Ealing Cycling Campaign
Newsletter May 2005

Ealing Cycling Campaign's 10th Anniversary

Ealing Cycling Campaign celebrated its 10th anniversary in April. To celebrate a group of cyclists met up for a celebration meal at Carluccio's in central Ealing.

Martin Twedell holds the cake for Angela Devas to blow out the candles.

Bike Week Events

Cycle Bike week this year is from Saturday 11th June to Sunday 19th June. We are planning to hold the following events. If you can help out we'd love to see you.

Sat 11 June: Dr Bike and stall. Ealing Green 10am - 4.30pm
Sun 12 June: Family Ride. Meet Ealing Town Hall steps 11am
Wed 15 June: Cyclists Breakfast. New Broadway (Uxbridge Road) by Ealing Town Hall 8 - 9.30am
Wed 15 June: Sunset Ride. Meet Ealing Town Hall steps 7pm.

A brief history of Ealing Cycling Campaign

There were four people at the first meeting - April 20th, 1995 - Alison Judah, Michael Peel, Simon Batterbury and myself, Martin Gorst. We responded to an advert in London Cyclist placed by Edith Church who was the LCC person at head office in charge of local borough groups.  Ealing Cycling Campaign had existed before this date, but was run by one person. When he left the area, it collapsed. I can't remember his name, but none of us met him, and I think he left sometime before the new group was started. We met in a room at the YMCA building in Bond Street and Edith wisely signed us all up to the committee: Michael was Borough Co-ordinator, I was treasurer.

A lot of the early work was done by Michael and Simon. One of the first things we did was survey local members. I seem to remember this quickly revealed that the Uxbridge Road was a priority. One of our early campaigns was to lobby for a contra-flow cycle route past Ealing Broadway Station. Apparently the idea originated with Sir George Young, an Ealing MP at the time. We are still waiting. We had a lot of success with publicity in the early days. When the council removed part of a cycle lane in Southall to put in car parking places Simon and I staged a photograph. I parked my car in one of the spaces, and we put planks from the road to the roof at the front and back of the car. Simon then climbed up with his bicycle and pretended to be riding over it. The Gazette ran the story with the caption - "Move your bays out of our way".

Other publicity successes included Cycle Challenges - the bike always won, the Dr. Bike on Ealing Green, and the Cyclists' Breakfast in National Bike Week. In the late 90's Andy Longfellow came on board as rides co-ordinator, and a lot of the success of the group in the last few years is down to his efforts in organising regular cycle rides and the warm welcome he gives to people who turn up.
One of the sides of the group that most members don't see is all lobbying and discussions with the council and Transport for London. Special mention should go out to Colin McKenzie who was so tireless in his efforts that the council eventually employed him as a cycling officer. It certainly makes life for us a lot easier having people at the council who know what they're doing.
When Michael Peel left the borough, Alison Judah took over as Borough Co-ordinator for a while before handing over to Glenn Stewart who did sterling work for several years. Eventually he left the area as well. I stepped in briefly, then passed the job to David Lomas who is skilfully delegating the workload and quietly encouraging new people to get involved. So after 10 years we are still going strong. We have over 330 members; the meetings are well attended; and there are more rides and social events than ever. But we still have work to do. Each year more and more people are taking up cycling in London, and they need our help. We still face problems with badly designed traffic schemes, we could do more to extend our message to the west of the borough where car culture still dominates, and we need to make sure that the group remains relevant to and continues to attract new young members who will take it forward in the future.
 
So here's to the next 10 years.

Meetings

All members are welcome at our meetings. We usually get together on the first Wednesday of the month.

The next meeting is at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 4th May 2005. Our venue is downstairs at "Cafe Grove" on The Grove, W5. If you haven't been before you are very welcome.
P.S. The cafe does very good cheesecake and Polish beer.