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A Greenwich Cyclists AGM now needs to be convened. This is long overdue, but perhaps Greenwich Cyclists has suspended elections because there’s a war going on. This is the Greenwich Cyclists Constitution. The AGM will be an opportunity for people to approve the last set of AGM minutes, which are reproduced below:

GREENWICH CYCLISTS AGM MINUTES

3rd JUNE 2009

1 Members present

Jenny Bates [Chair], Anthony Austin, Stephen Craven, Tom Crispin, Liz Delap, Sarah Ellis, Eric Gauster, Teri Griffith, John Hearns, Barry Mason, Francis Sedgemoor and David Senior.    

Apologies from Chris le Breton, Julian Dobson, Grant Griffiths and Stuart Parkin.  It was announced that Julian’s second son had just been born.

2 Chairman’s report

Jenny took the chair and spoke about the success of green organisations (including her own, Friends of the Earth) in campaigning for cyclists.  The present focus was on promoting cycling in the outer London boroughs and the next one would be on air quality. She welcomed the new Mayor’s transport strategy.

3 Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the 2008 meeting were approved (proposed Barry, seconded Sarah).  Barry commented that attendance was not recorded.  Stephen explained that the minutes were part of a document that included the minutes of the ordinary meeting immediately preceding it, but would include attendance separately next time.

4 Co-ordinator’s report

Anthony referred to the report that he had circulated by e-mail before the meeting (and appended to these minutes).

5 Treasurer’s report

Sarah presented summary accounts for the year ending March 2009.  She reported that the current account had been successfully transferred to the Unity Trust bank.  The grant account remained with the Co-Operative, and currently held £2921.  To that could be added £1105 that remained unspent from the 2008 CCFFL grant, meaning that we would have around £4000 in the grants account, and around £2400 in the current account.  LCC had approved the draft accounts and she would be meeting the independent examiner the following week. Anthony proposed acceptance of the accounts. Liz seconded, agreed unanimously.

6 Election of officers

The following were elected unopposed for 2009/10 (proposers and seconders initials following):

• Group Co-ordinator: Anthony Austin [SC/TG]
• Treasurer: Sarah Ellis [LD/TG]
• Secretary: Stephen Craven [SE/TG]
• Other committee members: Teri Griffith [TC/DS]
• Liz Delap [AA/TC]
• Grant Griffith* [SE/LD]
• Stuart Parkin* [LD/AA]    

* - Stuart and Grant not being present but believed to be willing to be nominated.

7 Any Other Business

Tom Crispin proposed a special vote of thanks to Sarah for her hard work on the accounts.

This was a Southwark Healthy Ride to Beckenham Place Park. Unfortunately, although 15 people had signed up to the ride, only 8 attended. A loophole in the booking system had been discovered because, although only 15 tickets for this ride had been made available on the Eventbrite website, LCC had made some additional tickets available at https://lcc.org.uk/events/peckham-to-beckenham-place-park-ride/.

On leaving the park we could see the the Southern Cross Country Championships were taking place. Unlike with this ride, people had been invited to attend this from all parts of South East England and we could see that people come from as far afield as St Albans.

One our way back the ride leader's Komoot route appeared to have been switched from what had been expected and we ended up climbing up Anerley Hill to Crystal Palace Park. 

By Nigel Bee, Christmas Day Ride Leader, 25.12.2024

It was with trepidation that I arrived at the ride start point. I had been told that BBC Radio London would be featuring the ride on their Chritmas Day program and I had promised them that it would be a proper event attended by about 15 people - 6 regulars plus some more coming from online interactions. But would all these people turn up?

It was worrying that one of the regulars texted to say she was unable to come because of illness. However, in the end, there were 5 of us 20 minutes before the ride and this number quickly rose to 14.

This Is 50% more than we had for the previous two years. And even that is many more than we had in 2020, when only two independent pairs of riders were allowed to do the ride and we had to eat our lunch standing out in the street.

But all this was a far cry from the pre-Covid numbers of around 70 that we used to have.

One. of the riders had attended the 2006 Christmas Day Ride, which had been led br Barry Mason and had followed the original format of starting at Cutty Sark and picking up extra riders at the Southwark Needle.

There were some surprises. We were stunned by the spectacle of the tower of All Hallows Staining displayed prominently in the middle of a building site. We had never noticed it before, so it miuct have been hidden behind buildings. There was also an unexpected diversion because of an incident on Shaftesbury Avenue.

When I looked in the internet to see if there was going to be an LFGSS “Waifs and Strays” Christmas Day ride this year, I found that not only was this ride not taking place, but the LFGSS itself was being threatened with closure. Why is this happening when there has never been a single instance of any of the proclaimed things that the Online Safety Act 2023 protects adults from? Watch this space …

People had responded well to the suggestion that they identify themselves with a profile picture, which can be shown against a ride when they sign up. This is what people used to do for the 2018 Christmas Day ride.

The ride finished with a Christmas Day Conclave from 1pm - 3pm at the Al Dar Restaurant, 61-63 Edgware Rd, St George's Fields, London W2 2HZ.

• Rumour spreads with one and a quarter billion souls watching (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0k71fhh).
• It seems the responsibility for the conclave falls upon me.
• The supervision of this election is a duty I never thought I would have to perform.
• The men who are dangerous - are the ones that do want it.
• Although we sisters are supposed to be invisible, God has nevertheless given us eyes and ears.
• You should be careful Thomas.
• It is a war - and you have to commit to a side.

This was the outcome:

• Watford un voto
• Southwark (LCC) un voto
• Lambeth (LCC) un voto
• Wandsworth (LCC) un voto
• Camden (British Cycling) un voto
• Bexley (Cycling UK) un voto
• Greenwich (LCC) un voto

The meeting ended at 3pm and we cycled home.

London Wall

"Mother Goose" Church - St Olave's

All Hallows Staining   

Old Curiosity Shoop

General Booth Pverty Map Musal

Dinosaur Sculpture

Connaught Hotel