Aberdeen Cycle Forum (ACF) Meeting 29th August 2023
1. Welcome & introductions
Attendees: Gavin Clark (GC) Chair, Rachel Martin (RM), Fiona McDonald (FM), Martin Sharman (MH), Daniel Verhamme (DV), Katrina Schofield (KS)
There was a discussion about ways to increase attendance at monthly meetings. FM suggested consideration of an app like SPOND which some clubs use to allow members to register for events and circulate messages.
GC reported sending the monthly email was laborious and KS shared instructions on how to do this in an automated fashion using Outlook. Mail chimp was also mentioned. At present there are approx. 600 members although 50 of the email addresses show as non-delivered so some work has been done on refreshing the membership list. RM suggested that using Award Force website might be an option and would allow people to unsubscribe. GC questioned whether this would contravene ACF published data use policy. One possibility is that we move to a new system but would likely need members to resubscribe. Suggested to form a subgroup to decide how to manage contact details.
RM reported that there is a way to donate on the ACF website.[Fs1]
2. Guest speaker: Katrina Schofield, Active Travel Officer NHS Grampian
GC welcomed KS. KS explained that she is employed by Sustrans but embedded in NHS Grampian working with them as an organisation to use more active travel. Her job involves creating better facilities, building an active travel culture for commuting to work but also at work such as journeys to visit patients or between locations.
Her work includes increasing cycling but also walking and wheeling including wheelchair users.
Her work involves regular communications with staff including a monthly newsletter every month for 2 years updating on what’s new and what’s happening.
In terms of delivery & engagement she has organised step challenges, cycle repair workshops, Dr Bike sessions, cycle training and Love to Ride challenges.
From a strategic point of view the NHS Grampian active & sustainable travel strategy has just been updated and is ready for consultation (previously this was just a travel plan for Foresterhill). This will ensure there is a framework in place for the organisation to work with & plan for the future.
She has been involved with work on the new hospitals currently under construction to ensure active travel has been taken into account.
She has also had input into the car parking group to help influence broader thinking about travel to work.
In terms of improving cycle infrastructure there has been £45k spent on improving cycle storage (secure parking) and modernising cycle parking to ensure it is more inclusive and accessible for new e-bikes and cycle repair stands added on some sites.
The cycle to work scheme has been updated to make it more inclusive – more payback periods and an increase in the amount that can be borrowed which will make it easier to purchase cargo bikes and adaptive bikes and assist people on the minimum wage as the term for payback has been increased. Already there are many more people applying this year following these changes.
She has been involved with creating new walking routes with signage and maps so that staff can walk at lunchtime. There is evidence that if staff are more active at work they are more likely to be active for journeys to work. NHS Grampian won a national walking award.
She has helping a number of sites work towards Cycle friendly employer award and Healthy lives at work. She manages a fleet of e-bikes and e-cargo bikes across a number of sites. E-bikes bought during COVID but needed help with insurance and servicing so KS has written help guides for this. Also written a help guide on how to go about installing new cycle infrastructure.
KS reported that the Scottish Government cut funding to Transport Scotland in the last year which has meant that Sustrans had to issue 21 redundancies. Unfortunately, the active travel officer at NHS Grampian was one of those posts so KS will be leaving NHS Grampian in the next few weeks to take up a post at Aberdeenshire Council. NHS Grampian had tried to find funding to continue the post but had not managed in the short time period.
FM thanked KS for coming to speak to ACF and as a staff member at NHS Grampian said she was very sorry that this position was coming to an end. FM said that she felt that Katrina’s work had really raised the profile of active travel in NHS Grampian by providing better facilities and better staff engagement.
There was general agreement that NHS Grampian should be leading on promoting active travel to staff, patients and visitors as it not only improves people’s health by increasing exercise but also improves health by contributing to the Government’s net zero targets and helps with reducing air pollution. FM agreed to put this in writing to the active travel officer management team which KS thought would help with the case for continuing the active travel officer role in NHS Grampian.
KS explained that the post was entirely funded by Sustrans for year 1 (by Transport Scotland) and then in year 2, 50% funding was fromTransport Scotland and 50% from NESTRANs and NHS Grampian.
Cycling Scotland fund Campus cycling officer posts at Universities.
Sustrans does fund other health board posts eg Dumfries & Galloway, Ayrshire & Arran, Shetland & Highland plus a couple of posts in councils and in the workplaces team with companies like Ikea & Next. North Ayrshire Council have funded their own post.
KS reported she had gathered good data from year 1 with support from the research & monitoring team in Sustrans but unfortunately data collected for year 2 was not going to be collated. KS said she would share the year 1 data by email. Data was mainly from the staff travel survey which showed a 1% increase in more people travelling actively. Taking into account that there were 5% less staff working from home this should be viewed as more significant as the extra staff now going back into the workplace hadn’t shown the same shift to driving to work.
Parked bike data from sites – numbers have gone up
For the Year 1 data work had been done on modelling disease impact to show how much money it had saved the NHS.
