Cycle parking: there is always room for improvement

When the William Morris Gallery re-opened in the first week of August, after an expensive refurbishment, it was a delight to discover that the Gallery now has new cycle stands. They are close to the entrance to the Gallery and are in a very visible position, helping to deter bike thieves.

However, there is no room for complacency. In the Netherlands, in their perpetual quest to make cycling even more attractive than it already is, they think nothing of moving a canal sideways for the benefit of cyclists.

Here, too, in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, the improvements for cyclists never end. When I took the above photograph on 4 August it never occurred to me that these bike stands could possibly be enhanced, let alone in just a couple of months. How wrong I was!

What I had overlooked was that the entrance to the Gallery is on Forest Road, also known as the A 503, a major east-west route through the borough. Anyone who cycles to the Gallery will therefore have to endure cycling among heavy goods vehicles, white vans, minicabs, buses etc., which means there is always the possibility of experiencing moments of extreme terror and stress. This may result in an involuntary loosening of the bowels.

Also it is now autumn and the days are turning chillier. By the time a cyclist has arrived at the William Morris Gallery it is possible that some pressure on the bladder may be felt.

In short, how best should a responsible local authority meet the challenge of an incontinent cyclist in urgent need of relief?

Here in Waltham Forest a progressive Council has signed up to a Toilet Facility Hierarchy of Provision, which puts the cyclist in first place. The convenience of the cyclist who, having parked her or his bicycle, requires urgent relief, simply cannot be bettered than here at the Gallery, where a first class bike parking facility has now been imaginatively enhanced in a way that surely sets the gold standard for all other local authorities to follow.

Well done Waltham Forest!

15th October 2012

By this date these temporary and highly controversial structures built for the Olympics on green open space in the Lea Valley (including, naturally, a tarmac car park), will have been demolished and the entire site will have been returned to green, grassy space where local residents are free to wander. Nothing can possibly go wrong and there is no reason to believe that this deadline will not be met. Trust them – they’re Waltham Forest Council.

Stella Creasy MP slanders cycling Methodist Minister!

Walthamstow’s famous MP gave a talk yesterday at this year’s Greenbelt festival.

There was a cycling blogger in the audience who appears not to have been a fan of her perspective and apparently Ms. Creasy made an unfortunate misidentification.

Frankly, it is shocking when a Methodist Minister is openly slandered in this way.

Why, it’s almost as if Stella is still a little touchy about this!

Or perhaps she remains cross about this charming photograph, which I took outside the local Labour Party office.

Because nowadays image is very important to a politician.

It’s D-Day in Walthamstow (not)

In 1996 a footpath was due to be built linking Walthamstow Central station with nearby Queens Road station. This was a condition of allowing the redevelopment of the site for housing. The developers built the housing then reneged on the footpath deal.

And now, sixteen years later, work is finally about to begin.

D-day is the 25th of June!! Should I hold my breath?

Definitely not, where this crap council is concerned. Because there is not the slightest sign of work having started on this link, which remains arbitrarily blocked off by fencing, flytipped crap, and a jungle of overgrown vegetation.

Photo taken on 9 August by the car park fencing, from the Queens Road station end of the link.

Dead end.

Waltham Forest Walking and Cycling Olympic Souvenir

What was it like in legendary Waltham Forest during those days when Olympic fever swept the borough?

This special souvenir shows some of the unforgettable local sights in a time which has already passed into myth.

Who can forget “the spirit of Waltham Forest” embodied by this local woman who wore the council logo all the way from Chingford to Walthamstow on a very hot day?

Well done, ma’am!

And hats off to these gents, who once again remind us that cyclists are, well, different to the rest of us!

Bless.

A Stella career

The latest issue of Private Eye has a disgracefully cynical critique of Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow. I must urge you all not to rush out and buy this scurrilous rag. There is enough sarcasm and negativity in the world already. Please, I beg you, just ignore this issue, the one with Piers Morgan and Rebekah Brooks on the cover, which is available from all newsagents, and even Sainsbury’s!

