St Luke's Hospice needs help putting up signs along the route of the Pledge 2 Pedal charity bike ride on Saturday 18th May (the day before the event). Even if people just have one hour to spare, that would be really useful.

They are also looking for volunteer cyclists to wear St Luke's T-shirts on the day (Sunday 19th May) and cycle along the route with participants to provide a bit of support and guidance. It's a way of taking part without having to pay the registration fee and most importantly helping the Hospice.

If anyone is interested and able to help, please contact Aneka Shah on 020 8382 8063.

http://www.stlukes-hospice.org/Events/Cycle+for+your+Hospice/Pledge+2+Pe...

Harrow Council is undergoing a reorganisation with some departments merging and a reduction in the number of staff employed. The format of meetings will change in the future.

Barry Philips informed us about traffic calming and 20mph zones in Harrow, which have been implemented piecemeal on some of the borough's residential roads but there is no plan for a borough-wide 20mph limit. There have also been very few 'filtered permeability' schemes to prevent motor vehicles from using minor roads as through routes.

The amount of money available for cycling schemes in Harrow is currently only about £100,000 per year, compared to over £1 million when the London Cycle Network was being constructed, a project which was scrapped by Boris Johnson. The Rayners Lane and North Harrow cycle paths were built as part of that scheme but there has been very little built since, and these paths remain disconnected and underused.

The main path through West Harrow Recreation Ground has been resurfaced in preparation for being converted to a shared cycle/pedestrian route (currently cycling is prohibited according to local byelaws).

This new link will allow people to cycle between Wilson Gardens / Butler Road and Welbeck Road, which are minor residential roads suitable for cycling.

The All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group published its report today, which calls for a national cycling champion to lead a drive for 10 per cent of all journeys in Britain to be by bike by 2025.

Please sign this epetition to urge the Government to implement these recommendations in full:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49196

Key recommendations include:

• More of the transport budget should be spent on supporting cycling, at a rate initially set to at least £10 per person per year, and increasing as cycling levels increase

• Cycling should be considered at an earlier stage in all planning decisions, whether transport schemes or new houses or businesses

• More use should be made of segregated cycle lanes, learning from the Dutch experience

• Urban speed limits should generally be reduced to 20 mph

• Just as children learn to swim at school they should learn to ride a bike

Venue: Westminster University

Organised by Rachel Aldred
Chair: Danny Williams
Guest speaker: Andrew Gilligan

Speech by Andrew Gilligan

We want to broaden the range of people who cycle in London, and want to benefit everyone whether or not they cycle (reduced congestion and more space on other modes of transport).

Routes:

• Superhighways to be upgraded
• Quietways - to be delivered end to end, not piecemeal, won't give up at difficult places
• Central London bike grid to join together all the cycle routes

Routes will line up and run parallel to tube lines. Wembley to Baker Street Jubilee line Quietway. Some may be named after bus routes.

Segregation will take road space from cars. Reduction in proportion of households owning a car in zones 1 and 2. In Westminster only 35% of households own a car.

Halfords on Sheepcote Rd 2pm-5.30pm on Sat 13 April

St Albans church in North Harrow at 10am-12pm on Sat 20 April

The Metropolitan Police Safer Transport Team in Harrow are offering FREE bike marking to anyone who would like it. They use the equipment supplied by Bike Register.com (usual cost £16.90) and send you an email with the registration details.

Tony, Alan and Anoop attended the meeting with Harrow council engineers Paul Newman and Sajjad Farid.

The following cycle schemes are funded and will go ahead:
1. West Harrow Recreation Ground: to officially allow cycling on the main route, new LED lighting, resurfacing and widening of the path
2. Roxbourne Park: to officially allow cycling, widening and new LED lighting (however there was no funding available for the Roxbourne Park to Field End Road section).
3. Hindes Road mode filter (currently blocks all vehicles so cyclists have to walk around on the footway): replacement of gate and bollards and resurface this section of road

There will be £100,000 available for design and consultation on the Stanmore to the Thames route in 2014-2015, and money for the main scheme is likely to be available via the Greenways allocation, but has not yet been confirmed.

We welcome TfL's recently announced plans for cycling in London. This may be a good start but there is much work to be done to ensure that outer London boroughs like Harrow are truly transformed into cycle-friendly areas.

At our meeting on 13 March we discussed potential plans for Harrow that we are going to present to council officers on 19 March.
http://ubuntuone.com/5HRQM881sokubNXFIOvIhb

We need volunteers to help with:

• Manning the stall for Harrow Cyclists at the St Luke's charity bike ride on Sunday 19 May
• Designing a banner for Harrow cyclists
• Designing a leaflet to distribute to potential members
• Writing to councillors on cycling issues in particular wards in Harrow

Upcoming events:

• Meeting with council officers next Tuesday 19 March
• St Luke's hospice publicity events in April (dates to be announced)

Additional funds are needed to fulfil the Mayor's plans to improve cycling in London, and an amendment put forward by Jenny Jones would have increased cycle spending in London to 2% of the transport budget. The motion was opposed by the Conservative Assembly Members, so it failed to achieve the required majority even though it was supported by the Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat Assembly Members.

http://lcc.org.uk/articles/conservative-assembly-members-scupper-attempt...

Harrow council have responded today (20 Feb 2013) to various issues we have raised with them. Their full response is copied below.

One of the things they have asked us to respond to is how to spend the £90k for design and implementation of cycle schemes in 2013-2014.

Dear Anoop,

I refer to your email sent to The Leader of the Council, Cllr Idaikkadar, with your concerns about the development of cycling schemes and an apparent lack of shift away from the car and towards walking and cycling. Cllr Idaikkadar has contacted me on the issue and has asked me to respond on his behalf.

We recognise the value of cycling as part of modal shift of Transport and its health benefits and this is always considered as part of scheme designs and bidding for finance. We are totally reliant on Transport for London for funding, primarily through the agreed Local Implementation Plan (LIP). This is available to view on the councils website at the following link: