Velolife: Council leader to meet with planning staff and British Cycling over ban on cyclists 'meeting' at cycle cafe

Pilot Pete wrote:

Will do Burt. She already has a Cycling and Walking Mater Plan for our town, she now needs to develop one for the whole county!

Had her first little victory in getting all the Highways Contractors to be told to change all their ‘closed road’ signage to add ‘except cyclists’ whenever possible. Previously it was all too easy to just shut it for all traffic, now they must keep access for cyclists and pedestrians and sign it appropriately unless that is impossible.

She has been given the green light by the council leader to just ‘go where she feels she wants to go’ with improving cycling and walking when she asked what her remit was! He is fully supportive as are the coalition groups now running the council. 

They have committed to reviewing a major bypass that is under construction regarding connectivity for cyclists to our town - the bypass will have dedicated, segregated cycle lanes, but the previous administration were not going to put similar lanes from the roundabouts into the town. The bypass itself is of no use to cyclists unless they can use it to get to and from the town centre to surrounding roads, avoiding the main roads without cycle paths.

They are also looking at making a temporary one way route from the pedestrian zone out through the town, with a cycle contraflow which would mean enough space for a dedicated cycle lanethrough the heart of the town. Being temporary it will be a cheap way of proving the idea before making it permanent. It will literally only mean that cars have to do an extra 0.5km but would make a fantastic difference for cyclists who could avoid a dual carriageway running parallel.

Sorry for the thread creep, but after years of anti-cycling councillors (one of whom actually said to me four years ago that we are such a pain we should be knocked off - I know, an effing councillor! Well, ex-councillor now.) it is great to see that democracy CAN work if people get over the apathy and are willing to get involved.

Ive now had half a dozen councillors reply to my emails regarding the Velolife cafe and it seems I (alongside everyone else who commented, including God himself Chris Boardman) have struck a chord - they are all saying that they are going to be finding a solution, one even went beyond the usual ‘standard, looking into it’ response and agreed that it seemed heavy handed and a more reasonable solution will be found. So great news.

PP

Never mind the thread creep, all of that is fantastically encouraging news; councils are finally getting it.  Ok, the curmudgeon in me says why didn't they get it thirty years ago when I and others kept pointing it out, but better late than never.  It shouldn't just be up to one person, in this case your admirable wife, to push this stuff through, it should be every councillor pushing what has been their policy for thirty years.

Apologies for liking your post only once, but that's all the site will allow.

I'm assuming the Mater plan is a typo, or did you create it?

burtthebike wrote:

Never mind the thread creep, all of that is fantastically encouraging news; councils are finally getting it.  Ok, the curmudgeon in me says why didn't they get it thirty years ago when I and others kept pointing it out, but better late than never.  It shouldn't just be up to one person, in this case your admirable wife, to push this stuff through, it should be every councillor pushing what has been their policy for thirty years.

Apologies for liking your post only once, but that's all the site will allow.

+1 to all that, and I too would love to give it more than one 'like'.

Food for thought there, Pilot Pete. Thank you.

MikeRich wrote:

Unfortunately you couldn't make this up... my understanding is that the ex-landlord may be the person complaining...

I dont think thats correct but not 100%.  Its only been said on here, and appears to have been based on a mis-reading of the Planning appeal, where the word "appellant" is referred to as a "former landlord".  However for that appeal - the appellant was the owner of Velolife.

As I say Im not 100% but have cross referenced the name of the objectors with a partial list of the landlords.

MikeRich wrote:

Unfortunately you couldn't make this up... my understanding is that the ex-landlord may be the person complaining...

The complainant is obvisouly jealous of the successful business being run whe he probably failed.

I so no reason why this council has taken such a hard line on this and rather hypocritically their own head fronts up on a bicycle for coffee and cake. Hope he was quiet about his business!!

Good luck in the future at the cafe. I hope a quiet rule is being adopted by visitors in repsect to the locals.

Pedal those squares wrote:

It maybe a silly question, but how can a bunch of MAMILs on a Sunday morning cause more disrubtion that a load of people leaving a pub on a Satuday night???  The only thing I can think of is the person making the complaints was the person making the noise when the pub was open.

The rationale from the planning inspector appeared to be that pre-9am was disrupting to the neighbours lie in, at the weekend rather than say 11pm at night on a School Day.

Not sure I agree - but if you read the report the Inspector does seem to have been trying to be fairly even-handed, when you consider the request from the Council in the first place was a complete shutdown off all activities at Velolife - due to neglecting to apply for change of use.

It was the planning inspector (reports to Home Office) who coined the "Cyclists Meeting place" to which the local council planning team then elaborated upon.  That was their big mistake.

If they had just put a restriction saying no groups bigger than X members (cyclists, ramblers, cruisers) to meet prior to Y am and after Z pm.  It would have been both more coherent and less headline grabbing (and imo) a bit more reasonable.

Toffee wrote:

I'm actually shocked to see Dudley taking this approach. He's my councillor and has a bit of a reputation for doing what he wants and sod anyone else.

It's just nice to see it work in our favour for once.

