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news
Velolife 2 (picture credit Andy Gray)Council sends community wardens to ‘monitor’ Velolife as café’s crowdfunder soars past £15k target
The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM) is to send community wardens to ‘monitor’ Velolife, the Berkshire café which is the subject of an injunction banning “cyclists’ meets”. Meanwhile, the crowdfunding appeal by the owner which is looking to raise money for legal fees to fight that injunction has now passed its £15,000 target.
While the council retracted letters threatening legal action against local cycling clubs planning “cyclists’ meets” at the café, one remains in force against the business itself.
The wording of that injunction is, however, open to interpretation.
“Unfortunately RBWM has given no clarification as to what constitutes a group or gathering,” said Velolife owner, Lee Goodwin. “Cycling clubs are not allowed to use the cafe before, during or after a ride according to the Council.
“If we are not allowed to have cycling clubs or gatherings of cyclists or groups of cyclists then we will not be able to continue trading.”
Commenting on the situation, Cycling UK’s Duncan Dollimore said: “The council have applied to enforce an order, the terms of which it doesn’t understand and can’t clarify, but nevertheless one in which it expects Mr Goodwin to comply with in the interim.”
Last week Goodwin launched a crowdfunding campaign in the hope of covering his legal fees as he fights the injunction.
It raised £8,000 of the £15,000 target inside 24 hours and has now passed £18,000.
“I have been pretty overwhelmed by the support so far,” Goodwin told Berkshire Live. “It has made me a little bit emotional to be honest. It just shows we’re part of a much bigger community. The support has been quite overwhelming.”
The leader of RBWM, Simon Dudley, has said that his understanding is that, “with positive engagement and sensible operation of the site the threat of an injunction goes away.”
The RBWM Twitter account said yesterday that community wardens would be monitoring Velolife for the next few weeks, “to see if the interim mitigation measures implemented by the operator meet the needs of residents and the cafe.”
As agreed with @thevelolife our Community Wardens will be monitoring the site over the next few weeks to see if the interim mitigation measures implemented by the operator meet the needs of residents & the cafe. We hope that by working together we can reach a solution. pic.twitter.com/UrfDH3McUA
— RBWM (@RBWM) August 30, 2019
The account later stated that, “the mitigations are some signage and trying to keep shared access clear.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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26 comments
I think I might move to this place. It must be amazing. I mean, I can only assume they've run out of problems to fix if they're having to make work for themselves doing this. The roads must be immaculate, there'll be no crime, no litter... just think how great it must be if this is the worst thing the council has to deal with.
This is becoming like the Terry Gilliam film Brazil.
Bureaucratic nonsense! I keep thinking that the root of the conflict is perhaps an unknown ulterior motive. Maybe the people involved had an especially nasty divorce or child custody battle lost in the courts.
I think you are right. There’s a response by the previous pub tenant on trip advisor where they state they are packing it in because the landlord won’t maintain the building to a satisfactory standard. They comment that perhaps he wants them to fail so he can develop the premises into housing. Apparently he’s tried 5 times to get planning permission to change the use to housing. His argument being the business is non-viable as a pub. A successful cycle cafe would probably dash his chances for the near future, unless that cycling cafe was deemed to be a nuisance to neighbouring residents?...
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g5504605-d3643127-r2945694...
But that then makes even less sense to me, is this setup in a conservation area or something?, as if your ultimate goal is change to residential and the pub has demonstrably failed, whilst it's not as easy as it used to be to change from pub use,councils rarely choose to prevent it if the building is empty,its hardly the last pub in the village setup, so why then rent out the building to another commercial venture ?
But does remind me,has the cafe been registered as an asset of community value ?that maybe too late given the councils clear dislike of the business,but would add an extra hurdle to planning consent change of use
I think the owner is neutral in this particular case unless they are deep behind the scenes. It is pretty much the only amenity in the village AFAIK. Otherwise it's just houses and a few light industrial units.
And the neighbours shall see the power of this fully operational cyclists’ cafe.
May the farce be with you.
The Council Strikes Back
Scum.jpg
Knights of the night!
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This is just too weird a story for there not to be some shenanigans happening in the background. At some point, we'll find out exactly who feels slighted, who they are connected to in the council, how high up they are, perhaps even how much was in the brown envelope.
Also - what a waste of public money. I do hope the borough hasn't closed any public toilets or reduced bin collections recently.
Do these wardens wear uniforms? If so, what badge is on the caps?
What would happen if the community wardens arranged to meet at velolife, but travelled there by bicycle? Would they have to fine the cafe owner?!
Isn't Ivy Cottage now sold subject to contract so will the Council's current measures change if the new owner isn't as agitated by the situation?
What will the community wardens be doing - pointing at signs for cyclists to read and waiting to escort cars in and out of the shared access?
Hasn’t anyone explained what freedom of assembly and freedom of association means to these simpletons yet?
Wouldn't it be great if local cyclists met there to protest, complete with signs and chants, and when the council tries to shut down the cafe, take it to court as denying their human rights.
They really don't know how to stop digging this hole, do they?...
Let's hope they've got planning permission for it.
Here's the thing. The hole that they have dug for themselves is now so deep that they can no longer throw the spoil out of the hole, nor can they climb out of it.
They are now technically no longer digging but burrowing.
The whole thing is so strange. Now they are sending in 'community wardens' to spy on people? Why is this cluster of a few residences of such great importance to a council that covers over a hundred-thousand people? It's a bit of a mystery.
It's a cycling cafe, not a crack-house!
Clearly Windsor and Maidenhead have too few real problems to deal with. Maybe their central government funding should be cut and redirected to places that have real needs?
True there something more to this location maybe someone on the council want the properety for there own need but they sure seem dedicated to shut it down.
I wondered what, exactly, is a community warden, and they appear to be volunteers with very little power, but they can at least observe.
"The main purpose of the community wardens' scheme is to reduce crime and disorder and link together all parts of the community, acting as a highly visible reassuring presence.
Wardens visit schools, day centres, businesses and liaise closely with other agencies and departments within the borough to try to solve problems in the community as quickly and efficiently as possible.
They are empowered to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (or FPNs) for littering and dog-fouling."
Whether this is an efficient or appropriate use of their time is rather open to question, and I hope that they will be patronising the cafe.
It must be so great to live somewhere that has so few problems that the council has nothing better to do than spend its taxpayers money on a few cyclists gathering at a cafe. Just how are they justifiying spending so much time, money and effort on such an incredibly trivial issue? If anyone on road.cc lives there, perhaps they could enquire of their local councillor; I'm sure we'd all love to know.
I think it something like a noisy neighbour.
They already have the legal power to deal with noisy neighbours, so there has to be some other reason for this almost entirely fake problem.
"I am not a cyclist, I am a free man"
By hook or by crook, we wil
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And so the nonsense continues.