Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the RCC Fix-Your-Bike session at St Gabriel’s Church car park on Saturday, 21 February, 2026.
The session was a great success, with 24 bikes fixed. We carried out a range of repairs, including fitting new brake cables, gear cables, brake blocks and inner tubes.
Thank you to everyone who made a voluntary donation. For those who said they would link to make a donation on the website, please use this link: Voluntary payment link.
The next session will be in late March, again in St Gabriel’s car park.
We’re happy to announce that, on Saturday 21st February 2026 we are launching our Dr. Bike scheme – we’re calling it RCC Fix-your-bike – in St Gabriel’s Church Hall car park. The session will run from 11.00am to 2pm.
At the session we can:
check bikes for roadworthiness.
make small adjustments to bikes.
carry out small repairs.
advise on more major repairs.
The aim of the scheme is to get customers’ bikes going again.
To give a few examples, we can adjust brakes and gears, lubricate chains and sort out rattling mudguards but we can’t give your bike a full service or bleed its hydraulic brakes.
There is no charge for the work although if you want to you can make a voluntary contribution. However we would ask you to pay for any parts – like brake blocks or brake cables – that we fit. We can take cash or card.
Maybe we shouldn’t say this but … if you need to bring your bike by car there is on street parking along Park Road.
And once your bike is good to go you can join us for our first scheduled ride of 2026 on Sunday 1st March. Details are on the website. St Gabriel’s Church Hall is a good place to start – it’s close to where the mechanics live, so if they find they are short of a tool they can nip home and get it. And it’s close to where many of our members live. But it is in a corner of the Borough and for the long term we are looking for a more central venue or venues.
Redbridge Cycling Campaign is going to launch a Dr. Bike scheme. Here’s the plan …
We want to run Fix your Bike sessions one Saturday or Sunday a month. At the sessions we will:
check bikes for roadworthiness.
make small adjustments to bikes.
carry out small repairs.
advise on more major repairs.
the aim of the scheme is to get customers’ bikes going again.
The session will last for three hours, probably between 11.00 am and 2.00 pm.
To run the sessions, we will need a pool of volunteers. We already have a few but the more the merrier. Volunteers will be needed for half an hour before and after a session to set up and break down the stall.
For each session we will need:
At least one person front of house.
At least one senior mechanic capable of carrying out the full range of repairs we offer.
One or two other mechanics who can carry out the repairs listed in the ‘required’ column below.
The roles can be split between two people. So, for example, if you could do front of house only between 10.30 am and 12.30 pm, we will try and pair you up with someone who can do 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm.
We hope we can create a pool of volunteers from which we can staff each session
Role
Description
Need to be able …
Nice to be able to ..
Very Nice to be able to …
Front of House
Help set up the stall. Receive bikes for repair. Record the customer’s phone number, bike type, and the repair requested. If necessary, check with the senior mechanic that the repair is possible. Issue a repair ticket and Place and secure the bike in the cycle rack. Contact the customer when the bike is ready for collection. Return the bike to the customer. Accept any donations the customer makes. Hand out RCC business cards and any material relating to current RCC campaigns. Talk to customers to find out about current cycling issues in the area. At the end of a session money Help break down the stall.
Use a Sum-up card (training can be provided). Chat to customers to get information on their cycling issues.
Come to our once monthly meetings to tell us what cycling issues customers have raised.
Mechanic
Carry out repairs to customers bikes according to the mechanics’ level of competence. Be responsible for a toolkit. If a tool gets lost, to let the lead mechanic know.
Lubricate a chain. Replace brake and gear cables. Replace brake and gear cable outers. Change an Inner tube. Adjust rim brakes. Replace brake blocks.
The deadline for responding to consultations is 18th December 2025.
You can respond by following the link in the email sent to members on Friday 12th December.
We have now prepared our responses to the Wanstead Village and South Woodford Road Safety schemes. Both proposals are limited because they put forward measures to reduce traffic speeds but not measures to reduce traffic volumes. Reducing accidents, deaths and injuries needs both.
South Woodford
The key points are:
Remove the one-way streets in the area.
Include anti rat run measures to reduce traffic volumes.
Wanstead Village
The key points are:
Rethink the proposals for New Wanstead, Herman Hill and Chigwell Road to reflect the volume of traffic using the roads and their function as connector roads and to avoid the risk of making things worse.
Include anti rat run measures to reduce traffic volumes.
Barkingside
The key points is
Cranbrook Road is where the many accidents happen, but the scheme does nothing to enforce a 20mph speed limit on the road
Something needs to be done at Gants Hill roundabout – and we have a proposal.
The other consultations
Pressure of time means that we are now unlikely to be make a detailed response to the Hainault scheme, but we are pleased to see the Council proposes reducing the speed limit on Forest Road to 30 mph.
You can read our response to the South Woodford scheme here.
You can read our response to the Wanstead Village scheme here.
You can read our response to the Barkingside scheme here.
If enough of us ask the Council to spend more on cycle infrastructure it’s possible that it might – especially as improving the provision for cyclists is an essential to implementing the Council’s Sustainable Transport Strategy:
“We have adopted a sustainable transport “road user hierarchy “which simply states that in our future decision-making, whether that be investments, how we designer scheme or our policies, we will consider the needs of certain people, ways of travelling and vehicle types before others.”
So, allocating more money to cycling will be the Council putting its money where its mouth is …
If we don’t ask for what we want, we will lose out to others who do. The survey is quick and easy. The two key questions are 3 and 4. Here are my answers to those two questions.
Q3. An independent nationwide survey carried out by IMPOWER saw Redbridge ranked as the most efficient and best value for money council in London and 2nd best in England. Though proud of this we’re not at all complacent and know there’s always room to improve. With that in mind, what could the council be doing that would make a positive difference for you?
A: Investing more, both in terms of money and staff, in cycling. The Borough should have a network of safe cycling routes so that residents can use bicycles to go about their daily lives – going shopping, taking their children to school, going to the railway station, the GP etc. This needs investment and council officers with suitable skills and in sufficient numbers to carry out the work.
Q4. When it comes to setting a budget, much of what councils do today focuses on the things that we have to provide – essential services like making sure we’ve got enough social workers to help our most vulnerable children and young people and collecting your waste and recycling. Where we do have more flexibility, it would be helpful to know what your local priorities are.
Of the following, please tick up to three areas you’d want us to prioritise in the future
þHighways – maintaining roads and pavements, fixing potholes, managing water gritting, and improving road safety and walking/cycling routes.
Redbridge Cycling Campaign 