Richmond council strikes again

In a stroke of genius, Richmond Council has decided to block the runup to the famous Teddington Lock Jumps. Although not my first post about the council, I feel like this complaint is more justified than my last one.

Even parks patrol couldn’t tell me what the final solution was, they just seemed to be content with spending thousands of pounds of taxpayer money on something like this.

Pics:

Anyone local have any thoughts?

Hopefully the boys from the estate will have the angle grinders out this weekend and it will be down by next week…

Looks like there is space to add a wee double and have that rail as a ‘feature’!

But in all seriousness, that looks like an absolute dick move on their part. Have they had any consultations with local riders?

EDIT: If it makes you feel any better, our local council just bulldozed ours flat one monday morning. Had been there years without issue previous to that

Yeah, in an age of rechargeable angle grinders I suspect that new feature won’t last long.

@danmac

Yeah that’s what I was thinking, angle grinder or jump. No consultation obviously RC council just doesn’t really give a shit.

Do they need to, is it a jump park or are they merely applying some inconvenience to some opportunistic cyclists?

@Kryton57

It’s a designated jump site, even recognised by the council. Been there quite a while and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone local who doesn’t know about it.

Ok thats not good then, it would seem a Parks officer who doesn’t know how long a run up is needed has made a decision to slow the entry of bikes into the park.

I wonder, has there been an incident there e.g. someone’s walked past that gap just as a rider comes through it? These things are usually reactionary.

@Kryton57

It could be that someone has reported that there has been a cyclist that has hit a pedestrian using the runup, but I haven’t heard anything about it.

It does seem like a knee jerk reaction to something.

That’s your standard stop motox or (chavs on mopeds move). Has there been a complaint?
Just cut a new line from inbetween the bush.

@pk13

There is no public complaint I know of, so could be a private one.

No issues with peds either, not really a clue why they have done it tbh but the end result is there and it’s pretty annoying.

Where are you running up from? Surely it’s just lost the width of the path? Could they build a roll in ramp/platform, and/or stick a few rollers in the run up to pump for speed?

Unless they were riding down that bit of single track, in which case it’s obvious why it had to be done 🤷‍♂️

@thisisnotaspoon

Yes pictures 1 and 2 are showing the barriers blocking the runup path. Some sort of ramp system could be possible. But the speed given by that straight allowed for people to clear the larger jumps.

Does the blocked path come out towards the lock/river, or is it towards the footpath at the side (leading from footbridge to Ham)?
If it’s the latter I reckon it’s to stop people coming out fast into pedestrians

Yeah, in an age of rechargeable angle grinders I suspect that new feature won’t last long.

Going equipped? could be 5 years

Just ask the local councillor why it was done. There will be reason even if you don’t agree with it

Yep pretty clearly designed to keep riders off the footpath. I imagine after the previous run ins with trail builders the council arent very interested in their views. Id tread carefully or youll find the jumps flattened next. You also dont know who else has taken umbrage at the illegal building, nothing like a local nimby group stirring things up in the back ground.

Yes pictures 1 and 2 are showing the barriers blocking the runup path. Some sort of ramp system could be possible. But the speed given by that straight allowed for people to clear the larger jumps.

No, I meant are people using this track as the run up, and crossing the main path flat out and blind.

Because that would explain why they’d put the barrier in if so.

Just ask the local councillor why it was done. There will be reason even if you don’t agree with it

I wouldn’t waste your time on the councillor. In my experience – if they are from the party in power there will be some vague excuse not supported by any evidence, just hearsay, but never a mistake. If they are the party in opposition then its always a political move by the enemy and even if there might be a sensible reason its because the other side are bad.

I’d Freedom of Information request them. “Please provide all correspondence, internal and external, regarding the decision to [xxxx]. In addition, please provide the risk assessment for the modification, the cost (and how the cost was assessed to be good value for money), and the minutes of meetings where the decision was approved.”

Once you have that then you can go to the councillor, or the press – because now you know more than they do.

Not sure I’d go down the angle grinder route. Criminal damage will not enhance your future relationship with the council and will only go against you in the event of conflict further down the path.

I’ll admit I don’t know the spot, but if that’s a footpath on the other side of the barrier I can see how there might be a problem.

I know it’s not the guns-blazing response you may have wanted, and I’m as irked as any by public money being wasted but…

I’d Freedom of Information request them. “Please provide all correspondence, internal and external, regarding the decision to [xxxx]. In addition, please provide the risk assessment for the modification, the cost (and how the cost was assessed to be good value for money), and the minutes of meetings where the decision was approved.”

This! £10 well spent. (Is it still £10? It seems to have been £10 for years!)

Not sure I’d go down the angle grinder route. Criminal damage will not enhance your future relationship with the council and will only go against you in the event of conflict further down the path.

And this too. Next will be a bulldozer. Which would be worse.

Rolling eyes at the waste of money, then hoping they get cut down and need replacing at further cost isn’t really helping. Go round through the bushes. Or find out if there’s any better solution.

jump seems pretty handy for the bus stop?

Yes when I spoke to the people who have really devoted time they said that they are worried about the potential for the whole thing to be taken down if the angle grinders are raised. So that idea is out of the window.

In terms of Councillors I was looking at calling/emailing some, I don’t know who though. There seems to be so many of them. Just the thought of them all collectivley agreeing to such a stupid descision makes me angry.

