Newsletter 124, Mar 2017
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Cambs Campaign for Better Transport – Newsletter 124, Mar 2017 Coordinator and Treasurer: Simon Norton, 6 Hertford St, Cambridge CB4 3AG tel. 01223 569623 (home) 764243 (office) email [email protected] (note that outward emails may come from a different address, but they are all equivalent and inward emails will get through at any of the relevant addresses) Chair and Buses representative: Alan Quick, 43 School Lane, Toft, Cambridge CB3 7RE tel. 01223 262188 email [email protected] Secretary and representative for issues not mentioned elsewhere: Susan Jourdain, 18 Millcroft Court, Mill Rd, Cambridge CB1 3PE tel. 01223 246791 Deputy coordinator and Light Rail representative: Martin Thorne, 53 High Barns, Ely CB7 4RR tel. 01353 615872 email [email protected] Cycling representative: Jim Chisholm, Cambridge Cycling Campaign, PO Box 204, Cambridge CB4 3FN email [email protected] website hhttp://www.camcycle.org.uki tel. 01223 690718 Railways representative: Ben Walsh, 14 Cunningham Close, Cambridge CB4 4DN tel. 07790 567143 email [email protected] European representative and website hhttp://www.cambsbettertransport.org.uki maintenance: Franck Arnaud, Metzer Strasse 27, 10405 Berlin, Germany email [email protected] Campaign for Better Transport HQ: 16 Waterside, 44-48 Wharf Road, London N1 7UX tel. 0207 566 6480 fax 0207 566 6493 website hhttp://www.bettertransport.org.uki. Contacts for nearby branches follow. Suffolk branch: B. Moore, 3 Station Rd, Claydon, Ipswich IP6 0HS tel. 01473 831168 email [email protected] Leics branch: T. Kirby, 25 Mount Avenue, Barwell, Leicester LE9 8AJ tel. 01455 842891 email [email protected] London branch: C. Barker, 46 Redston Rd, London N8 7HJ email [email protected] Notts branch: D. Thornhill, 3 Shadwell Grove, Radcliffe on Trent, Nottingham NG12 2ET tel. 0115 9334714 email [email protected] Cambs CPRE representative: I. Ivanovic, 3 Elm Drive, Offord Cluny, St Neots, Cambs PE19 5RN tel. 01480 811027 email [email protected] CAST.IRON: 198 Gilbert Road, Cambridge CB4 3PB email [email protected] website hhttp://www.castiron.org.uki Bus Users UK: Victoria Charity Centre, 11 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB tel. 0300 111 0001 email [email protected] website hhttp://www.bususers.orgi Railfuture East Anglia: Paul Hollinghurst, 110 Catharine St, Cambridge CB1 3AR email [email protected] Bedford Area Bus Users Society (BABUS): website hhttp://babus.org.uki Disclaimer: contents of articles do not necessarily reflect Campaign for Better Trans- port policy at either national or branch level. Please give us your thoughts on any transport related topic, however small. This will help us develop our policies. We will try to pursue any complaint or suggestion or advise you how to pursue it yourself. Subscription rates: £5 per year standard, £4 per year concessionary (senior, student, disabled, unwaged, Campaign for Better Transport national supporter), £6 per year household/affiliate. Cheques to be made payable to “Cambs Campaign for Better Transport”. 1 and 2 year subscriptions are accepted. Members will receive renewal slips when (and only when) their subscriptions are due for renewal. 1 EUROPE AND TRANSPORT As this is bring written, the attention of the UK is focused on the triggering of Article 50 which is to lead to our withdrawal from the EU. There has also been talk of the UK withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (which is quite separate) and repealing the Human Rights Act which incorporated much of it into UK law. Will these moves have any major implications for transport? There will almost certainly be indirect implications. Withdrawal from the EU will affect our economy, as will the consequent changes in exchange rates. So will a new immigration regime. There may also be changes to people’s travel patterns (including foreign visitors). It is hard to assess whether these will help or hinder the cause of transport sustainability. Disengagement from the EU and ECHR is worrying human rights campaigners, but transport should not be affected as it’s not covered by existing legislation. The anti-discrimination provisions of the ECHR include a ban on discrimination on grounds of “property”, which could be held to protect people without access to cars, but no legal case has ever been brought on such grounds. It’s a disgrace that some ferry operators and Eurotunnel are allowed to impose a complete ban on foot passengers – though for some reason it’s only routes serving the UK that are affected (or was last time we checked). Also, one of the Protocols of the ECHR also provides for “freedom of travel within national borders”, but this hasn’t been ratified by the UK. Some of us had hoped that the opening of the Channel Tunnel would lead to better integra- tion of rail services