If you followed my replies on the other thread about this you will notice that I signed off one of my letters to this council as ‘husband of  the former Mayor and now Cycling and Walking Champion for our county council’. Sadly, many councils operate in that manner where a tight little cabal of the biggest party literally control everything and make all the decisions. It happened in our council until the last local elections in May when my wife stood as an independent with several others and trounced the incumbent lot. Funnily one of the electorate described her victory as ‘draining the swamp’! I did laugh at that...

PP

Pilot Pete wrote:

Sadly, many councils operate in that manner where a tight little cabal of the biggest party literally control everything and make all the decisions.

Unfortunately that description matches my experience with councillors in Shropshire. County council is run by a small group of people whose self-interest always takes priority over anything else. Some of them are so bent they have to step down such as former leader of the council Keith Barrow. Others have been criticised publicly for various dubious decisions but apathy rules and they continue in their positions.

Interesting that Mr Dudley is making waves over this and heartening that so many people rode out to support the cafe. I'm sure it's stressful for the owner but hopefully the publicity will pay off (and maybe even be an instructive lesson for other councils?).

Simon E wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

Sadly, many councils operate in that manner where a tight little cabal of the biggest party literally control everything and make all the decisions.

Unfortunately that description matches my experience with councillors in Shropshire. County council is run by a small group of people whose self-interest always takes priority over anything else. Some of them are so bent they have to step down such as former leader of the council Keith Barrow. Others have been criticised publicly for various dubious decisions but apathy rules and they continue in their positions.

When I was a CTC rep, I pointed out that the council's plans went againt CTC policy, which the council supposedly supported.  The councillor involved, a cyclist himself, then had a letter published in the local rag, asserting that I was out of control and inventing my own policies.  When shown the relevant policy in the CTC policy handbook, he denied it was a policy.  He didn't stand at the next election, for which I am eternally grateful.

His second name began with B, and he had two nicknames at the council; Bluster or BS, because he could talk long and loud about anything under the sun without having the slightest knowledge of it.

Simon E wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

Sadly, many councils operate in that manner where a tight little cabal of the biggest party literally control everything and make all the decisions.

Unfortunately that description matches my experience with councillors in Shropshire. County council is run by a small group of people whose self-interest always takes priority over anything else. Some of them are so bent they have to step down such as former leader of the council Keith Barrow. Others have been criticised publicly for various dubious decisions but apathy rules and they continue in their positions.

Interesting that Mr Dudley is making waves over this and heartening that so many people rode out to support the cafe. I'm sure it's stressful for the owner but hopefully the publicity will pay off (and maybe even be an instructive lesson for other councils?).

I’m in Cheshire East and the Conservatives had run the council from its inception up until last May when the public had finally had enough. They had several criminal investigations against them. Here is some of the news about that;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-41321045

Mike Suarez, pictured in that article was on over £200k a year, put on gardening leave on full salary for a year whilst an internal investigation took place and a week before his hearing he resigned. It was never even made public what the investigation was about. Again, you couldn’t make it up.

Anyhow, the way to change it is to get decent people to stand who are in it for what they can give back to their community. This is what my wife did and she now works tirelessly as an elected councillor, for £12k p.a. The problem in the past was too many of them getting elected and treating it as a job - the more committees they could get on the more money they could earn. If they became chair or deputy chair of a committee they got more money. Some were doing several (obviously very badly as they were too stretched to do any of them properly). It was all about them and what they could get out of it. They HATE my wife for what she has done, but the electorate love her!

PP

Pilot Pete wrote:

Simon E wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

Sadly, many councils operate in that manner where a tight little cabal of the biggest party literally control everything and make all the decisions.

Unfortunately that description matches my experience with councillors in Shropshire. County council is run by a small group of people whose self-interest always takes priority over anything else. Some of them are so bent they have to step down such as former leader of the council Keith Barrow. Others have been criticised publicly for various dubious decisions but apathy rules and they continue in their positions.

Interesting that Mr Dudley is making waves over this and heartening that so many people rode out to support the cafe. I'm sure it's stressful for the owner but hopefully the publicity will pay off (and maybe even be an instructive lesson for other councils?).

I’m in Cheshire East and the Conservatives had run the council from its inception up until last May when the public had finally had enough. They had several criminal investigations against them. Here is some of the news about that; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-41321045 Mike Suarez, pictured in that article was on over £200k a year, put on gardening leave on full salary for a year whilst an internal investigation took place and a week before his hearing he resigned. It was never even made public what the investigation was about. Again, you couldn’t make it up. Anyhow, the way to change it is to get decent people to stand who are in it for what they can give back to their community. This is what my wife did and she now works tirelessly as an elected councillor, for £12k p.a. The problem in the past was too many of them getting elected and treating it as a job - the more committees they could get on the more money they could earn. If they became chair or deputy chair of a committee they got more money. Some were doing several (obviously very badly as they were too stretched to do any of them properly). It was all about them and what they could get out of it. They HATE my wife for what she has done, but the electorate love her! PP

And I love your wife too; platonically obviously.  Please tell her thanks from me and keep up the good work.