Rockets

I will share the data when I have time but it is from the DFT annual National Travel survey.

What i suspect he means to say is that they will put everything on hold until after the election and when Labour get in they'll start painting the lines safe in the knowledge there will be no scrutiny and that they'll have the "mandate" to do whatever they want. I found this in a Southwark News article so August next year was Southwark's goal for area-wide CPZs... Southwark Council has hit back, citing its “ambitious plans to enhance the streets”, including 100 per cent controlled park zone (CPZ) coverage by August 2024.

They were giving free food away on Wednesday apparently.

No chance of that in London...cycling down again in London in the latest annual DFT stats...not quite at pre-Covid levels (like it is nationally) but getting closer each year.

I very much suspect they are here for the delivery market, hence the huge kitchen. Not sure that they should be leaving their five green bins leaning against their shopfront, hardly entices you in! It's a shame to see another soulless chain moving in, its all getting a bit Little Islington now.

Dulwich Park cafe looking from the cinder track near the Court Lane entrance area.

Oh my goodness - that is horrific and absolutely shocking - no wonder none of the council leadership joined the meeting. There are so many parallels (pasted below) to the problems highlighted in that video that many have accused the council's LTN programme suffering from - makes you wonder if the problems are systemic: Lack of accountability A systemic failure by the council Leaning more on consultants and outside parties because the council officers don't know what they are doing and want the cover of consultants for someone to blame if it goes wrong Running tick-box consultation exercises (often after the decision has already been made) Council decisions putting lives at risk The council not learning from previous issues (the same thing in this case was happening 10 years ago apparently and has just been repeated) The council lying to residents Where is the money going, why is everything costing so much money? The council blocking the sharing of information and transparency because "they know the house of cards could come tumbling down" The council is losing things when people leave the council (they lost the lessons-learned document from the previous time these issues came to light) The council's own KPIs that told them 99% of residents affected were "satisfied" - the councillor said the information was clearly "rubbish" and challenged the committee to determine where it was coming from and how it ended up in the council report Council officers leaving the council to get out before the house of cards come tumbling down The dire need to rebuild the relationship with residents Why should anyone trust the council It seems this only came to light because one of the residents who lives in one of the blocks is a planning officer and could see what what going on and knew something wasn't right - my goodness me. Everyone in that meeting acknowledged that things had been going wrong.

Is this linked to the Cllr Leo Pollak scandal?

Snowy, trips through the filters are limited and you are wrong as there is no facility to pay for other permits. You have to apply for a permit to get 100 passes if you live in the Oxford permit area, 25 if you live in the Oxfordshire permit area - there is no facility to buy more passes beyond those 100 or 25. Here is an excerpt from Oxford council's website: https://www.oxford.gov.uk/news/article/2332/joint_statement_from_oxfordshire_county_council_and_oxford_city_council_on_oxford_s_traffic_filters If residents in the permit areas are not using a permit or run out of permits, they will still be able to drive to any destination in Oxford or elsewhere, whenever they like, as often as they like. Depending on their location and destination, they might have to use a different route to avoid the filters, which would usually be the ring road. And their brochure acknowledges that this may mean longer journeys and journey times: Some car journeys will need to find a different route, usually using the ring road. This may result in longer journey times, mainly for trips between Oxford’s suburbs and across the city. Bad news for those on the displacement routes but what is it Cllr Leeming kept saying about A-roads.... Also, I very much suspect local residents got confused about the filters and their role in 15-minute cities as the council cabinet member for travel appeared to have done interviews telling everyone that the filters would create 15-minute cities! No wonder everyone got confused....looks very much a case of "that's not what I meant to say" 😉 ROAD blocks stopping most motorists from driving through Oxford city centre will divide the city into six "15 minute" neighbourhoods, a county council travel chief has said. Duncan Enright, Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for travel and development strategy, explained the authority's traffic filter proposals in an interview in The Sunday Times. He said the filters would turn Oxford into "a 15-minute city" with local services within a small walking radius. https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23079671.anger-travel-chief-announces-traffic-filters-going-happen-definitely-ahead-decision/

