Wednesday 17th January: Barnet’s Citizens’ Assembly Action Group Kickoff

We have received the following invitation from the Leader of Barnet Council – anyone who is interested may attend – see the link within the text below to book a place

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I am writing to invite you to work together with us in making Barnet one of London’s most sustainable boroughs and to become a net zero borough by 2042. We would like to invite you to join us on Wednesday 17th January, 6:30-9pm at Middlesex University, to kick start our new partnership with residents and communities to drive positive action to tackle climate change in Barnet. We very much hope that you, and others from your community or organisation can join us in working together to make Barnet more sustainable.

Register your attendance and find out more via this Eventbrite link.

Barnet is full of creative, passionate people and organisations, who are already doing so much to build a thriving and sustainable future for our borough. We want to work with and learn from you in bringing together residents, communities, and businesses from across Barnet in action teams to ensure that our journey to net zero follows a path set by those that live, work or study in the borough, and not by the Council alone.

The event will include community organising trainingnetworking, and support from Barnet Council, Citizens’ UK and TPXimpact to develop and discuss action in your local area/community that is making change happen. Join us on Wednesday 17th January at 6pm to get involved. 

Tackling the challenge of climate change will be the most important thing our generation does, ensuring that we pass on a liveable planet to our children.

Barnet Council has declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency, setting an ambitious target of making Barnet a net zero borough – putting no more carbon into the atmosphere than we take out – by 2042.

Earlier this year, our Citizens’ and Youth Assemblies on Climate Change and Biodiversity saw 60 residents aged 12-90 years old, come together and identify the key actions we need to take as a borough to make Barnet sustainable.

Barnet Council accepts all these recommendations and has already started work in a number of areas – you can read more about that work here. But the Council cannot tackle climate change alone. It will take all of us, the Council, residents, communities, and businesses bringing our ideas and energy to meet the challenge.

We need your help to ensure that the commitments we have made lead to meaningful action. Join us on Wednesday 17th January 2024 to help shape the future of our borough.

Register and find out more here

Please do share to members of your network who would be interested, there is a flyer for the event attached. For any further questions, contact BarNETZero@barnet.gov.uk.

We look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Best wishes,

Cllr Barry Rawlings
Leader of Barnet Council

Free Dr Bike service -Barnet’s car parks in December

A reminder that this service is running – and proving popular.

There are still some dates available:

Watling Avenue Car Park, Burnt Oak, HA816/12/2023
Lodge Lane Car Park, North Finchley, N1217/12/2023
Marsh Drive Car Park, West Hendon, NW723/12/2023
Stapylton Car Park, Barnet, EN530/12/2023

Barnet Council’s Parking team has arranged free Dr Bike sessions run by qualified bicycle mechanics in December. Members of the public can take along their bicycles to have a free, full safety check, which includes the condition of tyres, rims, gears, brake function and tyre pressure and adjustments can be made if required.

From 2 – 30 December between 9am and 3pm. Click this link for dates and locations:

https://www.barnet.gov.uk/roads-and-pavements/transport-and-around-barnet/cycling/free-dr-bike-sessions-barnet

New cycle path A602 at Sacombe, Herts

Those of you who cycle in Herts will be very glad to be able to use the new route alongside the busy A602 near Sacombe on the stretch between Ware and Stevenage. This route, that opened this year, was the result of a long campaign by Adam Edwards (Cycling UK Advocacy Network rep, a Sustrans Ranger and chair of WelHatCycling) and the late Jon Crosby (Cycling UK South Herts and BARNET CYCLISTS). Adam has written an excellent account of what was involved for Cycling UK. See the link below:

Free Dr Bike service coming to Barnet’s car parks in December

Barnet Council’s Parking team has arranged free Dr Bike sessions run by qualified bicycle mechanics in December. Members of the public can take along their bicycles to have a free, full safety check, which includes the condition of tyres, rims, gears, brake function and tyre pressure and adjustments can be made if required.

