WillC's blog

A meeting with the police, June 2014

Last autumn I met with the Chief Inspector Mark Bownass and Sgt Tom Butler of West Yorkshire’s Road Policing Unit to discuss the reporting of cycle incidents and how the police handle them. You can read all about it here but the upshot was that Mark agreed to try to improve the response of the police 101 call centre and also confirmed that video footage, if of good enough quality, was perfectly acceptably as evidence.

Police, Camera, Action!

Those of you who have been following our ongoing campaign to develop better relations with the police and to improve their handling of incidents, will know I recently met with West Yorkshire’s Head of Road Policing, Chief Inspector Mark Bownass. You can read about this meeting here, and also the earlier discussion with the Police Crime Commissioner, Mark Burns-Williamson, that led to this meeting.

Call the cops - a meeting with West Yorkshire's Road Policing team.

The most commonly sited reason for not cycling is fear of traffic. Some of this fear can be overcome by familiarity. The first time you hear a bus or lorry grinding up behind you can be intimidating but when it passes sensibly – wide and slow – your realise that with a bit of common sense and mutual respect there is room for us all to share the road.

Scotland Lane and horses

Last week I attended a meeting a Lister Hill Baptist Church in Horsforth to discuss the problem of Scotland Lane. The meeting had been arranged by local resident and equestrian Carrie Emmerson. It was chaired by Cllr Dawn Collins and Nick Hunt from Leeds City Council's Highways Deaprtment was in attendance. The rest of the room was filled with 70+ folk who cared, and cared passionately, about the current sorry state of affairs. 

Email Exchange With Tom Riordan, Chief Exec Leeds City Council, About NGT And Cycling In Leeds

Hi Tom,

Leeds Cyclists had our second detailed look at the NGT plans last night. It was genuinely encouraging to see how your people had taken on board the serious misgivings we raised at the Cycle Consultation Forum of the week prior. They seem to be 'getting our drift' now and considering changing plans to address specific concerns.

Where they are limited though is that they are clearly working within a wider framework, dictated I think by DfT, but also by the policies of LCC. They have been open and honest on the hierarchy of NGT design, which is: