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MCC News, Issue 24, April / May 2003
Success at a recent meeting of the Wimbledon Area Forum
The council leader accepted our recommendation that future meetings will report on all recent road crashes in Merton resulting in death or serious injury, action taken to improve traffic law enforcement, and progress towards the road safety targets that Merton has signed up to.
Road safety is the key to getting more people on bikes in Merton. That is the message which has come back loud and clear from the 900 responses we received to our recent survey which has revealed widespread support for lower speed limits in Merton: even 70% of the non-cyclists that we surveyed were supportive of 20mph limits in residential streets, shopping streets and outside schools. We must improve the safety - and the perception of safety - of cycling on Merton roads, if we are ever to make local progress towards national targets of tripling cycling levels by 2010.We hope our report will provide useful background information to those in Merton who are responsible for delivering on the above targets: all local councillors and key officers have been sent a copy. Free copies are also available to LCC members in any borough, please just send an A4 sized stamped addressed envelope, 54p postage, to
MCC survey, 29 Somerset Avenue, London, SW20 0BJ.Also, Richard Evans has sent a letter about this to Superintendent Des Stout, Metropolitan Police at Wimbledon Station, please see the back page of this MCC newsletter.
Proposal for statue to Rose Lamartine Yates
Richard Evans writes:
I thoroughly enjoyed David Doughan's recent lecture on votes for women and the Wimbledon link with the women's suffrage movement. In particular it was good to learn more about Rose Lamartine Yates and the heroic role she played in that struggle, and afterwards to meet her grand-daughter Yolande Yates who tells me that her father - Rose's only son - is now in his mid-90s and thriving in the Alps!
Rose is a heroine in our eyes for another reason too: she was also the original Merton Cycling Campaigner! She and her husband were both keen cyclists, both cycled extensively in Europe, and in 1906 Rose was the first woman to be elected to the Council of the Cyclists' Touring Club, a triumph for women who had been unsuccessfully struggling to be represented for at least 10 years.
In 1918 she was elected as the only Independent member of the London County Council where she was instrumental in incorporating Britain's first cycle lane in St. Helier Avenue, Morden. She was also a Governor of the London Academy of Music and she founded a children's clinic in Waterloo.
To sum up, there is no question that she is "one of Merton's greatest daughters".
Following a suggestion from one of our members we are now actively working towards getting a mounted statue of her somewhere in the borough, perhaps outside the Safeway supermarket which now overtly stands on the site of her Suffragette shop in Victoria Crescent. Another possible site might be on the Wandle Trail, which is being developed as part of the National Cycle Network by Sustrans who commission many works of art for their routes.
We are delighted to have support already for this idea from Yolande Yates. We have put the idea to Sustrans and their partner Groundwork Merton who also like the idea and are helping us to promote it via a short guided cycle ride to sites around the borough that Rose was associated with on Sunday 30th March (everyone is welcome to join this ride which will start from Wimbledon Station forecourt at 10.30am).
Bureaucracy first: MCC AGM
It's AGM time again, all MCC members are invited. It will be at 7.30pm on Wednesday May 14th 2003, at South Wimbledon Community Centre, 72 Haydons Road, SW19.
click here for agenda If you want to stand for election to any of the committee posts, or put a motion, please look at the constitution We hope to see you there, and we'll no doubt finish in good time to get to Merton's best pub just round the corner, a real hidden treasure!Road traffic offences to be included in Merton crime statistics
Below is the letter that Richard Evans, the MCC co-ordinator, wrote about road traffic offences to Superintendent Des Stout, Metropolitan Police at Wimbledon Station.
Following the Wimbledon Area Forum meeting on 6th February, I am very pleased that Wimbledon Police and Merton Council will include road traffic offences in the crime statistics presented to future meetings, reporting to future meetings on all recent crashes in Merton resulting in death or serious injury, action taken to improve traffic law enforcement, and progress towards the various national and local road safety targets.
‘We believe that local police should direct greater resources into tackling bad driving on local roads: road safety should be a core priority for the police. Dangerous drivers are the greatest threat to life: 284 people died violent deaths on London roads in 2000 (= 66% more than the 171 murder victims). There is a case to be made for taking driving crime as seriously as murder and terrorism.
Protection of life has been a primary object of the police ever since it was established by Robert Peel in 1829. Commissioner Sir John Stevens has said: "This great police service of ours is there for one fundamental reason - to make London and Londoners safe".’ [Met Police website]
The Met Police vision statement says: "To make London the safest major city in the world". We hope that Wimbledon Police can help move London forward towards this ambitious target.