Each month, we email a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is the mailout that we sent in February 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.
CULL OF DUTY
Welcome to February, chums – and prepare for the usual scheduled restrictions to the park as the first of this year’s biannual deer culls begins.
From today for approximately six weeks, the pedestrian gates will open at 7:30am and close at 8pm, which means you will not be able to ride your bike in the park outside these times. Remember that the restrictions are for your own safety as firearms are used.
The Royal Parks’ team locks the gates in rotation each night. If you arrive at one of them shortly prior to locking time, please do not enter unless you are absolutely certain you can easily reach your exit before 8pm. Arrive at, say, 7.59 and you will most likely find your exit gate is already locked – so you will have to ride back to where you entered, which will now be shut as well, then wait for TRP’s team to return on its final sweep and open it for you. Save yourself the bother by using the roads around the park instead.
The cull, which TRP has a duty to carry out in order to control the number of deer, could last longer or shorter than the allocated six-week period, depending on the health of the herd. We will let you know via social media if the pedestrian gates reopen before our next monthly bulletin comes out.
CODE SHARING
It’s out, pals! After months of refining, with lots of helpful suggestions and pointers from you, our super subscribers, the official Richmond Park Cyclists’ Code of Conduct is finally up on our website. Hooray!
These guidelines will help to create a safe and welcoming environment for every type of cyclist and other visitors to the park. If you see a cyclist falling short of the code, politely ask them to adjust their behaviour in future. And if you are an experienced cyclist, your good behaviour can be an example to others.
Put together with the help of The Royal Parks, the Royal Parks Police and the Friends of Richmond Park, the Code will also strengthen RPC’s links with these three important organisations as well as raising the profile of cyclists’ concerns among stakeholder groups in general.
To publicise the Code to the wider cycling community, a brief summary of it will appear on credit-card-sized flyers which will feature the link to the full-length version. We’ll let you know when they’re out.
ALMOST THERE...
It has been more than a year and a half since we attended the stakeholder meeting at Holly Lodge where The Royal Parks officially launched its Movement Strategy – and now its project to facilitate cycling and walking in its eight green spaces, including Richmond Park, is in the finishing straight.
Huge thanks to everyone who took part in the survey on the ongoing traffic trials after we issued our final reminder last month before the consultation closed. The permanent restrictions on through traffic in the park, which TRP will base on the findings of the survey, are due to be announced some time this month. We’ll send you an extra bulletin before our usual monthly missive as soon as it becomes clear what the plan is.
Even if the trial restrictions are made permanent, the park will still be an even better place to ride your bike than it was in those faraway pre-pandemic days. But as mentioned in our previous two bulletins, we have written to TRP’s trustees to make sure that they listen to the view that through traffic should be eradicated in the park (you can read the letter here). Making this a reality would be the best possible outcome of the process, and we are hopeful that TRP has a plan that is much bolder than the current restrictions. Let’s see what happens.
FROST REPORT
Finally, a word of caution regarding the road conditions in the park. The ground has become waterlogged due to the recent wet weather, and some road users are consequently hogging the middle of the road where the standing water is shallowest, so please be mindful of others. Some of the water inevitably turns to frost, and when it is forecast, TRP’s contractors carry out salting – although it may not have bedded in sufficiently by the time you arrive in the park, and they may not be able to tackle it every single time. Please take care!
SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...
Thank you for allowing us to pop into your inbox. As ever, let us know what you think about any of the subjects in this bulletin, or anything related to cycling in Richmond Park – we reply personally to every email you send us. 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