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Amanda Martin

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Everything posted by Amanda Martin

  1. Well there you go: statistically Glenda is clearly a mobility scooter magnet and has been a tad unlucky because I've never narrowly missed being mown down by a mobility scooter ever. However, I did discover this morning that you don't even need to be riding your bike to be abused in High Town - just pushing it is enough. On the logic that we're going to ban every activity that ever results in an accident, there should be no traffic anywhere.
  2. We're obsessed with signage in this country. It has replaced the encouragement of common sense. I'm still completely baffled by the animosity towards cyclists. No-one turns hair at the reports almost every week about people in cars killing pedestrians but just let there be one incident involving an irresponsible cyclist.
  3. Thanks green knight - much appreciated. The objective is to get some media attention and kick start a debate of the sort we had in the aftermath of the felling of the Edgar Street trees, but this time before the chainsaws move in.
  4. I believe we do but the more the merrier and thanks for the offer.
  5. Thanks for that Jean. Every campaign has its diplomats and negotiators but if these people in the Cabinet don't feel the cold wind of public disapproval blowing in, they will just dust us aside because, as Cllr Price so eloquently indicated, they "don't give a ****" what we think. There doesn't seem to be much tradition of public protest in Hereford but the time has come to stand up and, as the Edgar Street trees campaign demonstrated, you don't need hundreds of people to make waves if there's majority tacit support. The DfT has written to us assuring us that they will review what we know to have been an exercise in arrogant box ticking and corner cutting for the funding case for this road. We can't rely on a call in but we do know that cash strapped government departments are looking to cull schemes that fail even on their own flawed criteria. Behind the scenes, the preparations will have continued and we don't have much time left. The bulldozers are on the horizon. Friday 25th September. Shire Hall. 9.45am. Placards and humour provided. #GetYourFeetOnTheStreet
  6. Correction: the meeting is at Shire Hall, St Peter's Street.
  7. No-one should be mowing down elderly ladies in High Town whatever the regs say but anyone who says this is a reason to ban cyclists should get a perspective check. Bikes on the pavements is a sign to make roads safer not ban bikes and there's plenty of space in High Town for both.
  8. Full council will be facing questions from Herefordshire Transport Alliance on Friday 25 September at County Hall, Plough Lane at 10.00am. Show your feet on the street, brothers and sisters. Humour, placards and camaraderie provided. Step up; don't give up. Arrive on two wheels. Bring cameras.
  9. Dippy, I have already invited Tony Johnson! I would be delighted to have Bobby47 come along and anyone else who wants to. It could indeed be an eclectic mix!
  10. Bobby47 I'm afraid that wasn't even the opposition: it was "friendly fire". I think you've put your finger on the risk of putting all your eggs in the "inward investment" basket instead of supporting local businesses. This is what Newport did with LG: they trashed SSSIs and schmoozed LG to come to a huge purpose built factory out of town. The only people who could access that employment were those who had their own transport. Short term it exacerbated the traffic problems and, after a few years, when the Welsh Development Agency grants ran out, LG shut up shop and moved on to cherry pick tax payers' money elsewhere. The same with Ford in Bridgend.
