Hello, London. I’m Matt Brown and this is an encore edition of Episode 7 of The Matt Brown Podcast. Back in August of 2025 Jay Menard, the immediate past chair of the committee that provides advice to council about accessibility issues, joined the show to tell us about why he thinks a small portion of the Medway Valley pathway system should be made more accessible for Londoners who use wheelchairs, walkers or other assistive devices for mobility.
Jay and I recorded this episode in late August of 2025 and, the very next day, London’s current council voted to cancel the planned construction of this accessible trail. The vote was 10 to 5.
You can listen to the conversation Jay Menard and I had here:
In favour: (10) Josh Morgan, Shawn Lewis, Steve Hillier, Elizabeth Peloza, Paul Van Meerbergen, Steve Lehman, Peter Cuddy, Susan Stevenson, Jerry Pribil, and Corrine Rahman.
Opposed: (5) Anna Hopkins, Haldeigh McAlister, Sam Trosow, Skylar Franke, and David Ferreira.
Why an episode for this topic? I was listening and reading Cedric Richards’ latest, The 14 Ward of London, Sponsored by London Bicycle Café, where he covers Ward 5 and highlights this issue concerning the Medway Valley. You can check that on the logo here:
The Background:
We affectionately refer to our city as the Forest City. There are many natural gems right across London; Westminster Ponds, Reservoir Hill, Springbank Park and of course Medway Valley. A forest with a river running through its middle, right in the heart of London. A place where you can go for long hikes to appreciate the natural world, without even leaving town.
That said, there is a large group of Londoners who will never experience some of these natural wonders. Specifically, individuals who have mobility challenges; maybe they use a wheel chair, scooter or a cane for mobility. The trails are not compatible with these assistive aids and are therefore not accessible to them.
This challenge has a long history in London, specifically in the Medway Valley, going back to 2002 and probably earlier. Past councils have declared moratoriums on using asphalt, for example, for trails with no science to back the bans up.
When I was the brand new Ward 7 councillor in late 2010 or early 2011, a few of my colleagues attempted to remove specific line items out of the 10 year capital budget. My colleague, then Ward 8 councillor, Paul Hubert caught on. He said, “hold on a second.” and asked, “What are these line items meant to fund?” Well, You guessed it, these budget dollars were earmarked to pay for studies, public consultation and ultimately construction of trails that provided more accessibility in Medway Valley. It was late, the media didn’t pick up on it, and ultimately their motion to remove this funding lost by a wide margin, the budget remained the same and the project continued.
In August of 2025, residents from the Attawandaron neighbourhood (a neighbourhood in Northwest London, just off Wonderland Road) attended a planning committee meeting and lobbied for the planned construction of an accessible trail that would be installed on city property, behind their homes, abutting Medway Valley be stopped. The issue? Well, there were a few: some green space (grassy area) was going to be naturalized (picture tall grasses and shrubs) and that’s a problem because many of their backyards had creeped slowly into some of this public property. In other words, they risked losing land that they were using for their individual purposes that did not belong to them because it was, and remains to be today, public property. Some residents had also claimed that they had never been consulted about this project, even though there had been extensive public consultation that spanned over a decade.
As we approach the election, Cedric pointed out that, because of boundary changes, the Attawandaron Neighbourhood Association is moving from Ward 7 into Ward 5. This caused me to wonder if this decision to cancel the construction of this trail enhancement might become an election issue at the ward level, because it is a neighbourhood issue, and possibly even an election issue for the city wide campaigns as well. After all, advocates for the accessibility community have been well organized in the past and it would stand to reason that they may bring this up with mayoral candidates between now election day.
In late August of 2025, the current city council cancelled the accessibility improvements by a vote of 10 to 5.
In favour of cancellation: (10) Josh Morgan, Shawn Lewis, Steve Hillier, Elizabeth Peloza, Paul Van Meerbergen, Steve Lehman, Peter Cuddy, Susan Stevenson, Jerry Pribil, and Corrine Rahman.
Opposed to cancellation: (5) Anna Hopkins, Haldeigh McAlister, Sam Trosow, Skylar Franke, and David Ferreira.
Just prior to this vote, Jay Menard, the immediate past chair of the council advisory committee that provides advice to city council about accessibility matters, wrote a letter to all of council and it was signed by the past 5 chairs of this committee to express their concerns. You can read that letter here: Letter to council.
Also, 24 hours before full council voted, Jay joined the show to share his perspective, hoping that members of council might take his message under consideration before making their final decision. That is the conversation I am sharing with you today.
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