for those of you that are interested

Chat about all makes of Maxi scoot here!
Post Reply
terryvanman
Benefactor
Posts: 1094
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:01 pm
Location: Malta

for those of you that are interested

Post by terryvanman »

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Please could we ask you to make an extra careful note of the upcoming events.

Dates for your diary

WESC – Feb 29th– Villiers Street WC2 – Dep. 6pm
With all eyes now slowly turning to both the Mayoral race followed by the Olympics, now more than ever do we need to make our presence felt on the streets. Our message has always been simple & clear – motorcycles are part of the SOLUTION to inner-city congestion & pollution, and not part of the problem. Therefore, any authority seeking to tax motorcycles to park can only be seen as adding to the problem.

Our demos around Trafalgar Square have consistently & persistently “demonstrated” how motorcycles being driven like cars, ie not weaving in & out, effect the same congestion caused by their 4-wheel counterparts.

The NTBPT Edward “Eddy” Warburton Memorial Ride
Taking place on Saturday 10thMarch, and leaving our adopted HQ of Villiers Street at 12.00 noon sharp, a slow cavalcade of bikes will ride out to Harefield in Hertfordshire to the HQ of the Hillingdon Narrowboats Association (http://www.hna.org.uk), for whom Eddy was a major supporter & fund-raiser.

Roger Ashmore, HNA executive, has invited you all to come & view the narrowboats themselves that were so close to Eddy’s heart. Following a few words in tribute to Eddy, Roger has offered to take a small group out for a canal cruise. Numbers will be limited to the 12 per boat, and dependent on how many of the three boats are available that day.

At time of writing, all 3 have been reserved exclusively for NTBPT-ers, so if you do want to take advantage of this incredibly generous offer, please let us know asap so your place can be booked. Remember, associations like this rely on donations & bookings, so if you can find a small sum for their cause, please bring it along.

Similarly, some of you may have thought about hiring a narrowboat but never got around to doing so. What better opportunity to experience the pleasures of canal boating.

NB:- we aim to use our time at Hillingdon as a pit stop. Whilst there is a canteen, Roger has suggested we bring our own refreshments.

Going forward....

As mentioned, the Mayoral race will soon be dominating the press, and whilst we, as a campaign, have never sought to preach or play politics, this particular race is unquestionably far more to do with the individual themselves rather than the political party they represent.

To that end, we would like you to have a good & long think about the attitude toward us motorcyclists by the main individuals vying for the post, and therefore YOUR vote.

Whilst Ken Livingstone was famed for allegedly “doctoring” casualty data over a report which found there was no clear safety benefit to letting motorcycles use bus lanes, it is the apathy shown by the incumbent toward the plight of the members of NTBPT that has caused so much consternation.

It is important to recognise that this consternation is not aimed at the Tory Party, in the same way that it cannot be said that it was the Labour Party that seemed hell-bent on stopping bikes-in-bus-lanes.

This campaign made numerous representations to Mr Boris Johnson as to why he would allow one solitary London council run so contrary to the consistently-preached TFL mantra that bikes should be encouraged as part of the overall transport strategy for the capital.

Evidence for this TFL line is blatantly seen not only in its reluctance to apply the C-Charge to motorcycles, but more predominantly, many £m were invested in BORIS BIKES clearly aimed on promoting 2-wheels as a preferable mode of transport. Furthermore, all the reports relating to travelling to the Olympic games have highlighted the crucial role that motorcycles / scooters will play, with an ever-increasing percentage of journeys to & from the various events anticpated to being made by this mode.

Yet, when the hard-pressed, conscientious & expedient motorcyclists sought the assistance of the Mayor, privately his response was a kop-out “I have no influence over Westminster City Council”.

The best he was prepared to say publicly was a response to official question 1587/2010 posed on our behalf by London Assembly Member, Caroline Pidgeon when she was Vice Chair of the Transport Committee. Johnson replied: “My particular concern is about central London traffic congestion arising from recent demonstrations by motorcyclists congregating at Trafalgar Square. I would like to see the dispute resolved through common ground being found between WCC and motorcyclists around the operation of parking schemes in Westminster.”

Worst still, when the same motorcyclists exercised this legal right to protest, which occasioned the same Mr Johnson to be momentarily delayed in his journey, he went further by trying to blackmail the protesters by threatening to emulate his predecessor by scuppering the bikes-in-bus-lanes trial that was ongoing at the time, should they not desist from trying to publicise their plight, seemingly unaware that he was being recorded. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10225319

But here’s the rub.

When it came to Boris’s multimillionaire pals & celebrities facing the possibility of having to pay to bring their gas-guzzlers to the centre in the evenings & on Sundays; or for their huge profits to potentially be undermined by their customers having to pay the same, Boris was outraged. So much so, hardly a press story about the disgracefully blatant revenue-raising antics of Westminster City Council was published without a reference to the disgust & concern of Boris Johnson. When Colin Barrow was finally axed along with his schemes that so recklessly abused local authority powers, his excuse for the u-turn – “its what the Mayor Boris Johnson wanted”.

However, we feel it safe to assume that Boris Johnson would never have dream't of "threatening" the likes of Peter Stringfellow or Michel Roux Jr with reprisals for their protesting!!

So, in conclusion, a major aspect of the race for Mayor will be whether or not the candidate can truly be said to be a “man of the people”. Would appear to us that Mr Johnson has one helluva lot of explaining why he cared so little for the less well-off motorcyclists yet rushed to the defence of his extremely well-off “friends”. Time we took this question directly to him. Wonder if he’d be prepared to meet a contingent, if not all of us to explain. Hopefully, in doing so, it might get him to reconsider his more recent apathy and start to apply the obvious influence he really does have over Westminster City Council.

And what better way to start this process than getting back onto the streets to remind dear Boris that his hopes for a resolution "through common ground" have faltered through the reluctance of Westmisnter City Council to follow TFL's line of encouraging motorcycles. As WCC told the High Court (completely contrary to what they had assured the MCIA when Chalkley met Carey-Clinch), they are charging in order to "restrain the number of motorcycles entering the City". With the Olympics looming, unscheduled delays around Trafalgar Square would want to be avoided, one would assume!! Hope to see far more of you on Wednesday 29th at Villiers Street.

Before signing off, could we reiterate the Memorial ride for Edward “Eddy” Warburton – an ardent supporter of our cause. In life, he was proud to stand & ride side by side with all of us. Let us stand by his side to celebrate that life & mourn his passing.

Ride safe

Warren & the Committee
Dear God,
Please send clothes for all those poor ladies
in Daddy's computer. Amen

Post Reply