Attendees: Philip Ayerst, Cllr Andrew Baldwin (con, Horsham East), Thea Breadie, Ruth Fletcher (Chair), Stella Sharp, Peter Silburn (Secretary), Graham Sitton (Forest NC), Mark Treasure, Francis Vernon
Apologies: Andy Bateson, Geoff Bragg, Cllr Peter Catchpole, Claire Freor-Humphreys, Carol Hayton, Hilary Jubert, Cllr Morwen Millsom, Cllr Godfrey Newman, Norman Saxby, Dick Streeter
Approval of previous minutes
Approved unamended.
Matters arising
Football Club
Philip will keep a watching brief to follow up on delivery of the promises.
Philip
Horsham tourism
European funding for tourism and development is available, needs a body to apply for it not an individual. Ruth
Ruth and Thea to attend HDC’s Horsham Visitor Strategy Meeting on 20th June. [Update: The visitor strategy and action plan is due in July. Projects need to be private sector-led. HDC will provide “secretariat services” and assist in setting up a Steering Group. They seek input from local businesses and groups about what they want. The consultants (Acorn Tourism and Thinking Places) gave a presentation about the work they have done: analysing the attractions and potential and coming up with a “story”. Attendees included Clare Mangan (HDC), Trevor Beadle (HDC) and Alison Burgh (Acorn Tourism). Richard Chalk is the project manager for the local LEADER which administers the grant funding. Grants are £2500-75000.]
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Ruth
Capitalising on the political will for change
Ruth ran through the presentation from the cycle debate, focusing on examples of poor infrastructure together with better examples from the UK and elsewhere. The design of the current environment encourages people to break the law, e.g. ordinary normally law-abiding people are forced to cycle on the pavement for their own safety and convenience yet risk being branded anti-social.
Civilising rat runs by closing to through motor traffic (“filtered permeability”) is primarily a quality of life issue. Cycle storage is also vitally important particularly at blocks of flats and converted houses where there is often nowhere to store a bike.
As the cycle debate demonstrated, there is support from councillors and the public for better cycle infrastructure – but there is a gap between the aspirations of the council and the reality.
There is broad agreement on what should be happening.
Ruth outlined many local examples of poor planning such as the Football Club development, Parsonage Road and John Lewis/Waitrose where there is poor access for anyone not in a car. For all of these schemes the forum has devoted considerable time and effort for minimal results and in some cases we have ended up with something that was worse than what was there before, or was initially promised.
Andrew Baldwin asked to join us when we met Chris Lyons and suggested inviting Claire Vickers too. He suggested a number of issues that needed to be raised with HDC, including cycle storage standards and pre-application consultation.
To be effective the forum needs to be a consultee on pre-application planning as well as a Public Rights of way consultee. Expertise as provided by the forum is needed because HDC doesn’t have it. Planners should be using the London Cycle Design Standards which is the de-facto best practice design standards for the UK.
The Cycle Summit on the 9th October will address the need for political will.
Adopting a local plan – LCWIPs explained
Mark Treasure gave a brief explanation of Local Cycling & Walking Investment Plans (LCWIPs). These are not mandatory so local councils will need to approach the DfT to express an interest. DfT can provide assistance with developing a plan. A good plan should outline the “routes of demand” e.g. by using programs such as the Propensity to Cycle tool. The plan should reference the best planning guidance. Plans should cover a local area e.g. a 5 mile radius from a town. Build in areas of high potential, not just where it is considered “easy” to build. Will need to be led by WSCC so close coordination is needed between HDC & WSCC. Andrew Baldwin will write to Chris Lyons [Post-meeting note: this has been done.]
We will need to liaise with Horsham Blueprint on LCWIPs and cycling in their local plan.
North of Horsham – opportunities for engagement
A meeting with Chris Lyons is scheduled for 27th June.
Horsham Town Centre Vision
No clear east-west cycle route crossing Lynd Cross. Francis and Philip to coordinate a response and copy in councillors.
Francis/Philip
West Sussex Cycle Forum – County-wide engagement
Next WSCF meeting on 13th June in Horsham. Need to keep stressing the importance of better design standards.
Transition Horsham cycle event – 31 Oct
Ruth offered to do the same presentation from the cycle debate. Philip to get back to TH.
Philip
AOB
Women’s cycle ride
Thea and Dick Streeter have organised a 6km ride around Horsham on 8th July in conjunction with Cycling UK’s Women’s Festival of Cycling. More details here.
Pavilions car park redevelopment
The forum needs to respond to revised plans. Philip and Ruth to discuss.
Philip/Ruth
Planning applications
Philip gave a brief update on applications we have responded to. Thanks were extended to Philip for his continued hard work in responding to planning applications.
Bike repair station
A bike repair station has been installed in Crawley town centre.
Date of next meeting
7:30pm on Tuesday 1st August in the Bodiam Room, County Hall North, WSCC, Parkside, Chart Way, Horsham.
Please enter by the side entrance. Cycle parking is available.
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