  11. Absolutely right, Cloudberry. John Stewart and I were talking about this over breakfast yesterday morning before he left. As you probably know, he and I were involved in the transport reform movement of the Nineties which became a groundswell of public opinion and a powerful alliance of local groups which propelled transport up the political agenda. Hansard records from the Nineties show how much Labour has shifted its position on transport. Back then, we were all talking to Labour shadow spokesmen at high levels and had every expectation that, if New Labour were elected, we would see a significant shift in priorities. These were clear promises on which, in retrospect, we should not have relied. We have recently got to know someone who started work at the Department of Transport, as it then was, in 1997 when New Labour did come to power. He said that initially there was some will to effect change but a combination of the consequences of Tory scorched earth policy on public transport and fear of the motoring lobby quickly dissipated it. The momentum was lost and they all fell back into what they knew: "predict and provide" road building although on a lesser scale. Many grassroots campaigners fell away too; in our case, our group had actually stopped the motorway we were opposing so many of us specialised in particular areas - with me it was the effect of traffic on children's independence, mobility and development - so we sat back and waited for Labour to keep their promises while John and the others at Transport2000 and ALARMUK, kept the line of communication open with the politicians. That's what happened. Transport fell off the agenda with the dismantling of the local community groups; without people power nothing can be achieved. As you say, things have moved on. We now have internet and in theory the dissemination of information and communication should be much easier. In Herefordshire, there is a general lack of political activism and awareness - people should be up in arms over local healthcare but aren't - and building up a head of steam is going to take time. I'm conscious that with a very small number of "chiefs", there is a danger that each of us will become "ubiquitous" and individually over exposed - I have already received vicious emails accusing me of "grandstanding" and this is another reason for having a good, informed team who understand the issues and can take the microphone. I personally struggle with public speaking and Wednesday was the first time I felt the nerves subsiding a little. Money is always a problem. Clearly we can't keep subsidising the campaign out of our own pockets and Campaign for Better Transport may be able to help us there - another benefit of networking with the national "mother ship". There's a lot to do but I am optimistic.
  12. All feedback welcome. Cloudberry, your point can be addressed in one word: resources. There are currently three of us trying to move this along. None of us are affluent and we all work so time and money are limited. We advertised two weeks running in the Hereford Times, posted prolifically on Twitter, Facebook and various other forums and invited key people we thought might be interested. John Harrington is still around £2k out of pocket following the Edgar Street trees campaign and last night's event and the Kindle event a couple of weeks ago came in at over £800. John Perkins is probably similarly out of pocket through ad hoc expenses and spends a lot of his time keeping the social media relevant and up to date. I share that with you to put into context any ways in which you feel we fell short of publicising and organising the event although in fact four people did come forward with contact details and an offer to become more involved - the event was worth that alone. Dippy, you raise a valid point. John H was up at 4.00am yesterday and came to chair the event more or less straight from his job as a Fedex driver - hence he arrived and left in a van. Julian cycled and the rest of us walked. I do use my bike whenever possible and frankly I'm amazed I've survived. We recognise the need to take advantage of what momentum we have generated and to this end, I would like to push ahead with planning our study trip to the Netherlands. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the way over the conceptual and philosophical hurdles is to bring our councillors and officers into contact with their Dutch counterparts. I would like to plan for mid to late September - time to get passports sorted out and book leave from work. I think this trip should be open to whoever would like to go. In the shorter term, I think we should take up Tony Johnson's suggestion of inviting the "other side" to put their view with a further event - something a little more adversarial with some debating edge.
  13. You're so right Dippy. The principles are straightforward but embracing them, for some people, entails a step change in thinking and that takes time. Also you weren't the only one to comment on the need to rationalise the various forums. Since the Edgar Street trees campaign John Perkins has doggedly kept the media presence going and the sites are his babies but this is something I think he may be considering now. We have to go and sort out my daughter's mouldy bathroom shortly but two things occur: 1. In the light of Tony Johnson's observation that we could have asked one of the Cabinet along to join in and put an opposing view, I think we should organise another meeting and do just that - a question time style format but with the kind of public interaction we had last night; 2. Better late than never, but I'm all for organising that study trip to the Netherlands, open to anyone who wants to come. You read about their bikes and buses and home zones but seeing it for yourself and talking to transport professionals out there just blows you away . I'm thinking September. John Stewart will help me organise it. Thanks to all of you who came along - we really appreciate it. Heroine of the hour was Kate who really lit a fire under proceedings. I need to track her down. Colin, someone mentioned trams. I realised that you had dropped below the radar a little bit because of your trips abroad but it would be great if you could stay involved.