Stella Creasy update

There was a controversial march from Leyton to Walthamstow yesterday. This was preceded by a spot of flyposting asserting that Waltham Forest is ‘a Shariah Controlled Zone’. Apparently there’s a name change in the offing. No longer will this slice of north-east London be known as the London Borough of Waltham Forest: The radical - an electrician called Trevor Brooks before converting to Islam - said last night: "It would be changed to the Islamic Emirate of Waltham Forest.

The Shariah poster strikes me as car-centric. There is nothing about misuse of blue badges in Waltham Forest, which is currently at epidemic proportions thanks to the total indifference of the crap police and the crap council. This is where Shariah law could prove very useful. Anyone found mis-using a blue badge would be sentenced to having their arm chopped off. This, I believe, would end such mis-use at a stroke (literally!).

What has this got to do with Walthamstow’s MP Stella Creasy, you ask. Well, while the march was going on this blog went instead to the Saturday afternoon craft fair at the social club on Orford Road. And who should be there, shopping, but Dr Creasy. This was a bit of a surprise, since you’d think an anti-fascist campaigner would be down there in the town centre rallying people against the EDL’s counter-demo.

This blog was able to witness this episode.

Dr Creasy approaches a stall selling cushions.


Woman behind stall: ‘Are you Stella?’


Dr Creasy. ‘Yes! Yes, I am!’


Woman behind stall: ‘You don’t look like you do on your website.’

Very droll.

Personally I’ve always thought Stella looks exactly like her photographs.

I am pleased to report that Stella ordered a cushion (she wanted a grey one and that colour wasn’t available on the stall. As I am not a psychologist I am not going to speculate what a liking for the colour grey signifies.) It’s good to see an MP ploughing money back into the local economy.

I have one other piece of news about Stella. I am sorry to say that she now totally denies this scandalous episode. It never happened, she insists. Don’t trust bloggers.

It’s enough to make me want to buy a helmet cam!

It now occurs to me that the woman I saw at the craft fair cannot possibly have been Dr Creasy. My sincerest apologies. Don’t whatever you do trust a blogger. We are mad and we fib.

In Walthamstow did Johar Khan a town hall parking place desire

At the last local elections the local Liberal Democrats fell apart, with deselections, claims of an internal coup, and disaffected Liberal Democrat councillors standing as independents. The result was lots of Lib Dems losing their seats on Waltham Forest council. At the heart of these murky and rancorous events was Councillor Johar Khan, whose favoured mode of travel is a Mercedes Benz with a personalised number plate testifying to his status as a councillor. After he lost his seat the number plate became somewhat redundant.

But perhaps the days of numberplate shame will soon be at an end. Johar Khan has experienced a moving conversion, putting his passion for justice above such trifles as party allegiance.

“I am proud to join the Labour Party which is the only party that stands for social justice in Britain and will continue to work for our community in Waltham Forest.”

Photo credit: Truth Will Out

O Lord – it’s the O-Regen College!

Waltham Forest Town Hall: what can you see in this photograph?

There’s a BMW emerging from the Town Hall grounds. I expect it’s a Grey Fleet council officer on an important journey to an office half a mile away. The driver has inconsiderately gone beyond the white line and obstructed the off-road cycle lane, but that happens all the time at this location.

But that’s not all. See that white noticeboard in the foreground, bottom left? Let’s see what it says on the other side.

Yes, it’s another sign of O-Regen in decay. This is an outfit with enigmatic links to Waltham Forest council, which is currently experiencing a spot of bother. It seems the person in charge of its finances don’t know nuffink.

‘Active in the community’ seems to be the O-Regen mission slogan. A bit like burglars and sexually transmitted diseases, then. Alas, the O-Regen College is as currently active in the community as Monty Python's parrot.

Here’s the derelict O-Regen College, a nice bit of real estate just across the road from the Town Hall, albeit hidden away up a litter-strewn, shabby and neglected public right of way.

Cycling and the royal wedding

(Above) Statue of a well-known republican cyclist. Photo credit: Sludgegulper.

(Below) Car criminal not investigated or prosecuted by Berkshire police.

Truly Kate Middleton is an icon of our age, as she is seen speeding down a country lane in Berkshire in her Audi A3 hatchback with her phone clamped to her ear.

