Welcome & introductions
Gavin Clark (Chair), Rachel Martin, Michelle Shortt, Fiona Macdonald, Katy Hardacre. Dave Brown, Alastair Haigh, David Murtagh.
Apologies: Linda Moreno Sanchez
Presentation on Beach Masterplan
Dave Brown – Streets UK
Alastair Haigh – Hub North Scotland – landscape architect
David Murtagh – Systra; transport consultants for the beachfront and looking at connectivity to/from the beach.
The Beach Masterplan is planned to be delivered in three phases: A, B, C. Phase A is the one that’s ongoing now and includes beach park, events park and Broadhill. Phase B is about the transport network. Phase C is the shorefront and esplanade. ACF was consulted previously on Phase B and it then went to Committee but budget shortfalls mean it has been put on hold. They’re now doing a feasibility study which is what they’re engaging on now, and this involves moving some of Phase B into Phase A. It involves slight changes to the design. It will then go back to the Council who will present to Committee in February. If there’s a strong case for it and if it gets approval, it will go ahead. Alastair shares his screen and points to the bottom section of Beach Boulevard (east of the junction with Links Road, the so-called pedestrian spine) as being the main area in discussion currently. In phase A is the bidirectional cycleway down Beach Boulevard which would continue down the pedestrian spine. Along the esplanade is a two-way cycleway and also another along Loverose Way. The goal is to deliver the pedestrian spine and connect the events park with the beach park.
Gavin notes that it’s disappointing that cyclists have to dismount to access the pedestrian spine. We usually think ‘cyclists dismount’ signs mean a failure of design. Michelle adds that it will be problematic for people on disability bikes and mobility scooters who cannot dismount. Michelle notes that in the Netherlands there are rests at the kerb for cyclists to make it easier to stop and start again on a bike. Alastair says they can look into it but the challenge is where to place them. Katie asks about the western end on the pedestrian spine about the transition from 4m to 2m. Is it bidirectional or one-way? Alastair says it’s one-way. We agree they should be marked as one-way to make it clear otherwise cyclists will go both ways or they should be two-way and a bit wider. Gavin thinks they will need to be two way because cyclists may be travelling E-W on the spine and want to join Links Rd. Alastair said mostly so far they had considered cycle traffic going W-E. On the east end of the pedestrian spine there was a bit of a chicane at the crossing point and it looked narrow? Alastair says the northern one is a bit narrow. Also at the east end we noted there are relatively short sections of on-road advisory cycle lane, which then end. One of our regular criticisms is that cycle infrastructure needs to join up, and the same applies here – short sections are almost pointless. Rachel says the grey shared space will be a problem as pedestrians already complain regularly about the shared space at the beach so we would not recommend adding more. Gavin asks how many people will go down Beach Boulevard in the absence of a good route through the roundabout at the top of Beach Boulevard? Alastair says they questioned whether they should put it in at all and let someone do it in future. We agree it’s better to put one in as it strengthens the case for connections down the track.
Gavin noted that the designers have been given a very difficult job due to the budget constraints, and compromises are being made which jeopardise the quality and connectivity of the route. There is a real risk of creating something below standard which then doesn’t get used, or creates conflict between pedestrians and cyclists. Gavin thanked Dave, David and Alastair for making the effort to engage with us on these proposals.
September meeting – recap
Fiona said the presentations were really good and the people who came got a lot out of it. It’s a shame more people weren’t there. It was bad weather in the evening which probably put a lot of people off. Gavin says the nominations and the winners were all really excellent and it was great we were able to highlight them. We won’t do Awards again for some time (there was a 4 year gap between 2019/20 and 2024) but we can plan another in-person meeting next year. Maybe something different to try and attract a bigger audience – for example we have done a film night on at least 2 occasions in the past and they were well supported.
Liaison with the City Council
Meeting coming up on the 8th November. Gavin will chase them for an updated action list. Some recent activity noted: the chicane at the Holburn Street bridge has been moved, rather than removed – will raise it in the meeting. Up near Hazlehead there was also a change where the railings adjacent to the running track have been removed making it good for accessibility. Gavin wasn’t sure if what he had seen was the finished design – the railings had been removed entirely. Both of these were in our ‘Make Aberdeen Accessible’ campaign from a number of years ago.
The Westhill to City Centre route got voted down in Committee. Fiona notes it had a lot of promise but it has been a waste of time and effort from all involved. Apparently SNP and Lib Dems couldn’t agree what to do with it. Mostly it seems they were reacting to public concern about loss of on-street parking. Rachel asks about the proposed route on Lang Stracht? Gavin says our understanding is that Lang Stracht is to be prioritised for public transport and especially Aberdeen Rapid Transport. Michelle says we had a presentation not long ago about it where they said there wasn’t room on Lang Stracht. Rachel and Gavin to ask about it next week.
Consultations
Aberdeen – Laurenckirk: closes today. We got some feedback from members including 2 who live in communities along the route and cycle it regularly. Overall, we are not impressed with the options. Neither option alone works very well and both have issues. For instance they’ve proposed two uncontrolled crossings of A92. They’re proposing cyclists dismount and cross a busy dual carriageway. Gavin has drafted a letter and it’s ready to be submitted tonight. Gavin will also submit some feedback about the actual consultation which has several shortcomings. We will also make a few comments on the public transport options. The consultation response will appear on the website in due course.
Events and activities
Envirolution recap – Gavin went and helped out. It got a poor uptake for led rides. The lesson seems to be if you don’t have bookings in advance the chances of people appearing for a ride are very low. The event itself seemed quite successful and well supported.
Seaton bike hub ‘festival’ – this is on Saturday (2 Nov). There’s a new cycle hub near Mrs Murrays cat and dog home that is not staffed yet but it has a lot of potential to be something more and we should support it if we can.
ArtRoots – we’ve got approval for more artwork for the opposite wall on Deeside Way. It will hopefully happen in November. Rachel hasn’t seen the design yet but will share it round once Katie has done something.
ACF membership system
After looking at a range of options, we’ve decided to use Award Force, the same service as we have used for the Awards and other competitions in the past.
In the registration form we can ask for a postcode and a bio about cycling? Gavin will think about the text needed and Rachel will set up a form. Fiona says she’ll also send some ideas – the original form had something about what skills people had. We’d also like to add a donate option. Michelle says should we set a date for people to sign up? Gavin says the option to sign up will remain live for the future, for new members, but the key date will be when we decide to stop using the old address list and only consider our membership to be those who have re-joined. We may lose a significant proportion of the membership and this is difficult to predict, but as we suspect there are redundant addresses in there now, this won’t make any practical difference. We will also need to revise our data protection statement for those re-joining.
Any other business
Rachel suggests a good place for a litter pick is along the River Dee beside Wellington Road. It’s full of cans and bottles.
Gavin says cutting back vegetation between Bucksburn and Kingswells is another good idea for next year.
Next meeting will be 26th November.
Aberdeen Cycle Forum 