Cloudesley Association - Minutes of Meeting
Date: Monday 7th December, 2020, 6.30pm – 7.30pm.
Venue: Virtual meeting via Zoom

Chair: Amanda Gill
Secretary: Nick Collin
Guest: Rowena Champion, Islington Council's Executive Member for Environment and Transport
About 20 local residents attended

Item 1: Introductions, Amanda
Amanda introduced the meeting, explained the logistics of the Zoom meeting, and gave a big thank-you to Florence Salberter, who has been a brilliant Secretary for many years but, sadly, is now leaving us for pastures new.

Item 2: Appointments, Amanda
In the absence of any objections or anyone else volunteering it was agreed that Amanda will continue as Chair of the Association and Nick will take over from Florence as Secretary.

Item 3: Filming in Cloudesley Square, Amanda and Nick
Amanda and Nick have been approached via Islington Film Office and have had an initial Zoom meeting with Little Island Productions who wish to film a scene from a new science fiction series in Cloudesley Square. A flyer describing their proposals has been delivered to local residents and was attached to the most recent Association newsletter (see https://www.cloudesleyassociation.org/news/274-news-december-2020-1 ).

Filming is scheduled to take place over two days, January 8-9, and will involve road closures and some disruption to parking on the south side of Cloudesley Square and some of Cloudesley Street, where a temporary barricade involving a London bus will be set up. To compensate for the disruption, the company will make a substantial donation to the Association and members are invited to think of ways we could spend this.

The company will host a Zoom meeting this Thursday 10th December, to which all residents are invited to learn more about the filming and ask questions. Login details as follows:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82996738639?pwd=UGFqajA5UG5SN0tlOVhMMWRydjNtdz09
Meeting ID: 829 9673 8639
Passcode: 59592

Item 3: Church Update, Nick
• The long term objectives and strategy for Holy Trinity Church remain essentially unchanged from the meeting at St Andrews organised by the London Diocese two years ago, although talks with the “anchor tenant”, YMCA, have not progressed and the required £6-7 million funding from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has not yet been secured.
• However, about £½ million funding has been received from Historic England and is being used to carry out urgent repairs to the north and south aisles and west turrets. This is being carried out by Fullers Builders and appears to be progressing well. For details see the Church Restoration Blog on the website at https://www.cloudesleyassociation.org/about-the-area/holy-trinity-church/restoring-the-church .
• The Diocese also organised a Zoom talk in October where they described plans to turn the crypt into an “Ossuary” or “Bone Library”. This seems like a good use of the space, will raise valuable income for ongoing maintenance and should have minimal impact on residents.
• A £50 thousand grant has also been received from HLF for research into the past residents buried in the crypt, carried out by volunteers, including several Association members, as described throughout the website, at for example, https://www.cloudesleyassociation.org/church#research_events
• Nick noted that the Diocese appear to be shifting to a more pragmatic strategy regarding the church restoration, from a “big bang”, full-scale restoration towards a phased approach with the first phase focused more on just getting the church into a sufficiently stable and safe state so that it can be used as a Community Centre. Assuming that funds become available for repairing the nave ceiling and tidying up the interior, this might become available for use by residents as early as next summer.

Item 4: Q&A with special guest Rowena Champion
Rowena Champion had kindly agreed to attend the meeting to answer questions about Islington Council’s “People-Friendly Streets”/”Low Traffic Neighbourhoods” programme. She started by explaining that the programme was introduced to address the problem of ever-increasing volumes of car traffic, which have increased by 10% over the past 6 years with corresponding negative impacts including congestion, pollution, and quality of life. The solution is to encourage more cycling and walking by making it easier and safer. Covid has exacerbated the situation; there is less use of public transport and as people go back to work the volume of cars will increase even more so there is an urgent need to act now. This explains why the programme was introduced somewhat abruptly without much consultation. So Rowena understands the controversy over the measures and stressed that the programme is an experimental scheme which will be reviewed in 12 months. Similar schemes have been successful in Holland.

Almost all questions focused on the new Liverpool Road cycle lane scheme which almost everyone disliked. Even if residents agreed with the aims of the programme, the solution is regarded as not working on present evidence and in fact is making matters worse. The main problem is seen as the pop-up barriers lining the cycle lane and the parking of cars outside of this lane. Specific questions and observations raised during the meeting or emailed to Amanda before the meeting included the following:
• Dangerous for cars:
o Turning out of side streets – cars need to move out across the cycle lane and parked cars before seeing if it was safe to pull out on to Liverpool Road.
o Turning into side streets – can’t see cyclists coming up the cycle lanes, obscured by parked cars
o Cars travelling on opposite sides of the road too close together
o Cyclists weaving in and out of the cycle lanes between the barriers
o Speed bumps now in the wrong place encouraging cars to weave in and out of lanes
• Dangerous for cyclists:
o Cars turning into and out of Liverpool Road – see above
o Turning right off Liverpool Road from cycle lanes inside parked cars – worst case: cyclists must stop, edge forward around parked cars, then dart across two lanes of traffic, and another cycle lane obscured by another line of parked cars
o Danger of colliding with the pop-up barriers themselves
o Too complicated, requiring too many decisions, with ambiguous rules and inadequate signage
o One cyclist felt the scheme overall made him feel safer; one felt the opposite.
• Dangerous for pedestrians:
o The main problem here is the removal of the central islands on zebra crossings (eg the one next to Cloudesley Square) which means crossing the road is more dangerous especially for children and the elderly
• Specific instances of dangerous situations which had been observed by residents included:
o A potentially fatal accident on Lofting road
o Man hoovering his parked car by cycle lane
o Woman living on raised pavement above Liverpool Road who needs to walk up cycle lane to reach her parked car
o Cyclists weaving into traffic to enter Theberton Street
• Lack of consultation
• More congestion and therefore pollution
• Inconvenient for the disabled or elderly
• Confusion about rules
• Charging points near Pig & Butcher cannot be accessed (this is being addressed)
• Lack of information about how the scheme was being monitored and how the success or otherwise of the scheme will be measured.

Rowena responded to these points by reiterating that it was an experimental scheme which will be monitored closely, with 6 monthly reports and a major review in 12 months. Specific issues such as speed bumps, central reservations and lines of sight were being investigated and might be modified if necessary. She will certainly take all concerns on board and if residents have other points to make we should email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The subject of People Friendly Streets will also be on the agenda of a Council Zoom meeting next Tuesday 15th December, 6.00-8.00pm, which all residents may attend. Login details as follows:

https://weareislington.zoom.us/j/96150588449?pwd=dkJrODRsemlxYnhwWGR5TmYrbytHUT09
Meeting ID: 961 5058 8449.    Password: 387502