Cyclists have many thrilling alternatives to the royal wedding. Firstly, a long weekend break in England’s safest cycling city, York. Why not enjoy cycling at its very best?

Stuck at home? Do your friends laugh at you for your unsightly handlebar tape? Instead of watching the royal wedding, why not instead thrill to a top cycling expert as he talks you through the correct way to apply that troublesome tape.














But seriously, instead of watching all those disturbed people waving paper union jacks made in China, switch off the telly and tune into 51 minutes and 42 seconds of sensible cycling advocacy. After that you could always study some history.

Or in the final resort, why not simply get together with some friends and take your clothes off?

Olympic cycle path hot dog horror

Waltham Forest Council's Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Clyde Loakes, said: "The Corporation of London owns the land on which the Log Cabin sits.

"The Council has repeatedly asked the Corporation to release land, so the proposed new cycle path and footway can be diverted around the cabin to protect the livelihood of the Cabin owner and allow his business to remain open.

"Unfortunately, the Corporation have categorically refused to allow this to happen during more than six months of negotiation.

"The Council has now reluctantly been forced to consider de-designating the land the cabin stands on to allow the cycle path and footway to be built.

"We really hope the Corporation will reconsider."

He added that Whipps Cross Road is a congested route and needs 'significant' improvements to allow it to cope with the thousands of extra pedestrians, cyclists and drivers who are expected to use it during the Olympics.

It’s interesting to learn that an unaccountable body like the Corporation of London is totally opposed to cycle paths on its land. A genuine ‘cycling prime minister’ would soon legislate to put a stop to crap like that. Obviously Cameron won’t, because only a delusional fantasist like a CEO of the London Cycling Campaign would ever have believed him to be a cycling-friendly politician.

As for the notion that thousands of pedestrians and cyclists will be pouring down  a crap 'shared use' path along Whipps Cross Road to the Olympics – this is a further indication that Cllr Clyde Loakes inhabits a fantasy world entirely detached from everyday reality.

Chris from Leyton: ‘Spending money on spin is what counts’

And all this Waltham Forest Council advertising campaign cost was eighteen thousand pounds!

Stella Creasy MP – sensational new photo

Spotted outside the Walthamstow Labour Party office in Orford Road today...

I’ll leave The Archipelago of Truth to think up a suitable caption…

Waltham Forest Council wins George Orwell Prize

The George Orwell prize for Double-Speak has been won this year by Waltham Forest Council. The judges paid tribute to ‘the Big Screen’ in the Town Square – twelve hours of continuous and compulsory TV babble. They were also impressed by the council’s decision to prevent local residents attending council meetings on the grounds that fire regulations did not allow full use of the public gallery.

However, what clinched their decision was this new hoarding, in which the council wastes yet more money on consultancy, design and agency fees in order to boast that it is spending its money wisely. The judges were unanimous in deciding that sacking lots of low paid workers was a small price to pay for advertising of this calibre. (See it at the legendary 'Arcade site' in central Walthamstow and other select locations.)

This blog refused entry to public gallery at the Town Hall

Welcome to the Town Hall, Walthamstow.

I thought it would be interesting to go along and listen to some of the great cuts debate at the Town Hall last night. I turned up at 7.25 pm, long after the earlier protest, and discovered the Town Hall entrance barricaded off, and a crowd of local residents who were being refused entry on the grounds of ‘fire regulations’. Lots of other people had given up and were walking away.

Since Waltham Forest Council was the only council in Greater London not to publish its transport Local Implementation Plan and to deny local residents the chance to comment on it, I suppose no one should be surprised the Council doesn't want council tax payers to fill the public gallery.

The Metropolitan Police were out in force. They may not give a toss about the epidemic of uninsured drivers in London, speeding, or drivers going into Advanced Stop Lines for cyclists, but they are passionate about fire regulations.

THE council's budget was approved at a fiery meeting tonight – but there was anger when dozens of residents were refused entry to it.

The group of protesters were told they could not listen to the debate at Waltham Forest Town Hall due to “fire regulations” - despite the public gallery only being half full.

