Annual General Meeting

• Thursday 15th June, 7pm.
• The Showroom, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX.

Agenda (approximate timings)

All posts are up for re-election (Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Trustees x 3, plus up to 4 others).

The current committee is all male and white. This does not reflect the diversity of CycleSheffield supporters. It would be good to change this.

7pm

• Guest speaker, Paul Gasson: Lessons from London’s Mini-Holland.

8pm

• Dronfield and Chesterfield Cycle Campaign: developments in North Derbyshire.

8.30pm

• CycleSheffield AGM
  • Questions about the annual report.
  • Elections for the executive committee.

9pm

• Close, but feel free to stay for a drink and a chat.

2017 annual report

Introduction

• This short report sets out the main activities of Cycle Sheffield since the last AGM of June 2016.
• If supporters require any further information, please email cyclesheffield@gmail.com or attend the AGM.

Tramcrash

• We have now received 434 accident tram track accident reports since January 2015. 92% of these accidents have caused injury to the rider.
• After some delay Sheffield Council approved the tram track accident report which we had agreed with officers and cabinet member for transport in January 2017.
• Warning signs have now been put up along the network.
• The infrastructure improvements required to resolve the issue need to be approved by a “board of senior managers” at SCC and this is ongoing.

Close Pass Initiative

• We’ve sent letters to South Yorkshire Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner. These have been supported by some 100 cycle related organisations in the South Yorkshire area.
• A meeting with the South Yorkshire safer Roads Partnership has been promised, but has yet to be arranged.
• The latest indication from the police is that they are again giving consideration to implementing a close pass initiative.

Big Ride

• On 22 April some 320 supporters gathered for a fun ride around the city centre, asking for ‘more space for cycling’.
• Good publicity was gained with coverage on local radio, television and print.

Membership – Fee to Free

• After careful consideration we decided to move from a membership fee to a free supporter base.
• This was due to the unsustainability of administration of membership. It was agreed that the new model would be trialled for a period of around 18 months.
• Previous membership was around 400, compared to a current supporter base of 1,200.

Finance

• Finances are healthy, but more fundraising will be required.
• The basics are:
  • Income: £3,781
  • Expenditure: £965
  • Balance: £2,816
• There is £5,000 in the bank account.
• Income was boosted this year with a £2,000 grant from The Sheila McKechnie Foundation. This money is to be used to improve the CycleSheffield campaigning impact, including the production of a short video.

Tube Map

• Cycling UK have encouraged local campaigns to follow examples like Bath and Bristol and create schematic network maps of their city.
• We began this with a workshop on 1 April, with around 15 people – some regular CycleSheffield members and some new people and people from the digital sector.
• We’ve created a draft format (categories of route and elements to include) and now have a rough version of many parts of the city
• At the workshop people identified locations that should be reachable by cycle, and rated the current quality of route between them (from quality traffic-free or minimised, usable provision, no provision (not suitable for all) and most hostile).
• Next this will need to be worked on by a few interested people to get it up to a first workable version, which should then be shared and discussed widely, with councillors, the public and council officers.

Cycle Forum

• CycleSheffield continue to attend the Cycle Forum, which is hosted by Sheffield City Council.
• However, the effectiveness of attendance remains questionable.

Sheffield City Council

• We will continue to respond to plans, developments and schemes (such as the Knowledge Gateway scheme) and raise issues and problems with the council.

Video

• Part of the £2,000 grant from The Sheila McKechnie Foundation will be used to make a short campaign video.
• A volunteer producer, sound recordist and videographer have been recruited.
• The concept has been developed and some contributors have agreed to take part.
• Filming is being planned, with final production hopefully completed by the autumn.

Supporter engagement

• We set up a Facebook discussion group to allow supporters to discuss cycling issues in Sheffield in July 2016 and this now has around 270 members.
• The CycleSheffield facebook page has 1035 ‘likes’.
• The Cyclesheffield twitter account has 3062 followers.
• As always feedback from supporters is welcome via:
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CycleSheffield/
  • Twitter: @CycleSheffield
  • Email to info@cyclesheffield.org.uk