Diagram of the jumps:

Red is run in, Blue is the barriers, Path on the right is the one they don’t want people cycling on.

https://goo.gl/maps/jgmAvQQyqzahEF2J8

Bit hard to tell from the pic, but is the barrier up against the path, or half way through the run up?

Edit: Cross posted. That’s just stupid, it can only have been done in a misguided attempt to reduce risks (thereby making the jumps more dangerous as you can’t get enough speed)

FOI is a good start.

Get your local councillor on board first – https://www.richmond.gov.uk/council/councillors

Might be worth ringing the sport dev officer
https://www.richmond.gov.uk/contacting_the_council/council_contact_numbers

@jimdubleyou

halfway through the runup which makes even less sense considering they could have put it further up towards the path.

Email for parks patrol if anyone is interested is:

richmondsports@continental-landscapes.co.uk

Those barriers are a definite issue for the jumps (lack of a suitable bike means I’ve not been on them for a while, but even the middle set needed a good crank in to clear them).  The footpath is a good way back from where they’ve installed the barriers, the jumps are in a spot where there is not much in the way of pedestrian traffic going through them as there are so many other paths.  There is no specific runout being blocked (or is even a risk as the jumps run in a loop).

The council have good form on brainfart cycle management.  Fantastic example is the frankly bonkers cycle lane (where there was no need for one) they’ve installed on Hampton Court road which now means cyclists have to navigate a channel between the pavement and a row of parking/parked cars (they have effectively shifted the parking 2m into the road and the put a cycle lane between that and the pavement), a bus stop with zebra crossing and then being spat back out into traffic on a bend (who due to the row of parked cars hiding the cycle lane cannot see the cyclists).

An ebike would shorten the run up requirement!

@sillysilly

No good for DJ though!

I have spoken to two councillors and they didn’t seem to know about the issue. Hopefully something will accelerate soon as I’m in the process of building up a DJ for summer.

I doubt it’s top of the list of issues they’re thinking of. Your problem is that you’re using a footpath other people use as part of your run in/off, so rather than just saying it’s not busy (in your opinion) come up with an alternative so you can guarantee you won’t interfere/hit anyone on the footpath. Building another run up seems the easiest.

Is Hampton Court Road part of Richmond or Kingston. Don’t conflate issues. Never helps

I used to live near there but didn’t know it existed. The bread pudding at Rowleys on ham parade is still brilliant, as are the cheese sticks.

If I am ever in the area I stay at the lensbury opposite and cycle along the tow path to shepperton, weybridge if time allows, once went to Guildford on the wey but got the train back.

Sorry nothing to add about the barriers.

Looking at the pictures of the barrier and the satellite image I’d lay good money that’s about vehicle access. Looks like exactly the sort of thing I’d expect to see being put in where there’s been issues or fear of issues with the appearance of caravans.

(word of warning as well. The run in which is now blocked may not be within the curtailment of the designated site, if you flag it as “necessary” you might find they come and remove those features for which it is “necessary” in order to keep usage of the site within its agreed limits.
The reality is, if the jumps require you to be using land not part of the jump site, the jumps are too big for the site and need to be either moved to give a better run up or reduced so they don’t need one. You absolutely want to keep the council onside here rather than giving them pause to find reason for the barriers not being a problem – the best solution is possibly just pedal harder)

Official reply:

<i>Following concerns raised by local residents, Richmond Council has installed barriers to remove any risk of a collision between cyclists using the BMX area and pedestrians and other users of the footpath. The size of the BMX area remains the same.</i>

Can someone who knows the place illustrate where the footpaths and barriers are? The pic above by @belgianwaffle1 makes it look like the barriers are in the woods between the footpath and the track – or is there another footpath in the woods?

Ok here is a better picture for @stwhannah and others:

Refering to my original pics at the start of the thread:

Pictures 1 and 2 are of the barriers in black. These come accross the run in (in red).

Picture 3 is of the green barriers, not such an issue as doesn’t block a run in but still annoying.

Blue line is the footpath that the council doesn’t want people cycling on. The biggest issue is where the black barriers have been put. They are too far into the site when they could be pushed outwards to just before the blue and red lines intersect.

Out of interest @stwhannah who did you contact? Thanks.

Is Hampton Court Road part of Richmond or Kingston. Don’t conflate issues. Never helps

Within boundary of LBRUT, I had checked before posting.

Just using it as an example of other local cycle related planning which is intended to solve an (non) issue but is not thought through properly before implementation.

@belgianwaffle1 thanks. I tried parks and press contacts. Parks said they’d get back to me in 20 days (as per FOI requests) but the media folks are more immediate. Watch this space!

@stwhannah

yes I would imagine that press would be quick to respond. Happy to provide more details if need be.

We’ll let you know if we get any updates: https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/local-riders-have-beef-with-council-over-chopped-ham-lands-trail/

Thanks @belgianwaffle1

@stwhannah

Wow thanks hadn’t noticed that. Great to see an article about something so close to home.

Thank you!

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/local-riders-have-beef-with-council-over-chopped-ham-lands-trail/

@belgianwaffle1 We’ve had an update from the Council, added to the story. Seems there’s a meeting, but so far no info on how to go to it or contact anyone going!

@stwhannah

Funny, that’s exactly the same response I got for my email. And I’ve asked the same questions as you but no response as of yet. I wil get into contact with the councillor and see if he knows any details.

Interesting using the ‘near miss’ argument which on roads and cars would lead to no changes and no changes unless there was an actual incident.