Almost 40 members and supporters attended Spokes AGM in March.
The AGM was held at the Friends’ Meeting House in Canterbury.
Paul Rees, Chair, reported that the previous 12 months had been successful for Spokes in many ways.
We have continued to campaign for better facilities for cyclists whenever and wherever we can. Often the local Forum’s such as those in Shepway, Cycle Folkestone, and the newly reformed Thanet Cycle Forum do the local work, which we support whenever we can. Otherwise we try to campaign, where there is no local forum, such as Dover and Deal. Some of the committee’s work is closely connected with members Sustrans activities and many of our local members help to keep paths around Canterbury clear.
Spokes is now a member of Canterbury Alliance for Sustainable Transport (CAST). Spokes will advise on many issues including new developments, improving cycle connections across the area, cycle security and the creation of a properly integrated transport hub at Canterbury West station. We are also represented at the City Council’s Sustainable Transport Forum, and at the recent meeting were asked to suggest more places for cycle parking and any missing bits of ‘Routes to Schools’. We joined the opposition to the new multi storey car park In Wincheap, though unfortunately this was unsuccessful, and are opposing the Council’s plans to extend Wincheap park and ride.
In the Ashford and Wye areas, Rachael Carley, the Ashford area representative on the Spokes committee, has been exceptionally active with meetings in Wye and Ashford to try to improve cyclists’ lot and in particular with improvements on the route to Wye in addition to supporting the council’s desire to have cycle routes linking the town with the villages in general. Rachael has also arranged a meeting on 26 April for cycle campaign groups to get together to share ideas, best practice and means of working together. We are supporting ideas which originated in West Kent to have meetings of Kent’s cycle campaign groups.
Deal has been successful in obtaining a grant to improve cycling in the town and we expect positive results from this initiative in the coming months.
In the wider area we have been invited to go on site with KCC engineers and planners to try to get improvements at Brenley Corner and in Dover town centre, the latter both with signing and with minor layout changes to improve safety and ease journeys. We also are in regular touch with and work with KCC Highways, via their Cycling Transport Planner, Miranda Palmer.
Regrettably we have been unable to attend events with our stand owing to the lack of time available from committee members. It is the committee who do all of the work and we all have other commitments. Hopefully this year will see improvements especially with members support.
In terms of organisation and administration, we are currently discussing how to improve member communications and our publicity. We are also discussing how we can have a more efficient structure and cut costs, though issuing only one printed newsletter each year. Membership has remained stable throughout the year with just over 400 members. Financially, we have done well with income exceeding expenditure by £1600, a surplus we can use to support our campaigning work. We used some of our surplus last year to help Wheel Potential buy a new trike. Wheel Potential provides open-air cycling experiences for less able adults in the Canterbury district, using a safe environment and adapted cycling machines. Beatrice Shire and Frank Guthrie from Wheel Potential thanked Spokes for their donation and reviewed the work of the organisation and its achievements in 2018.
The meeting ended with Paul and Jo Casey talking about their round the world trip, Paul and Jo go global.
Related documents:
The AGM was held at the Friends’ Meeting House in Canterbury.
Paul Rees, Chair, reported that the previous 12 months had been successful for Spokes in many ways.
We have continued to campaign for better facilities for cyclists whenever and wherever we can. Often the local Forum’s such as those in Shepway, Cycle Folkestone, and the newly reformed Thanet Cycle Forum do the local work, which we support whenever we can. Otherwise we try to campaign, where there is no local forum, such as Dover and Deal. Some of the committee’s work is closely connected with members Sustrans activities and many of our local members help to keep paths around Canterbury clear.
Spokes is now a member of Canterbury Alliance for Sustainable Transport (CAST). Spokes will advise on many issues including new developments, improving cycle connections across the area, cycle security and the creation of a properly integrated transport hub at Canterbury West station. We are also represented at the City Council’s Sustainable Transport Forum, and at the recent meeting were asked to suggest more places for cycle parking and any missing bits of ‘Routes to Schools’. We joined the opposition to the new multi storey car park In Wincheap, though unfortunately this was unsuccessful, and are opposing the Council’s plans to extend Wincheap park and ride.
In the Ashford and Wye areas, Rachael Carley, the Ashford area representative on the Spokes committee, has been exceptionally active with meetings in Wye and Ashford to try to improve cyclists’ lot and in particular with improvements on the route to Wye in addition to supporting the council’s desire to have cycle routes linking the town with the villages in general. Rachael has also arranged a meeting on 26 April for cycle campaign groups to get together to share ideas, best practice and means of working together. We are supporting ideas which originated in West Kent to have meetings of Kent’s cycle campaign groups.
Deal has been successful in obtaining a grant to improve cycling in the town and we expect positive results from this initiative in the coming months.
In the wider area we have been invited to go on site with KCC engineers and planners to try to get improvements at Brenley Corner and in Dover town centre, the latter both with signing and with minor layout changes to improve safety and ease journeys. We also are in regular touch with and work with KCC Highways, via their Cycling Transport Planner, Miranda Palmer.
Regrettably we have been unable to attend events with our stand owing to the lack of time available from committee members. It is the committee who do all of the work and we all have other commitments. Hopefully this year will see improvements especially with members support.
In terms of organisation and administration, we are currently discussing how to improve member communications and our publicity. We are also discussing how we can have a more efficient structure and cut costs, though issuing only one printed newsletter each year. Membership has remained stable throughout the year with just over 400 members. Financially, we have done well with income exceeding expenditure by £1600, a surplus we can use to support our campaigning work. We used some of our surplus last year to help Wheel Potential buy a new trike. Wheel Potential provides open-air cycling experiences for less able adults in the Canterbury district, using a safe environment and adapted cycling machines. Beatrice Shire and Frank Guthrie from Wheel Potential thanked Spokes for their donation and reviewed the work of the organisation and its achievements in 2018.
The meeting ended with Paul and Jo Casey talking about their round the world trip, Paul and Jo go global.
Related documents:
