Current Campaigns

All the aspects we are trying to influence

New Malden – Raynes Park link

NM-RP2.29.6.15.

Illustration of New Malden end of route

The next Mini Holland Project in Kingston is the New Malden to Raynes Park greenway on a Thames Water Main and Sewer alongside the railway under the A3 dual carriageway.

This was taken to the next stage at the Council committee on Thursday 25 June. Initially Thames Water appeared to want £1m plus apparently to check this link won’t damage any of their pipes ! Following a meeting with TfL and RBK we understand Thames Water accept they can’t use the greenway as an opportunity to replace their infrastructure at the taxpayer’s expense.
There are also local protesters who do not want the route built. We look forward to engaging with them during the consultation in due course.

Mini Holland Portsmouth Road Revised Proposals

We welcome the revised proposals for the Portsmouth Road mini Holland scheme which have been published by the Royal Borough of Kingston, today, Monday 16 March 2015;

http://www.kingston.gov.uk/downloads/file/1212/portsmouth_road_revised_scheme

These proposals are a considerable improvement on the original proposals. We will be seeking further assurances about the design but, in the round, we support it.

The northern part of the route is a two way cycle track on the river side of Portsmouth Road. This has some impressive features; fully protected space, floating bus stops, refuges for turning cyclists, possibly crossings which can detect bicycles and a well thought out link to Surbiton via Palace Road. It will be valuable for family and novice riders, particularly if it joins the Boardway link along the Thames. It is a reversion to the original design in the bid document which featured such a two way track and is certainly better than the “white paint” in the original proposal in February.

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Mini Holland Meetings with Officers and Councillors

Officers

On Thursday 22 January 3 campaigners from Kingston Cycling Campaign met with Officers from the Royal Borough of Kingston to discuss their Mini Holland proposals for Portsmouth Road. We were accompanied by the Campaigns Officer from the London Cycling Campaign http://lcc.org.uk/. We saw detailed plans of the proposals for the first time. These were frankly disappointing. The plans confirmed our fears that this is largely a “white paint” scheme with limited protected space for cycling. The areas of segregation are small; perhaps the southerly, heading away from Brighton Rd, 20% of the Northern bound carriageway, which is fully segregated. Additionally semi segregation by means of armadillos is proposed towards the north end, near Kingston, on both sides of the road but only for a short distance, particularly on the southbound. In all, so far as one can tell, only about 20% of the scheme has any protection at all. We are awaiting copies of the plans so we can comment further. There are some nice landscaping features and 2 raised pedestrian crossings but the cycling provision is certainly not to Dutch standards. We made the point that proposals such as these will do little or nothing to encourage cycling among those who don’t already ride. Schoolchildren will not want to ride along Portsmouth Road protected by white lines.

Councillors

On Monday 26 January another 3 campaigners met with 2 Councillors from the Conservative administration of RBK. Cllr Richard Hudson who chairs the Infrastructure, Projects and Contracts Committee, responsible for the Mini Holland Projects, and Cllr Andrea Craig, Lead member for Children and Young People, who is also a keen cyclist. This was a positive meeting. All wanted the Mini Holland schemes to be realised and to succeed.  All, whilst recognising we may not agree on everything, want a degree of consensus to be achieved. All wanted schemes to be designed, so far as possible, for new or occasional cyclists, particularly children. All recognised schemes should benefit the whole community. We discussed various forms of physical protection for cycling such as armadillos and stepped kerbs. On the face of it there is room on Portsmouth Road for more protected space for cycling than is in the current proposal. Without making any promises Cllr Hudson said he would speak to Officers following the consultation to see if the degree of segregation can be improved.

Please do complete the consultation; link below. Everyone we speak to wants protected space unless you say so you can hardly blame Councillors or Officers for being unaware of that;

http://www.kingston.gov.uk/info/200355/mini-holland_cycling_programme/1118/mini-holland_cycle_routes/2

Portsmouth Road Consultation

The public consultation on the proposed Portsmouth Rd mini-holland scheme opens today. You can find all the details on what is proposed and how you can make your voice heard:

RBK Portsmouth Rd Consultation

You can also read the Portsmouth Road Full Proposal Document (PDF)

If we don’t let the Council know what we think, we can’t complain about what they give us. Rich, one of our supporters, has produced a template to respond to the consultation:

https://stuffrichwrites.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/response-to-portsmouth-road-consultation/

Please feel free to adopt it or adapt it.

The Council’s proposals will not prevent this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxqtgYon0Lk

We want protected space infrastructure so truck drivers can not endanger their fellow citizens in this way and 8 to 80 cyclists will use this route.

Campaigners meet with Kingston Council

Members of the Kingston Cycling Campaign meet every three months with officers of Kingston Council to progress improvements and repairs for the benefit of cyclists. Today, (13th October), four campaigners met at Guildhall 2 to discuss the Mini-Holland project, Kingston’s Local Implementation Plan (LIP) and some of our Top 40 projects that we want to see done. Not only that, but we reported the missing bike logo at the new ASL (Advanced Stop Line) at Sury Basin by the Richmond Road Sainsbury’s and the failure of the Tolworth Greenway where some sections of the coloured surfacing have been sinking. A particularly interesting discussion was the concern about the safety of the junction of London Road and Coombe Lane. The problem is that cyclists and motorcyclists riding in the bus lane towards Kingston are being clouted by drivers turning right into Coombe Road (traffic in the bus lane is often hidden by stationary traffic), or by left turning vehicles. We discussed some solutions that could address the collision problem. We would like to see a solution that provides some segregation and stop cyclists getting hurt.