between the UK and Continental Europe. This hasn’t happened, and indeed the withdrawal of many ferry services – including all routes to Scandinavia – has given air travel (a heavily polluting mode of transport) a monopoly for many journeys. Day trips to the French and Belgian coastal belt are also more difficult. Before the industrial age many people spent their whole lives within a few miles of their birthplace. Nowadays many people have to travel every day beyond reasonable walking distance for such basics as access to work, education, healthcare or food supplies, and it’s time we were given a basic human right of affordable transport without having to buy and drive our own vehicles. After all, we’re no longer expected to grow our own food (and we can even get away without the need to cook it), make our own clothes, cure our illnesses or teach our children much of the knowledge basic to our society, so why should we be expected to be responsible for transport, especially when the detrimental effects of mass individual vehicle onwership are so manifest? Locally, on Thur 4 May there are elections for the new Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and for Cambridgeshire County Council, who together are responsible for most decisions relating to local transport. This will offer us a chance to get through the democratic process what has to date been denied us as a legal right: a comprehensive public transport network fit for a 21th century society. The following service standards should be the absolute minimum: 1. For all communities: to a nearby town at worktimes and schooltimes, and for shopping at least 2 days a week. All but the most remote communites should be served 2 hourly 6 days a week from morning to evening peaks. 2. For main villages: hourly daytime 6 days a week, evening connections off trains (especially from London, which people should be able to leave after the evening peak) and coaches, access to evening entertainment at weekends, and, on Sundays, access to shopping and the ability to return home from weekends away. 3. For market towns, the main “necklace” villages around Cambridge and Peterborough, and urban neighbourhoods: half hourly daytime 6 days a week, hourly evenings and Sundays. Note that many communities could expect a higher level of service than indicated above because they lie on routes linking larger communities. 2 Branch News. Our 2016 AGM was held on Sat 26 Nov. A report of this meeting, together with the activities and financial reports submitted thereto, is being sent to all paid up members and to other transport activists who normally receive printed newsletters. (Note: if you do not get this and want it, you would normally be expected to join our group!) The resolution suspending subscriptions for 2016-7 was passed at the AGM. However, sub- scriptions are now due for 2017-8. So please note the following: (a) If you had been a paid up member but your last payment was for 2014-5, you won’t get a printed newsletter. However you can update your membership to 2017-8 by sending a cheque for £10 ordinary, £8 concessionary, £12 group or household, made payable to “Cambs Campaign for Better Transport”, to Simon Norton, 6 Hertford St, Cambridge CB4 3AG. (b) If your last payment was for 2015-6, you will receive a printed newsletter (plus the enclo- sures mentioned above) with a renewal slip. As you’re not being asked to pay for 2016-7 the choice is between renewing for 1 year (2017-8) at the rates on page 1 of this newsletter, or for 2 years (2017-9) at the rates in the last paragraph. (c) If your last payment was for 2016-7, this will be transferred to 2017-8, so you’re fully paid up for now. You’ll therefore receive a printed newsletter with enclosures, but no renewal slip. Date for your diary (if you receive this in time): In connection with the mayoral elections, Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Anglia Ruskin University and Peterborough Environment City Trust are holding a hustings, concentrating on environmental issues including transport, at which all the mayoral candidates will be present (in Cambridge, with the event livestreamed to Peterborough). This will start at 18.00 (doors open 17.30) on Fri 31 Mar at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT. Finish is expected around 20.00. The Peterborough venue will be Guild House, Oundle Road, Peterborough PE2 9PW. Booking is recommended, though not absolutely essential – see hhttp://cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/eventsi for details (this also has a link to PECT’s web page). There will of course be other hustings events in the runup to the election on Thur 4 May, and don’t forget to vote then! Following our AGM we suggested that the members present produce articles giving their visions for the future of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire.