Each month, we email a bulletin to everyone who has signed up on this site. Below is the edition that we sent in March 2025. If you like it, please sign up on our Get Involved section – you will be showing your support for our work and you will receive our free monthly bulletins a month before they appear here.
IN THIS ISSUE… +++ Three injured in major crash +++ Police unit “99 percent certain” to be canned +++ Move to stop commuters using Kingston Gate car park +++ What to do if you’re brought down by a dog off a lead +++ Why flight path change might spoil your enjoyment of the park +++
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MAJOR CRASH
Three vehicles were involved in a serious collision on Queen’s Road in Richmond Park on Friday morning. Three people were taken to hospital for urgent treatment and the road between Kingston Gate and Ham Cross was closed. We received an unconfirmed report that emergency services had to cut the roof off one of the cars to rescue a passenger.
News regarding this incident came in while putting together this newsletter, so we don’t currently have further details. When we do, we’ll post more on social media. In the meantime, you can read a news report here.
COPS STOPPED
Having been targeted by the Met for the axe to help fill a £450million funding gap, the fate of the park’s police now appears to be sealed.
The unit’s sergeant Pete Sturgess announced to Richmond Park Cyclists and other members of the Safer Parks Police Panel on a Zoom call two weeks ago that it is “99 percent certain” his team will be dissolved some time between April and December. He confirmed no officers would be made redundant, but none of the unit know where they will be redeployed, nor what form of policing will replace them.
The following week, at the panel’s scheduled quarterly meeting, RPC and the other stakeholders present decided to write to Chief Superintendent Clair Kelland, who is in charge of policing for south-west London, seeking assurances that whatever replaces the park’s Operational Command Unit will continue to focus on vital areas of police work in the park. The final draft of the letter is currently being written by panel chair Dr Fionna Moore.
The main assurance that RPC is seeking is that the SPPP will continue. As long-time subscribers may know, the panel’s quarterly meetings give us the opportunity to set priorities for the police which benefit cyclists, such as targeting speeding motorists shortcutting through the park in the morning. We also want the police to maintain a visible presence, patrol the roads and continue with general speed checks.
But with fewer resources and manpower, one obvious way to mitigate the reduction in policing is to close the park to through traffic, which takes considerable time and effort to police, particularly in the case of unauthorised trade vehicles which enter the gates in huge numbers. Could this significant change eventually prompt The Royal Parks to stop cut-through journeys for a trial period (which, of course, is one of our long-term goals)?
LIMITING FACTOR
The dissolution of the park’s police unit may also impact The Royal Parks’ aim to introduce a speed limit for cyclists across its estate.
As we stated in our November bulletin, it already seemed unlikely that the Government would have the inclination to bring in such a law specifically for London’s royal parks, which only have a few dozen miles of roadway between them, when limits don’t apply to the hundreds of thousands of miles of British roads. Now, with the park’s police unit canned and no plan from the Met on what will replace it, how a limit would be policed is even less clear.
This is one area we would like to explore with Darren Share, TRP’s Director of Parks, when we see him on Monday to resume discussions on their review of cycling policy after our meeting in December had to be postponed.
REPORT RUNDOWN
Time for our regular look at the incidents on the park’s roads and the Tamsin Trail that the police have attended. For the benefit of newer subscribers to this bulletin, this information is usually collated over a quarterly period and is presented to the Safer Parks Police Panel, which we sit on alongside the park manager, local councillors and other stakeholders. Our quarterly meeting was a month later than usual, so this report is for a four-month period.
In October a driver cut the roundabout at Robin Hood Gate and hit a cyclist who was approaching from Broomfield Hill resulting in the cyclist sustaining a broken wrist and fractured collar bone. The cyclist did not wish to support a prosecution, so no further action was taken. (For more detail and our opinion, see our November 2024 newsletter.) A cyclist travelling at 10pm on the roadway past The Royal Ballet School collided with a deer and sustained a fractured pelvis, sacrum and pubic bone, broken three ribs, fractured their left clavicle and suffered a hemotoma on their bladder.
In November between Roehampton Gate and Priory Lane a cyclist clipped the rear wheel of another cyclist in front of him, lost control and fell, breaking their collarbone and sustaining a deep laceration to their head, plus concussion. At Robin Hood Roundabout a cyclist fell, losing consciousness with no memory of the incident. Nobody else was involved and it was therefore believed to be a “medical incident”. The rider suffered abrasions and cuts to their face and knees.
