London assembly member Jenny Jones is coming to Harrow on October 26 - arriving at 2.30pm.
 
The idea is to show her what cycling facilities Harrow has - and what it lacks.
 
She'll only be here for an hour or so. But all are welcome to come around with her and tell her what you think.
 
Whether you can make it or not, please send me - Tony Levene - or the group via email all your ideas. 
 
Some people have already started the ball rolling - thanks
 
 

   Grant Shapps, the Minister for Local Government has said councils can rescind "unnecessary, unwanted and outdated byelaws" to improve cycling.
   "...I am giving them [Councils] the freedom to revoke whatever byelaws they need to in order to crank up their efforts and make their local areas safer for cyclists."
 
   Time to resume our efforts to get considerate cycling allowed in all the boroughs open spaces?
 
   [Full story]  
 
 
 
 
 
 

It is refreshing to be able to  praise a job well done, and that is exactly what we can do with the council when it comes to fixing potholes and road surfaces in Harrow in the last month.

Several of our members have reported potholes that were dangerous for cyclists via www.fillthathole.org.uk. We are pleased to report that in each case the pothole was fixed within the week by the council. That was much faster than expected and actually a lot better than the results for similar potholes reported on roads maintained by Transport for London.
The second thing that is very nice to see is the resurfacing of stretches of roads which were heavily potholed. In the last month Whitmore Road, a rough part of Northalt Road and the very rutted South Hill Avenue have all been resurfaced. These are just the ones we've noticed. South Hill Avenue was one that we raised with the council in our last meetings as it is a popular cycle route through a residential area so it is excellent that this is fixed.
So kudos to the council officers and councillors for fixing these hazardous roads. We encourage cyclists in the area to continue to use www.fillthathole.org.uk to report any dangerous potholes they encounter. When you look at the miles of roads in the borough you realise that half the challenge is letting the council know that they are there. It is excellent to know that these reports are swiftly followed by action. Remeber you may have just missed a pothole but the next cyclist on the road may not see it in time! 

Last month was the coldest December for a hundred years. There was much snow and ice and all of that is now having a predictable effect on the roads. Potholes are sprouting up/down all over the place.
A few of us also talked with some Harrow Council officers last week and the topic came up. They explained how as well as budgetary issues, a key part of the problem is knowing about a potholes existence. They do have inspection teams, but these obvious cannot check every road in the borough every day.
 
So it seems like a good time to again mention www.fillthathole.org.uk. This is a site run by the Cycle Touring Club (www.ctc.org.uk) and it acts as a single location were you can report your pothole. You describe the issue and where it is, pinpoint it on a map, and then they will do the rest. Contacting the local authority and getting the pothole on their inspection teams lists.
I reported a nasty one on Edgware Road this morning...so lets see how long it takes for that to be fixed!

 

The latest cycling campaign move from Harrow Cyclists is a mail shot to each councillor in Harrow. We've just sent out a small pamphlet that we've designed which describes a number of policy measures that we'd like to see implemented in order to make Harrow more "bike friendly".

 

This follows on from the survey in May which asked prospective councillors about how supportive they were of various cycling policies.

 

The main areas where we've made requests are:

• Traffic Speed
• Cycle Parking
• Cycling Training in Schools
• Potholes and road surfacing
• Cycle Lanes: joining up existing routes
• Cycle Lanes: stopping parking in them
• Lorries
• Considerate Cycling in Parks
• Redesigning problem junctions such as Northwick Park roundabout
• Allocating a fair share of the Transport budget to cycling

We hope that by talking to councillors directly in this way, we'll be able to help shape the "Local Implementation Plan". This is the transport plan for the next five years. It is key that we get some cycle friendly policies that will make a real difference included in this plan.

 

To view the full pdf, please follow the link here.

 

On Saturday 16th October, Harrow Cyclists will be running a small publicity stunt to make the case for a contraflow cycle lane in the centre of Harrow. The main aim is to provide a nice photo for the local paper by "building" our own cycle lane. This will show how easy it would be to make College Road two-way for bikes. This would remove the current difficulty of travelling from West to East in Central Harrow by bicycle.

The event tomorrow will take about 30 minutes and the plan is to go for coffee & cake afterwards. As Tony says, the more cyclists we have the better. This will make any photo for the paper better & show that Harrow does have cyclists that need to be thought about & not just car drivers! So if you can spare half an hour tomorrow morning it would be much appreciated. We'll meet just before 10am opposite the Bus Station on College Road.

NOTE: There are nine tesco stores in the area with a tenth due to open shortly (junction of Vaughn Road and Pinner Road on the old Apollo pub site.

We should aim to send these out in early September.

 

In the meantime, comments appreciated

Dear Tesco Branch Manager, I am writing to you on behalf of Harrow Cyclists, part of the London Cycling Campaign, to ask for your help in improving cycling in the borough.   In particular, we would like Tesco, as the UK's largest retailer, to help promote cycling by helping to increase the provision of secure bike parking racks in the vicinity of your store.   This could be accomplished in two ways.   The provision of a sufficient number of visible bike parking spaces near the entrance to those stores where Tesco has a car park under its control. In this respect, Tesco falls behind the large Sainsbury's and Waitrose stores in the Harrow area. Offering to sponsor racks on the pavement outside those stores which do not have their own parking space – this applies in particular to the Express format stores. A Tesco financial contribution would help overcome present local authority budgetary constraints.   There is a Tesco business case for this. Cycling in London has more than doubled over the past decade and is set for further exponential growth over the next five years. Tesco now sells bikes and bike accessories. Cycling offers many a way of shopping which is healthy, environmentally friendly and convenient. In particular, cycling is ideal for the typical shopping basket at your Express stores as well as for smaller purchases at larger stores. If Tesco has facilities such as racks, then it will attract trade from cycle users rather than competitor stores. This fits in with Tesco's Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 and the following Tesco core values The success of our business depends on listening to people and responding to what they tell us. Working with our customers to help the environment. Playing our part in local communities. We want to work with you and Harrow council on this. So please contact me so we can forge a way forward. I have copied this letter to directors Andrew Higginson, the chief executive of retailing services and Lucy Neville-Rolfe who serves on the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change.

 The Harrow Cyclists are pleased to report that we have our first success. The council has put in new bicycle racks at a number of locations across the borough. Sheffield stands have gone in at Wealdstone library, on High St/Wealdstone Road, at Rayners Lane library, Kenton Lane, Canon's Park station & on Eastcote Lane.

 

Many thanks to council officer Sajjad for getting these in place. Hopefully next year their will be a budget for a few more.

 

Maybe Tesco's could help out by providing cycle parking in front of some of their new Express stores in the borough?

 

See Tony's Opinion Piece.

We have sent an email survey to 145 of the 197 candidates standing for election to Harrow Borough Council. The intention is to gather their views on a range of cycling topics and publish the results here prior to the election.
 
If you are standing for election and have not recieved a survey, please email us and we'll send you one.

 
 
Harrow Council is turning Station Road (from Sheepcote Road junction to College Road) into two way for bikes and buses.
But it has no plans to convert a short stretch alongside the bus station in College Road to two way with a bike track along the very wide pavement.
Now we need to campaign on this.
 
And we intend to so in May.
So watch this space.