Each month, we email a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is the edition that we sent in September 2021. If you like it, please sign up on our Get Involved section – you will be showing your support for our work and you will receive our free monthly bulletins a month before they appear here.
IN THIS ISSUE… +++ Come along to our inaugural public meeting! +++ Update on subscribers writing to Richmond Park’s MP +++ Plans for car-free weekend rejected +++ London Duathlon road closures on Sunday +++ Cycling speed advice changed
COME AND MEET US
We’ve met up in recent weeks with the representatives of the Richmond Cycling Campaign and the Friends of Richmond Park. Now we’re ready for our most important meeting – with YOU!
Our first public event will take place in La Ciclista cafe in Sheen on Saturday, September 25 at 9.30am. This get-together enables you to tell us what ideas you would like to be discussed when we meet with the management of Richmond Park on Tuesday 28th, which will be the first of our quarterly meetings with them. Or you can just come along to meet us in person, find out more about Richmond Park Cyclists, or just say hello!
Space is limited, so please reply to this email if you would like to come so we and the good people at Ciclista have some idea of numbers. See you there!
A MISSIVE EFFORT
A huge thank-you to everyone who wrote to Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park, after reading last month’s bulletin, particularly those of you who forwarded or copied us in to the eloquently persuasive emails you sent to her. As we said in our previous newsletter, the majority of the correspondence Sarah receives about the park’s roads support their use as a through route, so it is vital that we redress that balance before the Movement Strategy trial ends in March next year.
If you haven’t emailed her, please do so at the address below, and express in your own words why you think there should be no through traffic in the park. You can read the item in last month’s bulletin, titled It’s Time To End Through Traffic, which sets out our approach for the coming months.
In her individual responses to some of the emails from our subscribers, Sarah has told those of you who are not her constituents that she is unable to assist “due to strict parliamentary protocol”. She asks those who live outside her constituency to write to their own MP instead. Please do so, and copy in Sarah as well. We are due to meet Sarah in the near future to discuss how she can take on board the concerns of constituents and non-constituents about cycling in the park.
To give you some inspiration for your emails to Sarah or your local MP, here are a few excerpts of messages other subscribers have sent.
“I am a car driver and cyclist. I have three children of 19, 17 and eight and have cycled with them all in Richmond Park many times as well as on my own. My strong view is that the park should be closed to all through traffic. [...] This would serve to drastically reduce the volume of vehicle traffic in the park along with the commensurate risk of accidents and pollution. There are perfectly adequate routes around the park (which of course seem to be no hardship for people to use at night) which traffic can use.”
“During the Covid pandemic I took up cycling and it really saved my mental health. [...] The cyclists who flock there (including women, children, people with disabilities, elderly people, etc, not just middle-aged men in expensive Lycra!) show just how much it’s enjoyed and could be enjoyed if it were a car-free zone. [...] We need, desperately, ONE safe space to cycle in: for mental health, for physical health, to lower our carbon footprints, to connect in safe, open-air environments with our family and friends.”
“During lockdown local residents used Richmond Park as an oasis for exercise. Without cars driving through the park, recreational visitors enjoyed cleaner air and lower noise levels. For families with children and less experienced cyclists, it created a safe space where they could try cycling without the presence of cars on the road which many find intimidating. Given the need to reduce carbon emissions and to encourage people to exercise more to reduce the strain on health services through obesity and Type 2 diabetes, surely it would make sense to restrict vehicle through-traffic to support the continued use of the park as a safe space for exercise and cycling.”
“As a long-time resident of Richmond and someone who walks, cycles and (very occasionally) drives, I ask you to help us reclaim Richmond Park as a place to enjoy nature, to recreate and to breathe fresh air. I walk and cycle in Richmond Park, though not during busy times, as it has become just too dangerous, and I am shocked by the behaviour of many motorists who pay no attention to the speed limit, close pass cyclists, line up trying to enter the already expanded car parks, and generally behave as if it is their right to do what they want with no consideration for others – human or animal – in this beautiful natural space. Even those motorists who observe the speed limit and drive safely are contributing to pollution in this place of nature. [...] Future generations will look back and wonder what we were thinking, desecrating Richmond Park and places like it.”
“Leaving a rat run for [motorists], given the pressures of climate change, or the simple fact a park should be blighted by cars, cannot be supported. I would actively support and fund a credible Green candidate who pushed this as one of their core policies at the next election.”
So there you have it – ordinary people like you, expressing their personal experience of the park, and hoping to shape its future. You can email Sarah at office@saraholney.com. Do it today, chums!