  14. Hope you can come tonight Dippy. It will do your blood pressure the world of good to hear John Stewart talking sense.
  15. Just read it - what can you say? Speechless for once.
  16. Just shows what can be done with an informed challenge. John Stewart may know about this.
  17. Final call for Hereford Transport Forum's meeting tonight in the Shire Hall at 7.30pm. Speakers are John Stewart and Cllr Anthony Powers. Should be a really good evening - entertaining and informative. We desperately need to stimulate debate about this issue in Herefordshire before the Council drags the county into decay and poverty. Meanwhile, I've been busy mashing my head with the plethora of reports the Council has commissioned over recent years. At what must have been vast public expense, the Council have commissioned numerous reports and it's clear that they decided what their objective was and then looked for the appraisal result they wanted to fit it but the results are the same: the bottom line is that by 2032, even with the western bypass, various pinch points and Southern Link Road, congestion along north and south route corridors will be as bad if not worse than it was in 2012. JMP Consultants Ltd were commissioned to identify the "trigger" point at which further intervention i.e. the western bypass would become irresistible. That year is 2027 by which time any benefits of interim capacity increases will have been "completely eroded". So we will have lost the trees, Grafton Wood and a huge area of irreplaceable landscape west of Hereford for nothing and will still have an intractable traffic problem. By 2032 the Council's triumph of a transport "strategy", including the western bypass, the number of annual average daily cycling trips will have increased from 3% of all trips into and around the city compared to 2% today for the AM peak. Result eh? JMP found that in 2012 , 99% of trips between Whitecross and Rotherwas were made by car, even though this is a twenty minute bike ride, with 62% of trips made between Westfields and the centre. The centre of the city was found to be the main trip destination at any one time, which is logical. So there is our problem - not through traffic. I learned yesterday evening, from someone who knows about these things, that for the purpose of assessing a scheme's economic case, a scheme's time savings benefits can be seconds for each person using the road but they are aggregated. Therefore, those tiny and unnoticeable seconds are multiplied by the number of forecast road users to make the scheme's benefit:cost ratio stack up. It's insane but the politicians won't stand up to the road lobby and the professionals just want to keep drawing their salaries.
  18. I got my objection to the main modifications in by the skin of my teeth - literally two paragraphs five minutes before the deadline. This time I'll start earlier and will try to get mine in by Sunday evening. This means it will probably be glorious weather over the weekend. The traffic case doesn't stack up either. Clouberry is right: the documents seem to have been listed as unhelpfully as possible. If only I didn't have to work.
  19. No but I know a man who has (showing my age). I hear it's very good.
  20. Hard to say. Hereford Transport Forum is rather top heavy with chiefs at the moment. The ideal would be to get a proper committee established with a group of satellite supporters happy to turn out and be prepared to be force-fed in prison - only kidding. The pen is ultimately mightier than the sword but it does mean a sh*t load of pens so get scribbling everyone and placard waving outside County Hall will undoubtedly have its place. If the Cabinet think they can ignore us they will and, as we saw with the Edgar Street trees, they will do it with a mean smirk.
  21. Look out for details in the Hereford Times this Thursday - I will place that announcement tomorrow.
  22. Thank you, green knight, that's very much appreciated. Cumulatively, it might do some good. As Anthony said, getting it called in doesn't solve the problem but it does buy some time. We're going to re-run last Friday's meeting, this time with a really good speaker. John Stewart, who was one of the lynchpins of the Nineties transport reform movement, is now with Campaign for Better Transport. He's much in demand and we're lucky to get him at short notice. He will speak first with Anthony Powers repeating the case against the Southern Link Road that he made so cogently on Friday. It will be no penance to attend; John is a very engaging speaker and I know it will be an informative and interesting evening. Shire Hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday 24th June.
  23. Great idea Cambo but don't you have to jump through all sorts of hoops these days before you can so much as take your hat off in High Town? Might be doable though.
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