New path in Mayesbrook Park

A new path has been built in Mayesbrook Park, roughly bisecting the northernmost field (containing the cricket ground) running north-south. It finishes at the fence by Honour Gardens, one of the new roads in Academy Central - ie the former UEL Barking Campus site - I can only conclude there will be a new gate into the park there.

If this is the case, it will help form more routes avoiding Longbridge Rd, and particularly the junction with Goodmayes Lane, which will be attractive and useful.

From memory, B&D council has already started to pepper Academy Central with restrictions on cycling, such as no entries and one ways. I need to go and audit / take photos (or find previous photos). Then I will raise this with the council.

Academy Central

I've had a nose round Academy Central, the housing development at the former University of East London (or if you prefer NE London Polytechnic, or for the silver surfer, SE Essex Technical College) Barking Campus (in postal Dagenham, mainly). I saw that bikes are being stored on balconies. If this is because there is inadequate bike storage then this is another major disappointment.

Academy Drive, the new road into the development from Lodge Avenue, looks much like any estate road built in the last 20 odd years, except for the signs giving a 20mph speed limit and denoting a home zone. The physical design doesn't look like a home zone.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit was to look at the shared use paths that are there. These are narrow red brick that can be used by vehicles and pedestrians. Most of them seem to sport one way traffic signs, which is rather bizzare, unfriendly to cycling (surprise!) and in my view likely to increase motor vehicle speeds. I don't really understand why, according to the Barking & Dagenham Post, residents are objecting to them being made 2 way. The entrance to the site opposite Gainsborough Road is just that - an entrance. Try to leave through that gate in a vehicle and you're faced with no entry signs. Cyclists wanting to exit there need to do so as pedestrians.

So we see that the anti-cycling illness that pervades B&D is showing its symptoms here, despite the fact of a rather intriguing shared segregated cycle / pedestrian path that appears to run through the school site. It was gated / fenced off, so I could only view it - not go down it.

Relief for no 5 bus route?

TfL's Consultation and Engagement Centre says that that they are considering extending the 238 to Becontree bus station, thus bring the frequency of buses along the busiest part of the 5 route to 14 per hour in the peak. However, there is also the extra custom generated by Academy Barking Central (or whatever it's called) - the development at the UEL campus.

The plan is still subject consultation and "availability of third party funding"