CAR-FREE ROADBLOCK
Our concept of a car-free day in Richmond Park, which appeared in July’s bulletin, has a natural appeal to many in the cycling community – so we were pleased to see other stakeholder groups take up a similar idea independently a couple of weeks ago and approach The Royal Parks to implement it. Less pleasingly, TRP has rebuffed the groups’ proposal to host it this month. Nevertheless, the chance of a car-free day at some point in the future remains a possibility, particularly as TRP itself has floated the idea in the recent past.
Last month’s approach to TRP was spearheaded by local environmental groups, including Richmond and Twickenham Friends of the Earth, the Kingston Environment Forum and Wandsworth Living Streets. We were approached by Andree Frieze, Green Party councillor for Ham and Petersham, to sign their letter, which also included the Wandsworth, Richmond and Kingston branches of the London Cycling Campaign as co-signatories. The Friends of Richmond Park declined to sign the letter, stating that its “overwhelming priority” instead is to encourage TRP to make the current traffic restrictions permanent, and asking that it is given “more time” in future to respond to other initiatives. (It should be noted that FoRP also has a stated position: “In the long-term, through traffic is surely incompatible with a National Nature Reserve. The park should not be a relief valve for the roads outside it.” We agree, although we would prefer if the Friends had added that this should be the case at the end of the trials.)
The plan was to hold the event on the weekend before Wednesday, September 22, which is World Car-Free Day. The letter to Andrew Scattergood, the Chief Executive of TRP, said: “The car-free weekend would be a family- and disability-friendly event, enabling everyone – whatever their ability or age – to use the park’s roadway, regardless of whether they are on foot, mobility aid, horse or bicycle.” Part of our role would have been to ask local cycling clubs to avoid using the park during that particular weekend and help find volunteers.
In turning down the request, Andrew Scattergood referred to the traffic restrictions currently in place and stated: “We will not be considering any further interventions until the trials have concluded.”
We do not consider a car-free day to be so much of an intervention, but more of an opportunity for TRP to show an enlightened attitude towards the growing need for more active travel. Indeed, the possibility of a car-free day appears in The Royal Parks’ Movement Strategy document (scroll down to “Outcome 6” and see for yourself). For this reason, and because so many who come to the park by bike and on foot would like to see it happen, we will continue to pursue our original idea.
DU BACK
After an enforced absence last year, the London Duathlon returns to Richmond Park this Sunday, which means you will not be able to cycle on the roadway as normal while the event is taking place.
Those of you out for a leisurely cycle will still be able to enter the park through the pedestrian gates and ride along the Tamsin Trail. The park’s management say they do not mind children and less confident cyclists riding on the tarmac path, which runs from Roehampton Gate to Richmond Gate and between Ham Cross and Kingston Gate, although others should not treat it as an alternative route during the duathlon as the pathway is suited to lower speeds and has smaller capacity than the outer road.
Please also note that the interior routes that go to or pass Pen Ponds kiosks from Sheen Cross, Robin Hood Gate and Ham Cross will not be available to cycle on as they are all part of the event route.
The duathlon is scheduled to finish around 6pm, although cyclists should stay off the road while contractors deconstruct and clear up the site.
Best of luck to everyone taking part – especially to any of our subscribers who are putting on their running shoes. Let us know how you get on!
SPEED OF CHANGE
The Royal Parks has amended the advice on its website concerning safe speeds for cycling.
Previously, the advice was: “Speed limits do not apply to cyclists within the parks but it is recommended that cyclists keep to appropriate speeds for the environment. Cycling design speeds between eight and 12mph have been found to be more acceptable for park visitors.”
This has now been changed to: “It is recommended that cyclists keep to appropriate speeds for the park environment.”
The original statement, which was general advice for all royal parks, did not reflect the fact that Richmond Park does have sign-posted speed limits for cyclists – 20mph on its outer roadway and 10mph on the quietway and Tamsin Trail, all of which are policed. Moreover, the wording left itself open to the interpretation that those who cycle at more than 12mph on the outer road, as many who respect the speed limit do, are moving at an unacceptable speed – which, of course, they are not.
SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...
As ever, thank you for allowing us to pop into your inbox. Let us know what you think about anything related to cycling in Richmond Park – we reply personally to every email you send us. Better still, meet the team and join us at Ciclista on Saturday 25th at 9.30am.
If you enjoyed this bulletin, please share it with your cycling friends – and if they like what they read, encourage them to sign up to our mailing list too. The more subscribers we have, the bigger our voice.
All the best,
Richmond Park Cyclists