Dear subscriber,

Welcome to your newsletter from Epping Forest Transport Action Group

Win a £150 National Trust voucher in our Epic Bus Journey Competition

After a successful campaign by Campaign for Better Transport (CBT), most single bus fares across England have been capped at £2 until the end of June.

With some journeys currently costing a quarter of the usual fare, it made us wonder, how far could you go for £2? What about £4, or £6? To find out, CBT have launched their epic bus journey competition.

For your chance to win £150 in National Trust vouchers - enough for a one year family membership granting you free entry to over 500 fabulous places, many accessible by public transport - you'll need to make your own epic bus journey between now and 2 May using up to three connecting buses and costing no more than £6. The person who manages to travel the furthest will win.

You can read about some inspirational £2 bus journeys and enter the competition from CBT's web site.

The Government's plans for preventing catastrophic climate change have been found inadequate both by academic research and by the courts. Change in Epping Forest isn't happening: people will switch up how they travel if they feel it's safe, but not even small amounts of money have been found to make our streets fit for any purpose other than driving (through potholes!).

With this in mind, campaigners from EFTAG will be joining other groups from the Transport Action Network and a wide range of other organisations for the "Big One" protest in central London. It runs from 21–24 April and there will be speakers, performers and workshops, awash with colour and culture. There will be art and music, talks from experts, places to listen and engage, and activities for the kids.

Let us know if you can be there for a few hours or a whole day, and we'll put you in touch with others that are attending.

Road building delayed but not cancelled

Big new road projects aren't affordable, and they cost way more than the small-scale improvements to neighbourhoods that would make walking and cycling safer which were recently cut.

The Government have had to pause some projects including the Lower Thames Crossing, which would only increase traffic and congestion in our area. But the plans haven't been cancelled, even though they're disastrous for human health and for local wildlife, let alone considering the impact of more motor traffic on climate change. The Thames Crossing Action Group have lots of ideas for how you can help the campaign.

Help wanted in Waltham Abbey

In some good news, Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) is looking into how a local cycling and walking infrastructure plan for Waltham Abbey might be funded. This doesn't itself bring money for safer streets, but without it, there's no chance of attracting any.

We need volunteers from Waltham Abbey to look over the existing Cycling Action Plan so that we're ready to support this effort. If we can help the council make progress in Waltham Abbey then we can show what's possible across the rest of the district. But we'll need strong engagement with both EFDC and highways authority (Essex County Council) from the start – please reply to this email if you can spare even an hour to make change happen.

In case you missed it

In March we responded to EFDC's draft air quality action plan. Whilst the draft doesn’t fulfil its potential, at least there are proposals to argue about.

Also, Waltham Abbey Community Speed Watch are back in action and looking for volunteers. Excess speed is a major cause of death and serious injury, and the community are coming together to make more people more aware of their driving, so that they’re not the cause of the next incident.

Help stop Active Travel cuts

Active Travel is good for the environment, good for health, good for communities and good for the economy: it’s estimated that active travel contributed £36.5 billion to the UK economy in 2021.

Despite that, according to Living Streets, the government plans to reduce active travel funding for the current parliamentary term from £3.8 billion to £3 billion. This includes a two thirds cut to promised capital investment in infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling, from £308 million to only £100 million for the next two years.

For more information and to find out how you can help stop the cuts to Active Travel funding please visit the Living Streets web site.

Cycling wins in Loughton

Photo showing drop kerb access through road closure on Staples Road

Over the latter half of last year Loughton got a little bit better for cycling. The signposted cycleway along Staples Road (subject of the first ‘Rubbish Infrastructure of the Month’) now has a dropped kerb through the closed end of Staples Road.

The five recently installed sheffield stands outside the Job Centre Plus in Loughton were replaced with four new ones of a more secure design and there are new sheffield stands in the pavement outside Organico on the corner of High Road and Brooklyn Avenue too.

Lastly, a number of lamp standards on Loughton High Road now have rings on them for securing bike to.

Wins like these are encouraging – and with more volunteers we could do even more. So here’s to a great summer of cycling and walking… and don’t forget to keep an eye on our social media feeds for updates.

Thanks for reading. See you soon!

The EFTAG newsletter Team

Unsubscribe | Manage your subscription