SecretaryAnn Brown, 1 Princes Avenue, N3 2DA Tel. 020 8346 5011

ChairmanDennis Pepper, 33 Windsor Road, N3 3SN Tel: 020 8346 5874

Treasurer Julia Daniels, 25 Village Road, N3 1TL Tel. 020 8346 1056

BARNET COUNCIL WRECKING THE DOLLIS VALLEY GREENWALK

The Friends of Windsor Open Space today condemned Barnet Council’s move to turn a five mile section of the Dollis Valley Greenwalk from a footpath to a footpath and cycleway combined.

The award winning Dollis Valley Greenwalk, which stretches some 10 miles from Moat Mount to Hampstead Heath extension, was created nearly 20 years ago by the London Borough of Barnet. It has always been a dedicated walk although there is a separate cycle track through the Brook Farm section.

In 2008 the DVGW was one of 46 projects shortlisted for a £400,000 grant in Mayor Boris Johnson’s priority parks scheme. Only the ten most popular schemes would secure a grant.

Jenny Warren, Barnet’s Greenspaces Service Manager, turned to Friends of Windsor Open Space to secure the necessary votes. After ensuring that the proposal would indeed improve the walk and did not include a cycle route, FoWOS put its considerable weight behind a month-long campaign to bring in the votes.

And the DVGW secured a grant.

The Greenspaces Manager then entered into an arrangement with TfL to turn most of the walk into a joint walk/cycle path. “As TfL came waving a cheque for £250.000 it’s easy to see the temptation”, says FoWOS chairman Dennis Pepper, “but not the decision to renege on voters. It is quite clear what people voted for and it wasn’t to have cyclists on the walk.”

FoWOS approached Pam Wharfe, Interim Director of Environment, who came up with the ingenious solution that it is all right if cycling is permitted so long as it’s not promoted. Not as far as walkers are concerned it isn’t.

Brian Coleman, Barnet’s controversial councillor for the Environment, signed off the agreement with the GLA even though it incorporated cycling alongside walking. But then it would. It was compiled by Greenspace officers.

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DVGW Press release 07:08:11

Dennis Pepper points out that Cllr Coleman will be asking for votes if he stands for re-election to the London Assembly next year. “Will he expect to take his place if he secures the most votes, or will he be happy for officers to arrange for someone else to do so if they think this would benefit more residents?”

FoWOS also approached Cllr Cornelius, newly elected council leader. He at least was willing to meet and talk and appeared to understand that there was a serious matter of principle involved. But he said he thought it ‘sensible to use funds to the maximum advantage for pedestrians and cyclists.’ Apparently he could not see that the funding to improve the walk for pedestrians did not include cyclists, for whom there are already alternative routes.

“That”, adds Dennis Pepper, “was six weeks ago. Since then – silence.”

The deception continues in the current issue of barnetfirst. Here we are told that phase one of the footpath improvements has been completed and that phase two is about to start. Not a whisper about introducing cyclists. If this is what people read they will think they are still getting what they voted for.

MORE INFORMATION: Telephone Dennis Pepper: 020 8346 5874

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Note to editors

FoWOS is not an ‘anti-cycling’ organization but strongly believes that the DVGW should be retained as the dedicated walk residents voted for. Joint cycling/walking use is both wrong in principle and bad in practice.

When looking for possible cycle routes local authorities should ‘design out’ opportunities for the kind of confrontation that regularly occurs* in the same way that Planning Authorities are required to design out crime in large scale developments.

* Two weeks ago the police were called to an incident on the DVGW through Windsor Open Space when two cyclists allegedly assaulted a walker. Despite the use of a police helicopter the assailants have yet to be traced.

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