In December a cyclist travelling up a short steep hill had their chain buckle, causing their foot to slip. Falling forward, they went over their handlebars, sustaining a deep cut to the right side of their forehead, stiffness to their right hip, pain to their right hand and grazing to their right shoulder.
Traffic offences and relevant breaches of park regulations were as follows:
Trade vehicles – 231
Unauthorised parking/unattended – 88
Driving not on a road - 33
Speed – 81
Off-track cycling – 2
Contravening signs (including closed roads) – 15
Cycling to endanger any person – 0
Driving a vehicle to endanger any person – 6
Driving without due care – 0
Using a mobile while driving – 1
No valid license – 1
No insurance – 8
No cycle lights after dark – 1
Faulty vehicle lights – 0
No MOT - 1
This Quarter’s Priorities
As suggested by the police team, this quarter’s priorities over and above general policing are as follows:
1. Pedestrian Safety (Courtesy Crossings, Middle Road and gravel bikes on the Tamsin Trail)
2. Cycling safety (Beverly Brook obedience and motorist behaviour)
3. Wildlife protection (Deer protection, dogs around skylark fields)
GOOD MORNINGS
If you ride through the park on your morning commute or are able to enjoy a few laps before breakfast, you might notice that there will be slightly fewer cars around from next week.
Starting on Monday, Kingston Gate car park will be closed until 9am on weekdays to prevent drivers parking up and continuing their journey to work by public transport or on foot. The car park has filled up in the morning for many years as it is free as well as being relatively close to Norbiton station, Kingston town centre and the local hospital, so the later opening should discourage some commuters from using the park as a convenient spot to leave their cars. Weekend parking will be unaffected, and Blue Badge holders can use all the other car parks.
We are not typically in the park every weekday morning, so please let us know if you detect a difference. Our thanks to park manager Paul Richards for instituting this much-needed change.
DOGGED PURSUIT OF JUSTICE
Two contrasting stories concerning dogs off leads. The day after the Safer Parks Police Panel, a man was due to appear before Wimbledon Magistrates on the charge of “allowing a dog to chase, worry or injure another animal”. His pet had attacked a deer in December, and after an appeal, members of the public were able to identify him from video filmed at the scene which was distributed by the media.
Meanwhile, news reached us that a member of Richmond Park Rouleurs suffered a broken arm last month after a dog, which was not on a lead, ran out into the road and collided with her. The owner was apologetic and got an ear-bashing from onlookers, but that was it. As the victim’s priority was to get to hospital, she did not take the dog owner’s details.
The second incident is far more typical than the first, yet they often go unreported, which makes it less likely that the police can recognise the scale of the problem and focus on it. So if you are brought down by an errant hound while riding, call 101 to report the incident, no matter how scant the details, or dial 999 if the injury is serious. Obtain the dog owner’s details for any insurance claim.
Remember: any failure to control a dog could be an offence under three sections of the park’s regulations. One – Section 3(5) – would apply if an officer asks the person with the animal to place it on a lead; the other two state that a visitor to the park should not “intentionally or recklessly interfere with the safety, comfort or convenience of any person” (Section 3 (1)) or “cause or permit any animal or bird of which he is in charge to chase, worry, or injure any other animal or bird” (Section 4 (21)).
GETTING TO THE PARK
Richmond Council is starting a new consultation on its Transport Strategy, which you can look at here. If you ride to or from Richmond Park through the borough, please take a moment to look at their map here and tell them which parts of the route you’d like improved, or indeed which parts you really like.
PLANE CRAZY
The Government’s backing for a third runway at Heathrow airport has revived concerns about the environmental impact more flights would cause – but as we first pointed out way back in August 2019, it is the proposed redesign of the flight paths that will have a big and more immediate impact on the peace and tranquility of Richmond Park, regardless of whether or not planes get more tarmac.
Noisy departing aircraft which currently skirt the park may soon fly directly overhead, as Heathrow stealthily pushes ahead with its long-running project to use technology that will enable take-offs and landings on the same runway and in both directions from both runways. This will enable Heathrow Airport to increase its number of flights as well as re-routing noisy departures over the park, all without the third runway.
To keep abreast of Heathrow Airport's proposals, and to learn how to object, sign up to the Friends of Richmond Park's regular bulletins here.
SEE YOU NEXT MONTH...
As ever, thank you for allowing us to pop into your inbox, and let us know what you think about anything related to cycling in Richmond Park – we reply personally to every email you send us. If you enjoyed this bulletin, please share it with your cycling friends – and if they like what they read, encourage them to sign up to our mailing list too. The more subscribers we have, the bigger our voice.
All the best,
Richmond Park Cyclists
