Mini Holland 22-10-15

This is the motion being presented to the full council meeting tonight:

MINI HOLLAND

·       Meeting of Council, Thursday, 22nd October, 2015 7.30 pm (Item 8a)

Notice of the above Motion was given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.

Councillor Matt Davis will move;

Councillor John Moss will second

This Council notes the Conservative Mayor of London is giving the Council around £30 million of funding for the “Mini Holland” cycling improvements.

The Council also notes that the plans that have come forward so far will:

1.            Clearly disadvantage all road users, including bus passengers, other than the small minority of residents who are cyclists, whom a study by Camden NHS and TfL has proven are almost entirely middle class, young, white men.

2.            Will increase the amount of time it takes a bus to travel along Lea Bridge Road by almost 40 minutes.

3.            Will worsen emissions and air quality, which may be why there appears to be no individual climate change impact assessment of each scheme.

4.            Are likely to lead to an increase in road traffic accidents as it did in Islington when speed limits were reduced to a blanket 20MPH borough wide.

5.            Are generating considerable resident and local business opposition which has been made notably worse by an extremely poor consultation process which only allowed residents consulted to vote yes or no for an entire scheme rather than being able to support individual elements of it, or contribute proposals or ideas borne of experience.

Council also notes with incredulity that despite receiving £30 million pounds Cllr Loakes is now attempting to misappropriate £20K into his budget from the L&Q section 106 agreement which was earmarked for the absolutely essential health service improvements caused by the redevelopment of Walthamstow Dog Track.

In addition Council notes and queries the accident based evidence record on which the 20MPH schemes are based since in at least one case it is a fact that physical traffic calming is to be imposed upon roads without there being the evidence to support them in clear contravention of the Council’s own policies and previous practice.

The Council therefore calls upon the portfolio holder and his officers to:

1.            Listen to the views of all borough residents and not just the tiny minority that make up the local cycling campaign.

2.            Only propose or institute speed limit reduction schemes for which there is demonstrable accident based evidence for their need.

3.            Conduct a proper equalities impact assessment in order to ensure that those groups especially likely to be disadvantaged, for example Muslim women, have their needs consulted upon and not just those of  the overwhelmingly white, middle class, male cyclists.

4.            Conduct proper Climate Change Impact assessments for each individual scheme proposed in order that Waltham Forest Council does not make air quality worse in pursuit of Councillor Loakes’ personal agenda.

5.            To ensure that mini Holland is of benefit to, and mostly supported by, the whole of the Borough and not just a very small, but disproportionately noisy, self-selecting portion of it.

Latest from Stella Creasy MP

Hello!

I'm writing to update you as someone who has been in touch with me regarding the Mini Holland scheme in Walthamstow. Due to the large volume of correspondence I have received about this project it is not possible for me to reply to you all individually and so I hope you will forgive this mass update system. Please note though that since the scheme was first introduced, where residents are raising requests for information and feedback on this scheme with my office we have shared these points directly with the officers responsible for the scheme so that they can correspond with residents on these points.

I understand that tomorrow evening, Thursday 22nd October, Waltham Forest Council will be debating the scheme. Ahead of this, I wanted to let you know that I have yet to receive a response to my letter to the Chief Executive of Waltham Forest Council and the Lead Councillor responsible for the scheme on this matter of the 23rd September 2015. I have however today written directly to all the Walthamstow Councillors to share this correspondence so that they are aware of the points raised with me by Walthamstow residents ahead of their debate.

Furthermore, I have also informed them that two petitions - one for and one against the scheme- have been set up on the Change.org website with me as the recipient. As of 2pm this afternoon, the 'pro' petition had 1,363 signatories and the 'anti' had 3572. I have alerted all those who have signed these petitions that I would share this information with the councillors again ahead of their debate on this matter.

Please note, that as this is a scheme that is directly managed by the Council and the GLA, and not by parliament, these petitions have no formal status in the Council decision making mechanisms and I have no direct authority to influence the nature of this project as the MP for Walthamstow. However, I continue to seek to ensure all residents voices are heard on this issue as the project progresses and as soon as I receive any further information from the Council including a response to my queries on behalf of residents I will share this with you. If you have not yet seen this correspondence please do let my office know and I will share a copy of this correspondence with you.

I hope the above information is of interest and kind regards,

Stella