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@Zebra_Cyclist
Sorry guys this is a rather long starter but is you care about cycle racing in London and particularly the fate of the Olympic Velodrome and cycle sport on the site after the Olympics I strongly advise you to read and take action.
Dear All,
Firstly, thanks to all those of you who came along to the Velopark meeting last week.
Apologies for a long email, but here is how you can help to make sure East London cyclists don’t get lumbered with a failed new cycle venue after the Games.
The Olympic Park Legacy Company have submitted a planning application for their plans, and we have until next Monday 11/4/11 to put in our comments and objections. This takes 5 minutes and instructions are at the bottom of this email. There are many flaws in their plans but unless people make their objections heard, it is very likely that planning consent will be given.
As you may know, after the Olympic Games there is a plan to return part of the land that was formerly Eastway Cycle Circuit as a brand new VeloPark.
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) consulted the Eastway Users Group (EUG) at great length last year to create a VeloPark plan that included the Velodrome, BMX track, and fitted in a 1 mile road circuit around this, with some 'spare' land available to create some off-road trails. There was never going to be as much as there used to be at Eastway, but the two parties worked hard to make the proposal as good as it could be using the available land. A planning application was made by the ODA last year which was approved.
In a rather strange move, the OPLC (Olympic Park Legacy Company), who take over the land after the Games, have produced a plan of their own for the site. This was developed in secret during the last year, and surprise surprise it is significantly poorer than the approved plan.
While the Velodrome and BMX track remain the same in both proposals, in the OPLC plan, the road circuit has had features removed from it which give it less climbing, less variety and overall more dull racing. There are one or two safety features which seem to have been overlooked by the developers too.
Off-road suffers far worse. Practically all the trails are contained within a tiny triangle of land, switching back and forth up and down a steep embankment which has been dubbed the "Velohill". When questioned, the developers had no idea of the minimum width for a cyclo-cross circuit (3m), and have proposed a squiggly circuit which would never be approved by any commissaire. Mountain bike racing is similarly constrained, and relies on the few tracks remaining in the originally-proposed ODA scheme to make any kind of circuit.
The road circuit goes around the "Velohill" and is protected from MTBers by a perimeter fence, ingeniously designed so that any MTBers who lose control on the embankment, sail down a 1:4 hill and smash into the fence rather than go across the road circuit.
We would very much like it if you could express your concern about this to the planning authorities. This can be done online and need only take 5 minutes or so. We need as many people as possible to object - otherwise the plan might be approved, and the chances of mountain bike racing ever returning to Eastway will be slim.
Instructions are below and some drawings of the proposal are attached.........
Very many thanks
Bill Wright
Beastway Series
How to register your comments to the scheme
I've included mine below. Yours doesn't need to be as long as this - it only really needs to contain one or two objections but here are a number of different ideas you can use. Planners tend to do a count-up of all the letters of support and weigh them against the letters of objection. However it's better if you don't simply cut and paste mine, as planners don't usually count duplicate letters.
**Application Summary
**------------------
Application Number:
11/90114/FUMODA
Address:
VeloPark. The Site Is Bound By The River Lea To The West, Northern Loop Road And A12 To The North, Temple Mills Lane To The East And The Athletes Village & Future Legacy Community Scheme Development Platforms To The South.
Submission Type:
Customer objects to the Planning Application.
**Comments:
**This planning proposal was developed without consultation with those who will use it. The Eastway Users Group was set up in 2003 and were well known to the developers, however, as a result of the developers' failure to consult, a wholly inadequate proposal has been put together.
Cyclists quickly form opinions as to whether they like a circuit or not - If not, they won't come and use it. A great opportunity to create a lasting Legacy for cycling was formed by the ODA in consultation with EUG, and planning permission was approved. This is now in jeopardy from a badly designed scheme created without consultation, which is being roundly condemned by all those who used to used the former Eastway Circuit.
**Loss of Amenity
**This scheme is considerably poorer than the consented ODA scheme both for Road and for Off-road cycling. It takes no account of the sport of cyclo-cross (The former Eastway circuit was a very popular venue for this sport, which takes place in the winter months to provide good usage of the site when it might otherwise be quiet). Cyclo-cross requires a circuit width of 3m all round the circuit, and a circuit length of approx 3km. It requires a fast and flowing circuit.
The only provision for off-road in this design is a frankly ridiculous array of squiggly lines on a very steep hill. Trails are 0.8m wide and constantly change direction - neither fast nor flowing nor 3m in width.
We tried to make this plain to developers from the outset - that it is not the Length of these squiggly lines that constitutes a good mountain bike trail - it's the Area that they occupy and the variety of different types of terrain and flow. As these have been compressed into such a tiny uniform area it is clear that this ideal has been ignored.
In the OPLC plan this hill contains three similar twisty and steep and highly technical trails - nothing like the variety of tracks in the ODA design, which cater for a range of different abilities and where groups of riders can be coached separately according to their skill levels.
As a promoter of the Beastway Mountain Bike Racing Series since 1994 (which took place at the former Eastway circuit until 2006 and continues now at Hainault) - I have tried but failed to make sense of the changes of elevation and strange patterns of track, and I struggle to see what the designer can possibly have intended with regard to mountain bike racing. I will concede that the ODA scheme has some difficulties here, particularly as land is divided both sides of the A12 - however we are confident that we can overcome these in the final build. This OPLC scheme is simply not viable for MTB race events as it has no adequate start/finish area, no opportunities for overtaking and some severe safety difficulties which I describe later.
The road cycle circuit is also poorly designed. Besides disappearing from view behind the 'Velohill', it does not provide anything like the degree of difficulty which will challenge riders in the way that the ODA scheme does. This has implications for safety because the nature of road racing is that this will keep riders in one large group throughout the race instead of splitting into smaller groups. This means that riders sprint for the final line together and this is a common cause for accidents. The ODA scheme is contained in much more open and enjoyable scenery and is a great advert for our sport.
**Safety
**Three main points here:
1) the fences that separate the off-road on the Velohill from the road circuit are a serious hazard - riders who lose control on the many tight 180 degree turns run the risk of running straight down a 1:4 hill and crash into the fence.
2) mountain bikers riding down the steep hill under the road circuit at the West end of the circuit run the risk of going straight into a pond.
3) There appear to be major conflicts with other park users at the West end of the circuit.
Parking -
Under this plan parking seems not to have been taken into account - the car park is so inaccessible it will make use of all facilities much more inconvenient for those who arrive by car (Velodrome users in particular)
**Design
**This plan involves a major 'run' of utilities running directly under the road circuit at the east end of the site. Any statutory access required for these would require closure of the circuit.
**Visual /Noise Amenity
**The Velohill blocks the view of the Velodrome from the A12 - similarly from the Velohill, views will be of the A12, and consequently traffic noise will make coaching difficult at this point as coaches' instructions will be drowned out.
I urge the planning authority to refuse this scheme, as well as the Alternative Northwest Park Scheme, planning application 11/90142/FULODA - which would impact on the original ODA scheme if re-instated. I would be very grateful for the opportunity to attend the planning hearing, please could you inform me when this will take place.
Very many thanks, yours sincerely,
Bill Wright