From 2 – 30 December between 9am and 3pm. Click this link for dates and locations:

https://www.barnet.gov.uk/roads-and-pavements/transport-and-around-barnet/cycling/free-dr-bike-sessions-barnet

Sunday 3 March 2024: Women’s Freedom Ride

The date for next year’s Women’s Freedom Ride has been confirmed so put Sunday, 3 March in your calendars and do come along! It will be a fun family-friendly protest ride around iconic locations in central London where we call on the Mayor for gender equality in cycling in London. We will need help with feeder rides and volunteers for what we hope will be an all-female/non-binary ride marshal and lead team. If you’d like to stay updated on ride info and are planning to attend, please RSVP below.

https://lcc.org.uk/events/lcc-womens-freedom-ride-2/

Saturday 18 Nov: LCC Community Skills Summit

The LCC Community Skills Summit is next week Saturday! A day of talks, workshops & networking on Saturday 18 Nov, to help skill up & inspire you to improve your area better for cycling, walking & wheeling. LOCATION: UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON DOCKLANDS. For full details see link below,

It’s very exciting that almost a third of the people who have registered are new to campaigning, many not being LCC members, so we’d like to make them feel as welcome as possible. Therefore, we ask that you make an effort to speak to people you don’t know and encourage them (gently) to get more involved in their local LCC group. This is event is open to all – not just LCC members.

!Pizza party updateAfter being neck and neck, Islington has nudged Tower Hamlets out of joint first place and are now in the lead with Haringey following closely behind. Snapping at their heels are Waltham Forest, Barnet, Hackney and Wandsworth. There’s still a week to go so if you want free pizzas at your next group meeting, encourage more people to register for the Summit.Registration link: 

https://lcc.org.uk/news/lcc-community-skills-summit-2023/

Had a close call on the bike from cars?

The LCC is again requesting that we report incidences of close calls to police – ‘Met police officers say they want to hear from cycle users about locations where incidents of close passing occur regularly – these could be roads without cycle lanes and those where speeds are higher than average.’

This will enable them to target specific locations and help reduce road danger so please contact them at    RTPC-Cy@met.police.uk Give the exact location and the type of incident encountered.

Bike Security and Tips at the September meeting

Following the meeting of 28th September on Bike Security and Tips the following two YouTube websites were found most useful to the discussions in addition to other bike security websites researched: ‘How to Lock Your Bike Securely’  and  ‘Stealing My Own Bike’

The main findings suggest the D lock is still considered the best way to secure bikes for extended periods with stronger high security levels ( 6-10 security level and tested to Sold Secure). Lower level locks including cables and chains (level 1-5 are adequate for brief periods such as rural café stops or where bike is generally visible). Two locks are recommended or combined cable and D lock. Most insurance policies will require the bike is secured to a permanently fixed post for claims. Riders should briefly assess the security risk when choosing a place to secure bikes – well lighted, in busy pedestrian area, etc. Where the risk is very high, usually urban areas, then to use a lower value bike or try to make their bike less noticeable and attractive to a thief.

You Tube links:

Thursday 26 October: Monthly Meeting – Proposed cycle routes in Barnet.

We have a special speaker this month – Costi Rentzoz from Barnet Council.

Costi will provide an overview of the council’s use of the Propensity to cycle (PCT) tool to identify and prioritise potential cycle routes in Barnet. The tool takes into account a number of factors, including air quality, health, gradients and existing behaviour of cyclists. It models three scenarios, ranging from doubling cycling by 2025, going Dutch and the use of e-bikes.

16 potential routes have been identified and the council would like to sense check these with our group.

This discussion will start at 8pm – please come and participate in the future of cycling in Barnet.

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The pattern of meetings is the last Thursday of most months at 8pm. If you have any suggestions for topics for these meetings please get in touch.

Meet: 8pm, Trinity Church Centre, Nether Street, North Finchley N12.

All welcome.

Training venue required to run a cycle instructors training course

An appeal for help from Illias Ioannou, Barnet Council’s Cycling Officer:

You may be aware that we have a shortage of cycle instructors in Barnet and therefore have a very limited capacity to deliver cycle training in the borough.   Our training provider Cycle Confident Ltd ran a recruitment drive over the summer to recruit new instructors across all the 18 London Boroughs they work in but unfortunately, they had no one apply from the Barnet area.  They are now planning a more focussed recruitment exercise focussed just on Barnet in the next few weeks.

Once they have at least 6 individuals apply, they will then have to train these individuals and are looking for a Barnet venue, preferably at low cost, to run a cycle instructor training course for 6 people plus one trainer for 2 weeks beginning Monday 20th November to 1st December,  Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm each day.  They would need access to Wi-Fi and white board and secure parking for 7 bicycles.  An outside playground/Multi Use Games Area/tennis court type space would be preferable but if not, a local park would need to be within the vicinity.

If anyone can suggest a suitable venue please email Cycling@Barnet.gov.uk