Cycling UK threatens council with legal action over "unlawful" decision to keep rat-run open

Happy CUK camper here too - but again if your local group swings the other way I think there's room for two tribes.  Local things being important is a good thing about cycling IMHO.  And I think that is always where the main "campaigning work" / "promotion" will always be.

I'm not aware that BC is massive on the "cycling defense" / "holding councils to account"?  Although I know almost zero about them - having hitherto assumed they're "mostly about sport".  (Which is great, just not my particular focus.)

Similar yet possibly incompatible groups?  That sounds like "cycling" to me!

I didnt say BC challenge local councils, I said they had promoted cycling in my area, certainly more than Cycling UK have, through helping & assisting organising Breeze rides, supporting local Breeze champions, and were supporting Women on Wheels.

Consequently I feel my BC subs are being put to some use locally, despite my reservations with them as a body, whilst if i joined CUK my subs go to help some legal actions which I think are wasted anyway, but have absolutely no impact on me or my locale.

The Women on wheels initiative had to close down recently, probably due to lack of council budget, but where was the Cycling UK legal challenge for that ?

Where was the Cycling UK legal challenge when the bailey bridge link to Southwold, which is a cycling route, was out of action for months during the summer and the alternate suggested route was ride on the A12 or take a boat. It didnt even get mentioned as an issue.

It's my own personal gripe that no organisation from active travel England to BC to CUK seem to be monitoring what councils, UK wide, have done with their experimental traffic orders and the funding they received for them, because I'm aware of how much just locally was rolled back, protected lanes taken out, space given back to motorists, plans promised but never delivered, and I suspect that story is repeated UK wide but theres not even acknowledgement from any organisation this has happened, let alone some headline friendly grabbing legal challenge about it.

Awavey wrote:

The Women on wheels initiative had to close down recently, probably due to lack of council budget, but where was the Cycling UK legal challenge for that ?

That's a shame, but I don't think a legal challenge would help with budget constraints anyway. Given the government talk about promoting active travel, it would be better for there to be national initiatives to get women (and others) onto bikes, although I'm not sure that I'd trust them to be any better or allocate more money.

Well I'm sorry about your area / Women on wheels (I'm uncertain what that was - while I can see several groups called "Women on wheels" e.g. Glasgow, Worcestershire etc. was that a local council initiative?)

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a national cycling organisation - or rather BC are it insofar as they are the governing body for the sports side.  Cycling UK are just the former "cyclists touring club" which have expanded to do more campaigning / more general support.   They don't replace or act as an organiser for all the other local cycling campaign groups or related groups like Wheels for Wellbeing.  As secret_squirrel noted they do pick a small number of specific issues - some of which may be local - and campaign on these on a bigger scale.

I've no idea how CUK they pick these things - I'm just a member, I'm not involved in the leadership.

For local issues I'd look to my local campaign and support group - I'm lucky in that it's Spokes who are well established and active.

Anyway - both CUK and BC offer some useful things like insurance etc. so if it weren't one I'd join the other anyway for that.  I know that even in NL although there is a national "cyclists' union" it isn't the same as the national cycling sport body.  The cyclists' union history page is maybe illustrative in this context:

Fietserbond wrote:

Fietsersbond started life as Eerste, Enige, Echte Wielrijders Bond (the first and one and only cycling association).  .... In 1979, the ENWB had to change its name, after the ANWB (Royal Dutch Touring Club) sued them. They changed their name to ENFB, Enige Echte Nederlandse Fietsersbond (the one and only Dutch cycling association). In 2000, they changed name again, and have since been called Fietsersbond.

chrisonatrike wrote:

Well I'm sorry about your area / Women on wheels (I'm uncertain what that was - while I can see several groups called "Women on wheels" e.g. Glasgow, Worcestershire etc. was that a local council initiative?)

it was a local county council led initiative part of Suffolks Most Active County of England project that brings events like the Womens Tour, Tour of Britain to the county, as well as support other physical activities like park run etc, and was similar to the other Women on wheels projects I think and the BC Breeze rides, they organised some local charity rides, as well guided rides across the region to boost and create mass participation cycling rides for women in the county. Obviously badly hit by Covid lockdowns, but I thought the outlook was still positive, and then they just announced after 8 years of running it the initiative was ceasing suddenly.

I wouldnt expect Cycling UK to mount a legal challenge on it, but where do you draw the line on decisions councils make that CUK do or wont involve themselves in ?

Awavey wrote:

I wouldnt expect Cycling UK to mount a legal challenge on it, but where do you draw the line on decisions councils make that CUK do or wont involve themselves in ?

Thanks - sounds like something any group - particularly a local group - could lobby on or challenge?  (Presumably lobbying for something like that to happen again - with council it may be "if it's gone it's gone" sadly?)

I've no idea who there is about that area.  Google says there's an Active Suffolk who've done something related to cycling and there's a specific campaign group (not so near Southwold...) Cycle Ipswitch.  (There's a CUK local group based on Ipswitch too but they're mostly about organising rides).

Perhaps British Cycling have the people to raise this with - after all it sounds vaguely sports / fitness related and I'd imagine that would be in line with their aims?

It would be great if there were some broader organisation across the country which could pick up all local cycling issues where there wasn't some local campaign group.  There doesn't seem to be in the UK.

Awavey wrote:

It's my own personal gripe that no organisation from active travel England to BC to CUK seem to be monitoring what councils, UK wide, have done with their experimental traffic orders and the funding they received for them, because I'm aware of how much just locally was rolled back, protected lanes taken out, space given back to motorists, plans promised but never delivered, and I suspect that story is repeated UK wide but theres not even acknowledgement from any organisation this has happened, let alone some headline friendly grabbing legal challenge about it.

Experimental traffic orders have left the building, no doubt. So a massive waste of tax payers contribution for little to no benefit. The few near me are all gone and no significant Active Travel have taken their place. War and the price of fuel probably had more effect on reducing motor traffic. Not that I'm arguing for the aggressive and unlawful acts of the tin o' poo.

Surely the DoT should be holding the Active Travel funding recipients to account...

Absolutely. It's the UK here though where we've come to expect charities to step in and fill the gaps that politicians and government have left. Usually the former because they suspect its literally more than their job's worth ("controversial change") and/or the system rarely motivates them to plan more than 5 years ahead!

What did Cameron's "Big society" mean, after all?

On the basis of this statement alone, I am switching to CUK from BC. I'm fed up of councils, in particular the useless BCP and it's mouthpiece the Echo, of pandering to an aggressive minority of ignorant petrolheads believing that is what will get them votes. As can be seen from the last London Mayoral vote, the anti-cycling nonsense doesn't have the backing they think. Go CUK, take these pillocks to task!