Friday 4 February 2011

The LIP hits the fan

Waltham Forest is currently putting together its Local Implementation Plan (LIP).


Freewheeler managed to catch sight of this elusive LIP and has extensive comments here.


One of his points is that the LIP hasn't been released onto the web yet, and the consultation period ends on 25th Feb which doesn't leave much time for feedback.


Well, I have some interesting news for Freewheeler. And it is from the previously mentioned excellent newsletter (Hub-Bub) from the local LCC group.


Apparently, Waltham Forest are not giving residents the right of consultation on the new LIP. Waltham Forest is the only borough in North East London not going to public consultation.


Which reminds me of those producers that make a complete turkey of a movie and then don't let critics have an early showing.


Doesn't local democracy feel great?!

10 comments:

  1. Is that the Redbridge LCC? If so, they really need to update their website; the last issue of Hubbub available to read dates from May last year.

    But yes, I totally have to echo Paul M on this one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 'In developing this LIP, consultation has been carried out with internal council departments, Transport for London, London Cycling Campaign, SUSTRANS and a number of groups representing disabled people.' (Waltham Forest LIP, December 2010, p. 6)
    Perhaps it was felt that the views of any other cyclists would be superfluous.
    It appears that the Waltham Forest LCC group were not consulted over the 2005 LIP, nor did they send in a response, if this is to be believed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Hub-Bub is the most recent and was a newsletter delivered with the local LCC magazine. It covers Redbridge, Havering, Barking, Newham and Waltham Forest.

    It also has more information on local cycling policy in one A4 page than any webpage from Newham or Waltham Forest I have seen.

    Freewheeler - the local LCC group seem to be able to feed back information, but clearly if a cyclist isn't a member of the LCC then they may not know who the contact is, or indeed that they need to contact them to feed back information. Even if they could find a copy of the LIP. It sounds like the quest for the holy grail.

    I would have thought a five year strategy document on local transport policy should benefit from general consultation. I must be wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looking through LCC's list of borough LIPs, it appears that Waltham Forest may be the only borough in London which is not consulting the public: http://tiny.cc/LCC-LIP-list

    ReplyDelete
  5. So, what are you going to do about it? Grumble?

    You could do what we have done in the City - organise an email response (which was at least invited by the City corporation) and copy your local GLA member on your responses.

    That's John Biggs in our case, and he has shown a keen interest.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Paul,

    Jim has provided a link to the 2011 LIP - a document which I still cannot find on the Waltham Forest website - in fact the link is to a google document source not, as in the case of the other boroughs, a link to the official local government site.

    I will peruse the document and feed back my responses to the local LCC contact.

    I don't want to give the LCC contact details out here as I don't know him and it would be inappropriate. I am going to put together a short post with the LIP link provided by Jim (as long as he has no objections) and then incorporate anyones comments into my email to the LCC.

    In the absence of a way of privately communicating on this site, I cannot think of a better way of collecting any responses. I am open to any other ways of collating responses.

    The local council will clearly ignore any comments not officially fed back, but I am going to email my MP to comment on the way this document has been released to the public.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Grumpy Cyclist - it would also be worth emailing Clyde Loakes, cabinet member for the environment, and council leader Chris Robbins, to ask them why Waltham Forest is not interested in hearing from the public on its transport plans, and why it appears to be the only council in London which is shutting the public out of the consultative process. Loakes claims to be a cyclist.
    Mind you, my last two very polite letters to Cllr Loakes went unanswered...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Grumpy - WFCycling, your local LCC group, is discussing its response to the LIP at its monthly meeting tomorrow (Weds 8 Feb at 8pm in the Hornbeam Centre on Hoe Street). Any member of the LCC is entitled to attend and contribute.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous - unfortunately work commitments got in the way of me attending the meeting which was disappointing as I would really like to hear other cyclists' opinions on this.

    I have emailed the LCC contact as per the hub-bub sheet with some comments, including the fact that Waltham Forest seem remarkably shy in revealing the document to a wide audience.

    ReplyDelete