When the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) was formed in 1978, it was from pre-existing cycle campaigning groups, such as the Islington Cycling Action Group (ICAG) – now Cycle Islington – but there was not such a pre-existing group in B&D, nor in most London Boroughs.
Members of LCC are allocated to the branch of LCC in the borough they live in, though many branches form, or overlap with a local group, which may see itself as affiliated to the LCC, but may have members who are not members of LCC.
Most of these LCC local groups, as they are commonly called, take names in the form Borough name Cyclists, or Borough name Cycling Campaign. They may be purely an LCC branch, as in the case of B&D, or they may be independent groups forming part of LCC, like Cycle Islington, embodying the branch function.
(The name Barking & Dagenham Cycling Campaign was first officially used for Facebook as ‘The Barking & Dagenham Branch of the London Cycling Campaign’ is rather unwieldy and too long for a page name on Facebook.)
LCC is also working on forming groups of members whose association is not where they live for example it may be the borough where they work or the organisation they work for. Whilst you may not be able to have voting rights in an LCC group (because you do not qualify formally to be a member of it), groups will welcome you to their meetings and other events, so do get in touch.
Independence?
In 2016 the branches or constituent groups of LCC were asked to formally constitute themselves. This is because the charities commission has issues with LCC corporate granting money to other organisations that do not constitutionally share its charitable objectives.
LCC B&D is a small group and little or no interest has been shown by menbers in having meetings and committees/officers etc. Because of this, no attempt has been made to formally constitute it, but this does mean it cannot have any independence from LCC.
I (Colin Newman) am not the leader of this branch by any right; if any LCC member living in the borough wants to take on an active role in the branch they are most welcome. Should there be any contention, we will hold an election.
