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Cyclists
Touring Club
Right to Ride Network
www.ctc.org.uk
www.northhertsctc.org.uk
Dear all,
The Hitchin Transport Plan
workshop is fast approaching so we have sent a briefing note to Hitchin
Councillors. The introduction is below, the briefing itself (533 kB) can be
found in the filespace for the Cycle
Hitchin and Hitchin
Transport Plan groups. For those who cannot access these, a copy will be on
the campaign
page of our website shortly.
Please take a little time to
contact your MP (Peter Lilley – unfortunately he will not correspond with
me as I am not his constituent) and councillors to let them know what you would
like to come out of this consultation.
If
you are not sure how to contact your councillor, go to http://www.hertsdirect.org/actweb/postcode/postcode.cfm
Regards
Alasdair DV Massie CEng MIStructE
CTC Right to Ride Representative, North Herts
CTC is Britain’s largest
cycling organisation with 70,000 members. Formed in 1878 we have actively
campaigned for better, safer roads, locally and nationally since our inception.
We have a large and active
section for North Herts and Stevenage.
From: Alasdair Massie
[mailto:alasdair_massie@...]
Sent: 08 February 2009 21:56
To: Sukhjeet.Moreno@...; Roy Clements; Bernard Engel;
Clare Berry; Doug Drake; Duncan Peek; John Metcalf; Malcolm Cowan; Margaret
Coxage; Mary Bayes; Michael Muir; Mike Tucker; Nigel Bell; Stephen
Giles-Medhurst; Stephen Rackett; Tony Dodd; David Billing; Derrick Ashley;
Nigel Brook; Allison ASHLEY; Bernard LOVEWELL; Clare BODY; David BILLING;
Deepak SANGHA; Judi Billing; Lawrence OLIVER; Paul CLARK; Raymond
SHAKESPEARE-SMITH; Richard THAKE
Cc: Simon Young; Roxanne. Glaud; David Burt; Alasdair Massie
Subject: Hitchin Transport Plan
Right to Ride Network
www.ctc.org.uk
www.northhertsctc.org.uk
Dear
Councillor,
As we
look forward to consultation for the 2009 Hitchin Transport Plan we thought
that you would be interested in our views and concerns.
Our
first concern is that we put a lot of time and effort into a similar exercise
10 years ago but what became of it ? Building a comprehensive cycle network for
the town was the second most popular proposal and yet NOTHING has been done to
make it a reality in the intervening decade.
Will the
time that we devote to this round of consultation (time which we would much
rather devote to feeding our children) be any better spent ?
We would
like to see this plan focus on making Hitchin a really great place to live and
work. To do that means focusing on quality of life issues, health, environment,
tranquillity and community. It means focusing on PEOPLE, not on moving vehicles
from one side of the county to another.
A
transport system that focuses on vehicles is outward looking. It encourages
development to gravitate to the periphery of the town leaving that dead centre
that blights many towns. It encourages people to work and shop in a different
town to the one where they live, because driving away from a town is always
easier than driving into its centre.
Hitchin
will never compete with Stevenage or Milton Keynes for car parks and road
space, so we must be smarter. We must encourage people to stay in their home
town by making it quicker, easier, cheaper and more pleasant to go into town on
foot or by bike than it can ever be to drive to a neighbouring town.
That is
what the 1998 Plan said, and that is what we should have spent the last ten
years doing. It is about time that we stopped making excuses for our
complacency and started making a genuine difference.
We can
do it. It will take time, there will be nay sayers and opposition, but if
countries like Denmark and the Netherlands can do it, and maintain some of the
highest standards of living in the world, then so can we.
We
depend on you to make that future a reality for our children.
regards
Alasdair DV Massie CEng MIStructE
CTC Right to
Ride Representative, North Herts
CTC
is Britain’s largest cycling organisation with 70,000 members. Formed in
1878 we have actively campaigned for better, safer roads, locally and
nationally since our inception.
We
have a large and active section for Stevenage and North Herts.
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