Each month, we email a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is the edition that we sent in August 2022. 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… +++ The Royal Parks Panel – give your perspective on the park +++ Return of temporary road closures for children to play +++ A history of opposition to through traffic – and what we can learn from it +++ Latest police stats +++ Rickshaws for Richmond Park? +++
BACK AGAIN?
On Friday, July 29 at around 8.50am on the approach to Colicci, a cyclist spotted a moped with two passengers going very slowly anticlockwise, raising the prospect that armed bike thieves have returned to the park.
At Sheen Cross, the cyclist turned right to Sheen Gate while the moped rider carried on straight towards Sawyer’s Hill. It could all be perfectly innocent, but we have passed on the details to the park’s police.
There have been increased police patrols since the bike jacking in June, which we detailed in our previous bulletin. Investigations continue. In the meantime, look out for your fellow cyclists in the park, particularly lone riders as they tend to be targeted by this sort of thieves.
SIGN UP AND HELP OUT
There are currently quite a few opportunities to help the cycling community. All of them are well worth considering if you have the time.
The Royal Parks is looking for visitors aged 18 and over to take part in research on Richmond Park and its other green spaces. We would like as many subscribers as possible to give their views so that the people who run the park are more aware of cyclists’ perspectives. A market research company will send you two surveys per year, each taking just ten minutes to complete, plus invitations to take part in optional activities such as polls, focus groups and interviews. The Royal Parks Panel is online only and TRP says the feedback will help it to create “positive experiences for visitors”. You can sign up here.
Kingston Council is bringing back road closures which enable children to play safely in the streets where they live. As we reported in December 2019, it was pleasing to see the heavily congested King’s Road, which is frequently a scene of confrontation between people heading to and from the park, transformed into a peaceful oasis for one day a month. If you are a local resident and want to help our pals The Friends Of Kingston Gate make King’s Road a play street again this autumn, or you would like another road closed to allow kids to enjoy themselves, please apply here by Sunday, October 13.
LimeLight Sports Club, the organiser of The London Duathlon, is asking for volunteers to issue race packs, marshall arrivals, man water stations and distribute post-event products at the race in Richmond Park on Sunday, September 4. You’ll get food and refreshments, a sports cap and a discounted price for an LSC event in 2023. Register here to sign up.
Wheels For All, which offers cycling to adults and children who have a disability, is recruiting volunteers for its new project in Kingston. It will start offering sessions in September. Take a look at what the charity does and see if you can be part of it.
A few people that we ride with in Richmond Park are taking part in the third annual Black Unity Bike Ride, an inclusive 15-mile event from Leyton to Brockwell Park on Saturday. Have a look at their website if you want to help out, either as a ride marshall or a ground support volunteer.
A RICH HISTORY
It was a pleasure to finally meet Dr Richard Carter and Richard Evans, two former leading lights of the Friends Of Richmond Park, for a chat at Pembroke Lodge a couple of weeks ago. Dr Carter, the organisation’s former chair, gave us a copy of the Friends’ Manifesto On Traffic In The Park from October 2000, which recommended curbing through traffic, an internal transport system and traffic calming near the gates to make it easier for pedestrians to cross – all of which are remarkably similar to our vision.
The manifesto has not been available online for some years and we had never heard about it until the two Richards, who are both subscribers, got in touch. We’ll put the ten-page document on our website in the near future. In the meantime, here are some fascinating historical facts contained within which show just how consistent the opposition to through traffic has been over the decades – and what lessons Richmond Park Cyclists can draw from the duo’s experiences to strengthen our campaign.
1972: The Department of the Environment rejects proposals to reduce traffic in the park made by The Brentford And Chiswick Pedestrians’ Group as “too far-reaching”. The DoE said the park’s authorities would consider “closing certain gates and further sections of roads to traffic” – but nothing came of it.
1993: The Government sets up The Royal Parks Agency, as The Royal Parks was then known. A report by consultants Halcrow-Fox for the Department of Transport recommended selected road closures. Again, no action was taken.
1996: The Royal Parks Review, chaired by former National Trust chair Dame Jennifer Jenkins, describes motor traffic as a “cordon of steel” dividing the central wilderness area from the remaining acres. Making a strong case for traffic restrictions, the report said: “This stretch of countryside, itself quite extraordinary within a world city, is undermined by noise, pollution, congestion and danger from cars, all aspects of the surrounding great city which most visitors have come to escape.”
1998: The Royal Parks Review concluded that there was inadequate information to make specific recommendations, so the RPA commissioned a report by Peter Brett Associates. It showed, for the first time, that through traffic constitutes a massive proportion of the motor vehicles in the park – between 94 and 98 per cent at weekday peak periods and 80 per cent at weekends. (TRP’s traffic report in March 2017, which came before the current Movement Strategy to recalibrate the use of roads in the Royal Parks, produced similar results – depending on the time of day, between 68 and 91 per cent of motor vehicles in Richmond Park are using it as a shortcut.) The consultancy’s report recommended closing gates, the closure of individual road links, one-way circulation and road pricing.
1999: The Richmond Park Forum is set up by Kingston, Wandsworth and Richmond councils in response to the PBA report. Sadly, as the Friends’ manifesto states, it had “effectively only one aim: opposition to road closures in the park”.
One of the charges levelled at us and other cycling advocacy groups is that we only want to remove through traffic so that we can have the roadway all to ourselves, which of course is untrue. So it is encouraging to learn that there have been FOUR recommendations to tackle the traffic issue, and none of them have come from cycling groups (indeed, the Friends’ manifesto does not mention cyclists at all). Over a period of 40 years, it is clear that many have wanted what you and ourselves want: a more tranquil and pleasant Richmond Park for everyone which can be delivered by the removal of through traffic.
And, of course, times change. Active travel, safe commuting routes for cycling, equality of access to roads, less reliance on cars, healthier lifestyles and traffic evaporation – all these factors have become stronger arguments for ending through traffic since the manifesto was published more than 20 years ago.
But more importantly, the two Richards were elected to the committee of the Friends – then, as now, probably the most influential pressure group connected to the park – and subsequently produced its manifesto. As mentioned in our previous two bulletins, today’s leadership of the Friends is rather more reticent to state where it stands on dealing with through traffic. We remain hopeful that once TRP makes its announcement on the current trials in the autumn, FRP will begin to create a road policy setting out a vision for the movement of vehicles and people in the park. But if it does not, perhaps encouraging our subscribers to join the Friends and democratically pushing for change on this issue might be an effective option. We shall see.
INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, FINES AND CRIMES
Time for a rundown of the latest report from the park’s police. For newer subscribers, these reports are presented every quarter-year to the park’s Police Panel and list every incident officers attended, as well as any arrests, fines and verbal warnings.
We publish details of each one after we have attended the Police Panel. The priorities for the police over the next three months, as agreed by the panel when it met three weeks ago, are motor vehicle speed, wildlife protection and trade vehicles.
As reported in the last RPC bulletin, there was another bike-jacking carried out by a pair on a moped. The pillion passenger jumped off and showed the cyclist what appeared to be a large knife. After the victim threw his bike to the ground, the pair picked it up and rode off. The incident took place near Ladderstile Gate, going towards Dark Hill, on Thursday, June 2 at 4.25pm. If you have any information please call 101 and quote crime reference 0406215/22. The police have increased visible patrols and once again involved Operation Venice, the specially trained Met unit that uses tactical force to disable moped related crime.
A bike which had been locked outside Colicci was stolen while the owner went for a walk on May 5.
There were 55 drivers fined or warned for excessive speed, 36 for driving around the barriers, eight charged for driving without due care and attention or driving to endanger any person, and six for having no insurance. Additionally, 156 motorists were warned or fined for driving an unauthorised trade vehicle in the park.
The police warned 177 cyclists for venturing off track and three were fined.
There were 11 cycling accidents reported. Of the six that involved another party, four were treated as serious collisions:
On April 2 near the ballet school, a stag being chased by a dog tried to jump over a cyclist, knocking him into another rider. He suffered cuts to his elbow as well as pain in his buttocks and hip.
A driver stopped on Sawyer’s Hill on 20 April due to deer in the road. A cyclist went into the rear of the car. Their injuries were cuts to their fingers and reddened knee cap.
A cyclist dropped an item on Sawyer’s Hill on 24 April. When they stopped suddenly to pick it up, another rider went into his bike from behind, sending the first cyclist over the handlebars, suffering possible broken ribs.
On May 1, a cyclist going up Broomfield Hill on the wrong side of the road was left with broken ribs after being hit by two riders descending it. One of the pair had grazes and cuts, the other memory loss, bruises and scrapes.
’SHAW ANSWER
What form of alternative transport operating across the park could be offered to those who are unable to participate in active travel? Sarah Olney, the Lib Dem MP for Richmond Park, suggests the answer could be rickshaws.
Sarah mentioned in her newsletter a couple of weeks ago that she has met with Transport Minister Judy Harrison to discuss regulating the vehicles, sometimes referred to as pedicabs, which are a common sight in central London. They are unregulated due to a legal anomaly, which means they are not insured and the price of fares is often inconsistent.
Safe, legal, pedal-powered cabs for park visitors who wish to explore another part of the park or cannot easily transition to cycling is a concept which should be explored. If the government progresses with regulation, the park’s management should examine the practical issues, in particular whether sections of the Quietway are too narrow to accommodate the vehicles alongside cyclists and pedestrians, and if they need electric motor assistance to navigate the hills. But it’s a helpful idea, and we hope something comes of it.
SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...
As ever, thank you for allowing us to pop into your inbox, and let us know what you think about 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