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Newsletter May 2021

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Southampton Cycling Campaign Newsletter

  1. If you do one thing…

  2. Cycle Campaign Rides

  3. Twitter

  4. Routes

  5. Should I attend a meeting?

Welcome to the May 2021 Southampton Cycle Campaign newsletter. We hope you are all well and able to keep cycling.

  • The next Southampton Cycling Campaign meeting is on Zoom on Monday 14th June at 7:30pm.

  • We now just suggest donations instead of membership fees, so if you have a regular payment to us please feel free to leave it or alter it.

  • Do forward this newsletter to others who may be interested in joining, as we’d love to gain more members.  The next newsletter should be on mailchimp again – fingers crossed.

  • Please join, come along to a meeting and join our mailing list!  Members are able to join our secure email list once you have attended a meeting, or if that is an issue an active member can vouch for you. The day before your first meeting, please email membership@southamptoncyclingcampaign.org.uk to get the zoom link.

  • If you don’t want to hear from us again, please email asking to be removed from the list.  On the other hand, if you’d like to get more involved, please come along to our next meeting or contact us!  Thanks!  membership@southamptoncyclingcampaign.org.uk

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1 If you do one thing in response to this email, please send a message to your cllrs Find your councillor, to the new leader of the SCC councillor.d.fitzhenry@southampton.gov.uk and also cc or write similar to the Echo letters@dailyecho.co.uk.   If you live outside SCC sorry for being SCC-ist but please do your equivalent.

The new Conservative Council of Southampton have pledged to take out the Bus Lanes on Bitterne Rd West and to take out the Bedford Place Active Travel Zone.  Let them know your support for these, as well as Low traffic Neighbourhoods and School Streets.

Ideas, petitions and evidence:

Southampton Street Space have just launched a petition about Woodmill.  It was in response to being asked by the Echo what we thought about the crash there.  It asks for Woodmill to be open to pedestrians, cycles and emergency vehicles.  Please sign to make the point! https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/SaferWoodmill

Cllrs are saying #GetSouthamptonMoving so we need to point out, eg – many residents do not have access to a private vehicle so need safe (restricted vehicles) and faster (eg bus lanes letting buses get ahead of queues) options.

Can you see gridlock caused by the Bitterne Road West bus lane in rush hour – even while Woodmill bridge is shut?  No, we can’t. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8kbSa-FNO4

There is talk of a critical mass ride in the bus lanes on 15th or 16th (but letting buses pass) – watch facebook or email here if you haven’t seen anything by Friday 21st.  https://www.facebook.com/criticalmasssoton https://www.facebook.com/SotonCycling

There are 2 petitions to the council asking for the retention of the Bedford Place pedestrianisation:  https://t.co/sqTe8yze7W and https://t.co/HvBMudut9V  More info (on a closed petition) here:  https://t.co/HdEfpu4rHR

Southampton Street Space’s open letter to the new leader of SCC:

Dear Mr Fitzhenry.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the recently elected councillors for their success in the recent local elections. As your new administration is welcomed into office we look forward to hearing your plans to help encourage active travel in our wonderful compact city. In particular we look forward to seeing you working towards safer residential neighborhoods and encouraging more school streets, as you called for when in opposition, so we expect to see all existing schemes retained and expanded.

We also hope that you take on board the aspirations of the Prime Minister, expressed in the introduction to the ‘Gear Change’ announcement last year, where he said he “aims to kick off the most radical change to our cities since the arrival of mass motoring. We announced in May £2 billion of new funding for cycling and walking – ….that will pay for first hundreds, then thousands of miles of protected bike lanes, so anyone can ride safely; low-traffic neighbourhoods, to stop rat-running and make it easier to walk and cycle; bus and bike corridors on some main roads; and funding for a massive rise in e-bikes, all of which will open up cycling to more and different people and make places better for everyone.”.

We hope that the change in administration means that the money received from the Transforming Cities Fund is still kept for the city and invested in the schemes for which it was granted.

We need to see that your enthusiasm to keep the city moving includes everyone who travels in it, by bus, on foot, by scooter, wheelchair, mobility scooter or on a bike, not just those who choose to drive.

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2  Cycle Campaign Rides – first one 30th May

With the prospect of 30 people being allowed to meet up outdoors, we plan to restart monthly campaign rides, however there will be no firm Ride Programme as we will take it month by month.  We hope to be able to continue our rides for as long as covid 19 guidance makes this practicable and sensible. Our first ride will be:

Brummell Bummel on Sunday 30 May (during Bike Week)

Meet: at 9.45 for a 10am departure from The Ship Inn, Redbridge

Leader: Lindsi

The route: Eling, Marchwood, Ipley Crossroads, Beaulieu Road Station, Lyndhurst, Woodlands (via Forest track), and return via Fletchwood Lane and the Western Approach cycle path.  So, some rural (if busy) New Forest roads and some off road cycle tracks and paths are included.

We will pause at Ipley Crossroads to remember local cyclists killed and injured on our roads and to update everyone on plans for this junction. Refreshment plans must be flexible, but we hope to have an outdoor coffee stop en route and to include an optional lunch stop in the garden at Spot in the Woods in Woodlands.

30th May – World’s Biggest Bike Ride – pledge here: https://www.cyclinguk.org/bikeweek/pledge-to-ride

30th May – Bike Week – https://www.cyclinguk.org/bikeweek

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3 Can you help us get our Twitter going again?  

Please let us know if you can teach Johnnie and help out!

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4 Routes.

We think it is important to promote and cement grounds for improvements to routes that are well used by members and other cyclists. Many of these may not follow, or only partly follow, the SCN routes. So if you have routes that fit the bill you can have your routes added to our library by following the instructions at www.southamptoncyclingcampaign.org.uk/suggested-routes/ Please list key districts & road names in the description, and don’t start or finish routes at your home for security reasons.  You can also search to access the routes for use and download as a GPX file or a PDF.

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5 Should I attend a meeting?

Working group leaders communicate with the SCC person who is coordinating the scheme/route.  After each meeting we send a list of non-scheme-specific queries to Greg at SCC (Senior Transport Planner, Green City and Infrastructure).  We have had some instant responses (like the kerb north of the Saints Stadium) and we’re constantly working on new lists and updates – so please do come along to our next zoom meeting and listen in or join a working group.

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Thank you for reading, and hope you can join us soon!