"The Labour councillors have barricaded themselves in the town hall and most of them entered through a back door - along with some of their friends who were allowed to sit in the public gallery."

Those in the upper gallery reported there being 13 empty seats, while the lower gallery also had at least eight spare places.

In other words, there was room to accommodate all those denied entry who were left standing outside when the meeting started at 7.30 pm.

So much for ‘transparency’.

‘Ban cyclists’

It can hardly be a coincidence that within weeks of the inaugural meeting of a sinister new cycling organisation graffiti like this has started to sprout on National Cycle Network One. I spotted it this afternoon.


























There was worse.

Cyclists are dangerous

Ban the bastards

Luckily the fightback has begun, with that inspiring slogan F your mum.

























Cycling’s modal share may be low in the London Borough of Waltham Forest but as a transport mode it maintains an enduring appeal for young local entrepreneurs.

Further down the valley, the graffiti in Hackney beside the Olympic Village is so much more life affirming.

























Hmm. I'm starting to feel peckish. And what better postscript to my Romanian ruminations than the exciting discovery that Walthamstow has a newly-opened Romanian restaurant innovatively named Castelul Dracula. Probably best not to ask if they have a vegetarian menu...

The sayings of Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow

Stella Creasy as a Waltham Forest councillor.


This blog has a passing interest in Stella as she’s both a cyclist and a passionate environmentalist.

As a cyclist she signed the petition I Stop At Red (see it here).

It was therefore deeply shocking and troubling to witness this paragon of virtue disregarding road traffic rules.

And recently there was disturbing evidence of a link between Stella and unlawful flyposting in central Walthamstow.

And now, to add to the indictment, Stella has been a little economical with the actualité during the course of sisterly debate.

Take a look at this statement:

It is partly a question there of the huge amount of time you are expected to put in. I was a local councillor but I stepped down after one term. It was impossible to combine with real life.

Stella presents a touching picture of a hard-working feminist, who decided voluntarily to step down in order to spend more time with her family.

Which is not quite how some local Labour Party members remember it, though their choice of language in their assessments of Ms Creasy could not possibly be reproduced on a wholesome, family-friendly site like Crap Cycling.

Or to put it another way

In 2005 she was mysteriously de-selected by party colleagues as a Labour councillor in Waltham Forest before she rebuilt her political career.

Incidentally, I pray that Private Eye never comes across Ms Creasy’s contribution to this debate on Labour Party sisterhood, as there is some infelicitous and easily misunderstood phrasing at the end, which might well provoke coarse public schoolboy sniggers if crudely wrenched from the surrounding context.

cycling and the North Olympic Fringe Area Action Plan

Lea Bridge Road (A104) – more fun than a Center Parc.

Waltham Forest Council is keen to hear local views on that electrifying document entitled North Olympic Fringe Area Action Plan (AAP) Preferred Options.

The spin boils down to a glorious vision of a post-Olympic paradise in which

local people have a better quality of life and greater opportunities, in the form of jobs, homes, services, open spaces, and public realm improvements.

Cut through the crap and the eco-fluff, though, and you soon see what the North Olympic Fringe Area Action Plan (AAP) Preferred Options really boil down to.

Firstly, the council can’t wait to get its hands on green belt land and cut some more deals with property developers. Part 8.9 states

Although most developments will not normally be acceptable in the Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land, there may be exceptions where development is necessary.

But not to worry because

the Council will consider how these sites can be sensitively developed.

And sensitivity is this Council’s middle name when it comes to disposing of public land and flogging it off to developers.

And what could be more sensitive to local green space than building tower blocks or hotels on it, beside it, or overlooking it.

Part 4.10 states

Redevelopment at Leyton Mills would provide the scope to introduce taller buildings into the area, particularly along the A12

None of this should be a surprise in the context of the material posted on Fight the Height. If you are worried about the future of the Lea Valley then you should certainly read this AAP and respond to it.

The AAP promises ‘enhanced pedestrian/cycle routes’, though these will be largely leisure-orientated and will require cyclists to use unpleasant car-choked streets to access them. So they will deter everyone except hardcore vehicular cyclists, and will fail to attract families.

