Velolife, Warren Row

Its been a mess from the start. Its reported that the two complainants are actually RBWM councillors!!

Cllr Robert Anwyl-Hughes lives at The Saxons next to the cafe and his colleague Councillor Maureen Hunt also lives nearby.

RBWM also threatened local cycling clubs with prosecution if they visited the club which has no legal basis

The MD of RBWM, Duncan Starkey, then backtracked on this. As reported above.

And as @Zed says the leader of the RBWM Council has now visited with another different view.

Hopefully leader of the council can put a lid on this. Massive conflict of interest here and disciplinary action required. It’s just been so botched and badly handled. Especially the fact letters went out to local clubs, whoever authorised clearly didn’t get any legal advice, council budgets and that ...

I know it’s probably a massive stress for Lee and the guys, but he’s had some stellar free PR recently... every cloud etc...

Exactly.

As said before if people were driving there for a 6am meet, then that could be disruptive to local residents and RBWM and Lee need to work together to deal with it, but it sounds like a resentful former owner and his sidekick from the start, who just happen to be a RBWM councillors, and the whole thing has been dealt with disproportionately and in a rushed way by the Council.

I do wonder as well whether this is a bit of a Boxhill syndrome of disgruntled local residents who dont like being held up by the increased number of peletons on the local lanes, finding a way to express frustration. I am very local to the Cafe and see them quite regularly, but its nice to see so doesn't bother me*. Ironic that this issue has lead to far more club runs to the Cafe to show support.

*Although the groups dont help themselves at times as I have seen some terrible standards of cycling. Its not difficult to pull over and let cars past if you have a queue of 10-15 cars behind you? And when you do stop, why not indicate and pull over just like any other road user, rather than just stopping in the middle of the road?

Seems my original, cynical, post was accurate.

Yep! :-)

driving there for a 6am meet

They're not gathering cyclists then are they?

I think I might have to take the car out and do doughnuts around the cafe until I run out of petrol or the tyres explode.

"Sorry, buddy, I would've ridden here all nice and quietly but because of the ban I had to drive and now it seems the throttle is stuck in Fucking Loud mode"

Well, that's not dodgy at all is it?

https://www.windsorobserver.co.uk/news/13449534.two-councillors-escape-disciplinary-action-after-complaints-which-had-been-referred-on-to-the-police/

Maureen Hunt, euphemism alert!

Yeah fuck it - you are entitled to make as much noise, when you like, and fuck everyone else. Go you!

Tbh It sounds like sour grapes from when the Cafe was open, and the disturbance was what they could finally exploit. I dont know whether people were driving to the early morning meets by car, or by bike.

Looks like I've found a reason to ride somewhere this weekend.

https://twitter.com/RBWM/status/1159107535045087233

#suckmydickRBWM #notanorganisedride #nimbycunts

Yep - there used to be a really lovely old 1930s factory building opposite - I wondered how it was replaced by 7 executive houses....

fuck everyone else. Go you!

Actually just the dodgy councillors but sure I could recreate the noises of a pub emptying instead so it was back like the good ol' days before The Scourge started showing up.

They're not looking after their own interests at all these government officials are they?

So if you're not allowed to organise meets at, or outside, the cafe why not organise them to start and stop at the councillors houses opposite? I'm pretty sure that fixes the problem. You're welcome.

Thing is its always been dead as a pub, even when it was the Fox - dont think I have ever seen anyone in there, unlike the Dewdrop which is 1/2mile down the road, really welcoming and quite busy.

They're not looking after their own interests at all these government officials are they?

Totally - its bollocks. As Zed says hopefully disciplinary action to follow. The best thing anyone can do is bang in a complaint using this form as RBWM then HAVE to respond and follow up.

Which dept we complaining about?

The planning guys? Duncan Sharkey?

Planning department.

Aaand the injunction against Velolife is still in place.

Jesus, sound like they're trying to get rid of Velolife, maybe for someone else to buy the pubs and turn it back into a pubs?

Quite right, what needs to happen is for the Planning Inspector's decision to be overruled (by the Secretary of State). It's more like something that you'd expect to see coming out of a particularly boozy licensing committee session.

I could well imagine that the neighbours would not want to have any kind of public-facing business, let alone licensed premises, in the building, and I doubt there's an intention on their part to have it turned back into a pub.

Around here the council usually call in their fire department to sort out this eff up.

I think what the council are trying to do is prevent local clubs using it, due to large groups. I have no idea how large local groups are.

I think, although not clear, they are ok with small groups of individual riders rocking up, but I would have thought this won’t be good enough for local residents (how many people live there ffs).

It’s pathetic. Lee needs to lawyer up.

Yes it now transpires the RBWM are still being complete dicks.

Sounds like CyclingUK are supporting Lee

Sorry, missed this. I complained about the aplanning department, and stated they were discriminating against cycling, and issuing an illegal and unenforcable notice threatening cycling clubs and showed no evidence of mediwtion with the cafe owner whose business encourages healthy living in the community etc etc

Velo life is crowd funding.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/savevelolife

Donated!

What a joke. It's ok to be blind drink and raving outside pub at closing time but a few folk waiting to set off on a bike ride is creating a nuisance?