This is a brief reminder that there is less than one week left to leave your feedback on the Hertsmere LCWIP draft walking and cycling routes before 10am Wednesday 26^th June.

Your local insights into the local walking and cycling routes regularly used by local residents and the improvements required to these routes are essential and we would be particularly grateful if you could review the location of the proposed main walking/cycling routes to ensure that the next stages of the process propose infrastructure in the right locations, feeding in any knowledge you have of required improvements, barriers to walking/cycling and interacting schemes or transport plans. We will use all of the feedback received at this early stage to inform the next steps of the project, including amending the draft walking/cycling networks and during our in-person audits to come up with specific infrastructure proposals.

To view the draft network plans and fill out the survey, please visit our online hub.

Should you have any questions or if you would prefer to respond with your comments via email, please get in touch with us by emailing Hertsmere.LCWIP@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Barnet Council is consulting on introducing a 20-mph zone and other road safety measures around North Finchley between the High Road, Woodhouse Road and Friern Barnet lane. This is to be welcomed as the area is currently used as a rat run by many motorists and is used by many families and children walking to the numerous local schools in the area. It will also make the area safer for cycling, help to improve air quality, and reduce the number of accidents in the area.  We are encouraging as many people as possible to complete the questionnaire that the council has produced seeking views on the proposals, which can be found on the Engage Barnet website, along with more information about the scheme:

Torrington Park and surrounding area road safety consultation | Engage Barnet

(If you experience problems with this link, please google “engage barnet Torrington Park”)

Please feel free to use elements of our response when completing the questionnaire.

Copy of response as attached.

To support more volunteers and work with the public the LCC have been developing new strategies with people acting as volunteers. These include ride leaders, marshalls, committee members, campaign supporters, events organisers, etc. Members who will be acting in these and other public facing categories are now asked to register on the LCC Volunteer Registration Form.
Please contact Stewart Dring, Operations Manager for the details at  stewart.dring@lcc.org.uk

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 training, networking, 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

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:

https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/local-campaigning-success-new-cycle-path-safer-cycling-hertfordshire?utm_source=cycleclips&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=xmas23&utm_term=blog&utm_content=hertfordshirecyclepath#msdynttrid=s1LslIOXg_t8WnvyO3huiC9o0j8SmLzTw1KY2OrlaTA

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/

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.