Good evening, Hope you have had a nice weekend. I just wanted to let you know what's happening with TfHell's proposed "Cycle Superhighway 11" Scheme - I know many of you will be wondering what on earth has been going on since it was publicly announced in "The Daily Bicycle" (sorry I meant The Evening Standard) that it is going ahead. Since my last update, the following have happened : 1. We (The StopCS11 Committee) have had 2 out of 5 Stakeholder Meetings at Transport for London's HQ where we have discussed issues arising from the Public Consultation (which many of us believe was very poorly designed and delivered) and the proposed design changes for the Swiss Cottage Gyratory part of the scheme. We learned from Val Shawcross (Deputy Mayor for Transport) that both she and Mayor Khan have told TfL that they want to see some form of CS11 go ahead and have asked them to engage with us (and others) to "fine tune" the detail at the design phase so that any major issues can be "ironed out" prior to any building / implementation phase ("Learning the lessons from previous schemes"). Despite instructions from Mayor Sadiq Khan and Deputy Mayor for Transport Valerie Shawcross to TfL to have "flex" in making design changes and improvements to the CS11 scheme, we have been extremely disappointed by TfL's extreme reluctance to change the major "problem causing" issues of the scheme and so far they have only proposed to scrap the proposed banned right turn from the bottom of Fitzjohn's Avenue (College Crescent) onto Finchley Road (to go North back up towards the O2 Centre) and they illogically propose to modify the proposed banned left turn at College Crescent from Finchley Road just before the Odeon to allow the 268 Bus and Cycles ONLY to turn left there. You will note that neither of these changes solve any of the major congestion / Traffic Reassignment issues which arise from this scheme. You may be alarmed to find out that we have discovered from Transport for London that when they talk about an increase on some borough roads of "At least 200 cars per hour" what that actually means is "Potentially 500 cars OR MORE per hour" being predicted on already strained roads such as Arkwright Road, Fitzjohn's Avenue, Goldhurst Terrace, Hampstead High Street, Loudoun Road, Boundary Road. Even more concerning are Camden Council's assertions to Transport for London about impacts on Hampstead Heath Area (West Heath Road, Pond Street, Agincourt Road, Fleet Road, Parkhill Road / Royal Free Hospital area etc) which state : "Traffic reassignment modelling predicts significant volumes of additional traffic using this area as a result of the (CS11) proposals. The area is currently recognised by officers as being extremely sensitive in terms of traffic congestion surrounding the Royal Free Hospital and any additional traffic flow could be detrimental to the daily operations of the network............we (Camden Council) cannot support the predicted traffic increases on this part of the network and ask that appropriate mitigation is proposed prior to the implementation of the CS11 Scheme" 2. Last Tuesday (6th September) we attended a round table "Select Committee style" meeting at Houses of Parliament expertly chaired and facilitated by the Westminster North MP Karen Buck alongside an excellent representative of Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq who sadly couldn't attend due to an unforeseen personal event. This meeting was also attended by Westminster Council, Camden Council and The Royal Parks as well as 2 senior TfL representatives from the CS11 Project. The TfL representatives were cross examined in detail about the major concerns regarding CS11 including their failure to include HS2, their failure to come up with a solution to the issue of major, damaging "Traffic Reassignment" on residential borough roads and their failure to carry out adequate traffic modelling on many of the roads along the proposed CS11 route. As a result of that meeting and at the impressive insistance of Karen Buck MP, TfL have been asked to provide information relating to the following "Action Points" : A. Provide Traffic Modelling comparison analysis from existing CSH schemes - (TfL agreed to this request from Martin Lowe of Westminster CC). B. Provide updated / new Traffic Modelling for an agreed set of roads including : Arkwright Road, Fitzjohn's Avenue, Frognal, Pond Street, Heath Street, Fairfax Road, Fairhazel Gardens, Loudoun Road, Boundary Road, Belsize Road, Acacia Avenue, Norfolk Road, Woronzow Road, Allitsen Road, St John's Wood Park) - (Requested by WCC, LBCamden, MPs and StopCS11) C. Provide substantive "Mitigation solutions" for Traffic Reassignment on WCC and LBCamden borough roads- (Requested by WCC, LBC, MPs and StopCS11) D. Provide the "Environmental Assessment Report" (Nigel Hardy agreed that TfL will supply that) E. Provide Cost Benefit Analysis Report for CS11 (Nigel Hardy agreed to this request from Jessica Learmond-Criqui) F. Provide statistics for how many cyclists are actually projected to use the scheme (TfL agreed to this request from Clive Beecham & Karen Buck MP). 3.So what happens next? - We continue to attend the remaining 3 Stakeholder Meetings at TfL HQ and will press in the strongest possible way for ALL of the gates at Regent's Park to remain OPEN at all times (TfL propose to close the gates at 4 entrances/exits to Regents Park for all times of day except 11am-3pm). - We are arranging a public meeting in Hampstead on the week beginning 26th September (Date & Venue to be confirmed by Jessica Learmond-Criqui, please see the "I Love Hampstead Facebook page and/or see Ham & High newspaper) - We are in direct contact with Camden and Westminster Councils (as well as the MPs) and will be presenting them with our own, modified, much improved scheme (which addresses all the major issues). I can assure you that we will do everything we can to ensure that Transport for London take proper measures to address EVERY SINGLE issue raised by you and everyone else who has taken part in this consultation and campaign process and we will ensure, with the assistance of Karen Buck MP and Tulip Siddiq MP that they are held accountable. If you have any ideas, questions or suggestions please do feel free to contact me any time. Any help is always welcome. I will keep you posted of developments, Kind regards, Daniel