that it was important that expansion of cycle parking opportunities were considered when approving any proposals. In the shorter term 200 cycle parking spaces are to be provided when the bus interchange project is complete. This would be in the form of double decker stands as a trial of different products in order to access which would be most suitable for the long term cycle park. This has been delayed due to Network Rail procedures and development phasing. 

 

·       Cllr Al Bander informed the group that Station Cycles at the Grand Arcade cycle park are promoting their new valet parking service and saying that the theft rate at the Grand Arcade cycle parking has increased.

 

Action: CJR to contact Grand Arcade to ask what the theft rate is and whether any further anti theft measures are being considered such as making sure the ramp is covered by CCTV.

 

5.              Date of next meeting

5^th July 4.30 – 6pm