KS reported that her new role at Aberdeenshire Council would include focusing on active travel in the integrated travel towns -Fraserburgh, Ellon & Inverurie. It’s likely there may be new ones created, possibly Westhill and Stonehaven which from an ACF perspective would be interesting as would hopefully lead to better links to Aberdeen.
3. Minutes of previous meeting (June) Meeting minutes 27th June 2023 – Aberdeen Cycle Forum
Accepted
4. Activities & events
1. Feedback from litter pick
9 people picked up 20+ bags of rubbish from the south side of the Bridge of Dee between Victoria bridge to rowing sheds. Great positive feedback via social media and members of the public.
The council dropped pickers, bags and hi-vis vests & collected rubbish. That bit of the river is owned by the Harbour Board. RM had discussed with ACC about installing a rubbish bin but it was difficult to access for rubbish collection. Agreed would like to repeat again next year probably at a different location.
Related to the Harbour, there was a brief discussion about the opportunity for a cycle lane along Regent Quay and issues with illegal parking on the pavement and on double yellow lines. GC reported that Regent Quay is controlled by the Harbour Authority so the Council don’t enforce parking regulations, only the police can.
There was a suggestion to post events on Twitter next time if possible, as well as Facebook.
2. Forthcoming 20th Anniversary event
Councillors Iain Yuill and Miranda Radley have confirmed they can come and will take part in a Q&A.
Date 3rd October
FMc has spoken to Marcus Stitz but he hasn’t committed yet.
GC said other options would be to arrange a number of local speakers from eg Aberdeenshire Bike Bothy, Cycling without Age, Joanna Robertson (wheelchair athlete) for the first half of the event. 3 speakers 10 minutes each leaving 1 hour for Q&A session with councillors.
Venue needs to be accessible, in city centre and ideally with access to a bar. Venues suggested included Belmont Cinema, Arts Centre, Lemon Tree, Art Gallery, Anatomy rooms, Comedy club on George St, Council rooms behind Town House, Rosemount Community Centre.
Other ways to celebrate 20 year anniversary included stickers for bikes, T-shirts and bike flags. MS had a contact (Gaby) who had agreed to design a logo for the critical mass and might be worth contacting. GC suggested using the mural on the Deeside Way as a graphic for T-shirts.
Action: GC to book a venue and approach speakers.
5. Infrastructure
1. Union St
Council Growth & Resources committee meeting at end of July discussed Union St central proposal with 2-way cycle lane on one side of the street and approved this even though the Disability Equity Partnership were not in favour. GC spoke at meeting. Decision was in favour but still referred to full council for August. However it subsequently went to an urgent business committee on the Friday where much of the same debate was repeated, but it was passed.
Work may be started early next year.
Next project will be designs for east and west of Union St.
2. College St
New segregated path at south of College St. Some confusion at traffic lights whethercyclists go with cars or pedestrians. Agreed it was a positive step forward but not perfect. Once complete we will aim to carry out a survey or audit of how it works and provide feedback to ACC.
3. Hardgate contra-flow
ACC have started building this on the section of Hardgate between Willowbank Rd and Fonthill Rd.
GC contacted by P&J as people have said it’s dangerous. GC stated to P&J that it didn’t follow best practice at present but we’d reserve judgement until it was finished. Cycling by Design (2021) says contra-flow cycle lanes should be protected and mandatory cycle lane. Next to pavement would have been better. An advisory lane painted outside a row of parked cars does not follow Cycle by Design guidelines and is likely to be dangerous. GC will be raising this when he meets IY on Friday.
6. Liaison meeting with ACC
Quarterly meeting – with IY, MR and 2 senior council officers. Thurs 5pm Gavin has created a rolling action list
Any agenda items?
RM requested bike racks on the Deeside Way
GC reported at Pipe Band Championships at Duthie Park security person said not allowed to take bikes in. Events Team asked people to avoid car use but hadn’t included what to do about cycle parking – feedback to events team. As an example, velodrome in Glasgow during recent UCI events, there was a temporary compound with outside cycle parking and security guard.
MS suggested asking what is strategy to join up cycle routes between City and Shire? – are the two local authorities cooperating?
GC said Murcar to Blackdog cycle lane promised for years – still going ahead but no date for when work is going to start. Links from Stonehaven, Portlethen and Newtonhill to city really needed.
MS suggested raising minor infrastruture changes eg Dyce to Kingseat – 4 kerbs that need dropped that might be able to be done with minimal budget.
Active Travel transformation fund – no funding came to Aberdeen. Would be good to have list of projects ready to propose for funding.
MS asked whether ACF could publish an update of the Aberdeen City Cycle Map. GC reported that the Council does publish periodic updates. Although it was originally a joint production between ACC and ACF, when revising and updating recently we haven’t even been consulted. This had already been raised through the liaison meetings.
7. Campaigns – Idling (banner)
New banner made (we think last one got stolen) – deployed in Newtonhill at an afterschool club at present.
8. Any other business
12 people on Critical Mass ride on Friday.
Ride the North – had taken place 26th August. DV reported it had been successful although weather had been a bit mixed.
9. Date of next meeting
There will be no September meeting and instead we will have our 20th Anniversay in-person special meeting on 3rd October.
Aberdeen Cycle Forum 