Documents like these are often worth reading just for the new information they contain. For example, the Council has discovered that

many young people who lived in proximity to Marsh Lane playing fields were unaware of its existence and had never used the fields.

That’s a sign of the new car-centric generations, who never cycle and who rarely go for a walk in their neighbourhood. They’ve been brought up on car travel and anything which is outside the infrastructure of the motor vehicle is invisible.

On Leyton High Road and Lea Bridge Road the planners have noticed that ‘the dominance of vehicular traffic detracts from the shopping experience’ but naturally have no plans to address this condition, other than superficially:

Higher quality public spaces, street trees and street furniture would improve both this experience and public perceptions.

This is a bit rich from a council which can’t even supply adequate cycle parking in its major shopping centres. The council’s own planners are grey fleet planners – many of them probably don’t live locally, they travel everywhere by car on generous and unmanaged expenses, they don’t use buses, they don’t walk, and they don’t cycle.

For Leyton

Appropriate parking in the Town Centre was seen as an essential tool for promoting local shopping by local business owners.

Well of course it was. Shopkeepers have never understood that it is possible to enjoy commercial prosperity in a non-vehicular environment. Britain’s shopkeepers bitterly opposed the country’s first pedestrianisation schemes, until they were forced on them and found to work. They have never understood that people might want to arrive at their shops by any other means than the car. That’s why I do very little local shopping. It annoys me when I arrive at a local shop wanting to buy an expensive electronic item and I find parking bays but no cycle stands at all. That’s why Van-Haaren lost my custom, as did Rapid Radio.

As for cycling.

This AAP seeks to promote enhancements to Lea Bridge Road to create a more natural and friendly setting, with open views to the north and south up and down the Lea Valley, creating a nature focused pedestrian and cycling experience along the valley crossing.

Like that shown in the paradisal picture shown above. It either shows Lea Bridge Road just after the junction with Orient Way, looking towards Clapton, or (the more probable of the two alternatives) the view east just after the Ice Rink, looking towards Leyton.

Yes, in just a few years time people will be pouring down to Lea Bridge Road for a picnic on its grassy banks. Outside sensitive developments people will sip their cappuccinos and admire the mysterious absence of traffic on Lea Bridge Road, which normally carries 27,000 vehicles a day. In this vision of the future the bus lane has been removed, as has the speed camera, doubtless as a testament to the borough’s success in restraining and taming the traffic. And, realistically, there are no cyclists to be seen anywhere.

I expect the missing cyclists are still stuck in traffic further up the road. You know, like on these cycling-friendly sections of Lea Bridge Road. Who can possibly doubt that entire families will be leaping on their bicycles and pouring west on these safe and attractive cycle lanes in order to enjoy the sunlit green spaces of the fabulously regenerated North Olympic Fringe Area?

The AAP document can be accessed here.

Tackling climate change the Waltham Forest way

Adopting a tree is a great way to do your bit for the community by making the borough cleaner and greener. Planting more trees in Waltham Forest will also help to tackle climate change.

Yes, for just £150 the council will plant a tree on your behalf.

Meanwhile the clock is ticking on the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, which ‘present a major opportunity to showcase Waltham Forest’ and demonstrate how ‘an improved public realm can transform the image of the borough as a good place to visit and do business.’ (Waltham Forest Local Implementation Plan)

Yes, ‘it’s happening here!’ – and what resident of the borough could not but feel a little throb of excitement to be living inside a Strategic Regeneration Framework

And now here’s the public realm on Seaford Road E17 at the junction with Falmer Road.




























That was on 29 January. I rang up the Town Hall and notified the authorities. And you know what? They were round in a flash. All the rubbish was removed. And as an added bonus they cut down the tree.

I expect the space is needed for car parking.

Waltham Forest council: not interested in hearing from cyclists

Waltham Forest LIP – the plot thickens.

Apparently, Waltham Forest are not giving residents the right of consultation on the new LIP. Waltham Forest is the only borough in North East London not going to public consultation.

That’s strange. The Council has been spending lots and lots of money on posters urging residents to Make your opinion count.

You know what I think?