Rights of Way Improvement Plan - LBB&D

Paul Sidaway of B&D council writes: "We are currently preparing a Rights of Way Improvement Plan and to assist us with our assessment of the existing network and making improvements to the network we need the views of users."

I have sent stibasa e-group members a copy of the survey. I can't work out how to upload one here so I'll upload one to the website. The other possibility is to get one from Paul.sidaway@lbbd.gov.uk / (020) 8227 2615

Oyster PAYG on Freedom Pass

My experiment to find out if PAYG can be put on an older person's Freedom Pass (FP) has resulted in failure. The Oystercard website says it is possible - in fact it proffers the information, and it happily sent the Oyster£ to the barriers at Barking, but it failed to get onto the cards. This is a pity as it means FP holders who want to travel before 9am need to juggle two cards.

This would seem to be a card compatability issue.

Oyster Confusion

Even National Rail's website gives confusing information about Oyster PAYG on National Rail.
http://nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/oystercard.html says:

"If you have pay as you go (PAYG) on your Oyster card you can NOT use it on most National Rail services." They mean simply 'you cannot use Oyster PAYG on most National rail routes'. In fairness, the remainder of the page explains the situation correctly and clearly, but this poorly worded statement causes confusion.


On the Barking & Gospel Oak Line an announcement refers to "prepaid Oyster Cards" not being valid. They meant to say "Oyster Prepay", but that is now called Pay as you go (PAYG). Why are railway companies unable to comprehend that an Oyster Card cannot in itself be valid? It has to be loaded with a valid ticket or PYG. My wallet is not valid in the shops, nor is my bank account. The money contained in them is what is valid.

Pickering Road

Ba news about Pickering Road's cycle track: "There are still issues outstanding; street lighting, street furniture, drainage and a stage 3 safety audit. It is required for this to all be substantially completed before an application is made by the developer, or their appointed consultant / contractor, in order for a part 2 certificate to be issued by the highway authority (the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham) and for the maintenance period for the adoption to commence.

Once we have been notified of substantial completion of the entire scheme we will carry out an inspection of all of the works. This will become the start date for the 12 month maintenance period with a view to adopt the highway(s) (Pickering Road, Church Road, Loftus Road and Roberts Close).

At the end of this time, we will undertake a final inspection of the works and, provided all is found to be satisfactory, the highway will be formally adopted.

Until the road is formally adopted, we unfortunately have no enforcement powers and therefore have a newly constructed designated cycle lane being used as a car park."

Recycling and Rainham MRF

Keeping recyclables separate, or separating them out when they've become mixed ("comingled") is something I've pondered. The Barking & Dagenham Post (26 Sep) carried an article about Rainham Materials Recycling Facility (owned by Veolia). All kinds of clever gadgets sort the waste out automatically into:

Quality paper
Mixed paper
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) - eg soft drink bottles
High-density polyethylene (HDPE) - eg milk polybottles
Mixed jazz *
cardboard
plastic film (eg thin carrier bags)
aluminium
steel

The Post says "7 grades of waste are baled separately" but I make it 9.

It seems sensible that all these materials can go in our orange bags, and also that they should be kept separate "up stream" where possible - by use of bring banks. * - The Post article gives the example 'coloured bottles' for 'mixed jazz' but according to http://www.plasticsrecycling.co.uk/ it seems to be some kind of plastic recyclable material.

I think the plant can process black bag general waste, too. Presumably separately from the orange bag stuff.

Cycling Officer

I'm meeting B&D's new CO on Wednesday 3 October. There are a few things on the agenda, but I alos thought it would be a good time to refresh my long standing list of things that need fixing for cyclists. Do let me know if there's anything you want to add, especially in Dagenham / Chadwell Heath (B&D part only).

There's an Excel and a Word version. They should tie up, but it's been years since I worked on them. There are links to them on http://www.stibasa.org.uk (click "news")

Freewheel

The Freewheel event on Sunday 23 September was a massive success, with thousands taking part. Surely it must now be an annual event. The weather was superb, which will make the inaugural one stand out better.

17 people rode from Barking, most of whom I didn't know. I gave them each an LCC membership form. I hope they stay in touch - better still join LCC, but most of all keep cycling.

There are some learning points. The routes between the hubs (Victoria Park in our case) and the central motor free route were marshalled, but the general traffic was still jockeying for position with hundreds more cyclists than usual. The marshalls' advice at busy junctions was not what most LCC-ers consider best practice.

It would have been good to be in touch with those who came on the feeder ride before the event so that Doctor Bike (http://www.doctor-bike.org.uk) sessions could have been held and advice dispensed to novice cyclists. One of our riders had never used her bike's gears.

In fairness to the organisers, far more registered than they expected and could cope with. Organisation was overall pretty impressive on the day.

Next year's Freewheel will (presumably) be on Sunday 21 September 2008