Just received this email from Cllr McAsh....looks like they may be kicking a can down the road on these plans....probably no surprise there but one wonders why they hadn't done things like traffic surveys before spending money on the consultation. Dear resident, I wanted to write to you to thank you for your contribution to a recent consultation which sought views on controlled parking in your neighbourhood. We wrote to every home in your area and we invited residents to respond to our consultations on proposed schemes. The intention was to understand local views in each area. We received a large number of responses to the consultations, and before progressing further with any of the proposals, we will now: 1. consider the responses to the consultation and previous requests from residents 2. continue to engage with other stakeholders 3. conduct traffic surveys We will consider all relevant information before coming back to you with what we propose to do next. We need to carefully consider all the evidence. Timeframes for next steps are still being finalised, but we appreciate that you may have been waiting to hear from us and the purpose of this email is to keep you up to date. We will be in touch with you again as soon as we can. Once again, I would like to thank you and your neighbours for engaging with our consultation so far. It has been a really helpful process so far, and we are confident that your feedback, alongside other evidence, will help us find local solutions that respond to local circumstances, and help make your neighbourhood an even better place to live. Yours faithfully, Cllr James McAsh Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency, Clean Air and Streets

Malumbu - the BBC article highlights exactly the point I am making - that it is the lack of clear communication and engagement with communities that leads to these wild stories. It is clear that fringe right-wing and conspiracy groups try to leverage the information vacuum but it is also true that those who support the measures use this to create a trope that anyone anti the measures is some sort of far-right, anti-vax, conspiracy theorist (we have seen it a lot from posters on here) - which they are clearly not. Penguin explained what was happening in Oxford with the limits on journeys and then you said: And the very article you flag confirms (clip below) the plan for Oxford to limit journeys to 100 days a year for private cars in six locations - is that not a local authority enforcing restrictions in travel between neighbourhoods? Now this has nothing to do with their separate plans for 15-minute cities but can you now see how people could easily conflate the two things, especially if the communication from the council is poor, scepticism about the council's motives and objectives are strong and there are those who are happy to stoke the fire for their own fringe/conspiracy theory ends? It was in Oxford where this idea truly sparked a misinformation storm. Last November, Oxfordshire County Council approved the creation of traffic filters, enforced through cameras in six key locations. Private cars would not be allowed through without a permit (which they could use up to 100 days per year), but all other vehicles would be exempt - to incentivise the use of public transport and cycling. The BBC understands that Oxford was one of the places Mr Harper had in mind when he spoke of councils that "ration who uses the roads and when". But, while some people may find this "controlling", it is definitely not the same as a "15-minute city". The traffic filters scheme attracted significant opposition from people worried about the impact the measures might have on their mobility and livelihoods. But online, a separate conversation appeared to be taking place - one that tapped into genuine grievances against the trial, blending them with rumours pushed by far-right blogs and fringe media outlets around the world. On social media, some users suggested this was part of a sinister plot to confine people to their local areas for the sake of the environment. Others wrongly linked the traffic filters scheme to a separate council proposal to introduce 15-minute neighbourhoods in Oxford. Oxfordshire County Council publicly dismissed claims suggesting a link between the two, as well as the claim that traffic filters will be used to confine people to their local area. But soon the social media frenzy also began having a real impact offline: councillors received death threats. Others were faced with anxious questions from residents. "People have come up to me and said: is it true that we're not going to be allowed out of our houses, that it's going to be just like the coronavirus lockdown?", Emily Kerr, from Oxford City Council, told the BBC at the time.

First Mate - there's a lot of tropes to unpack from that! 😉 My point to Froggy was that if their comment was aimed at a fellow poster then they would be falling foul of the new forum rules (which admin I commend you on as they have created a much better discussion forum as the aggressive posters seem to have been muted so well done for implementing it) Does anyone know who was out soliciting input on the CPZs - is someone doing an area-wide survey like the ones that were done around the LTNs to help counter the council's "you all said you wanted CPZs for x hours a day as we didn't give you any option to object in our consultation"? Or was this just a resident on a particular street canvassing local opinions?

Who, the people knocking on doors to solicit opinion on whether residents support the council's plans for the CPZs or me?

Yes I am pretty sure I read it would be as soon as they could (if not 2024). Going to be very interesting to see if that shifts until after any elections and whether that has a knock-on effect on the things they were planning to spend the revenue on (which of course has to go back into road and street infrastructure). Cllr McAsh's get out on his statement in 2019 is very interesting - basically then we can't believe anything any elected official tells us for fear there's a change in "policy" at any point? The policy change has clearly also included the removal of any ability for constituents to object to the measures they plan to implement on them. Is it any wonder people have lost faith in politicians?

Ha ha, that would be the council's new policy to ignore resident views and input!!! Hilarious. BTW, can anyone remember the timeline of rollouts the council put forward for all of the CPZs - was it more specific than 2024?

Froggy - does that also suggest perhaps that the majority of other people she had been calling upon were against it perhaps? And is your assertion that you wouldn't do the rounds with a pro-CPZ petition on safety grounds just another trope?

So what you're saying is this is an attack on wealth rather than anything to do with climate change? So by your own measure you would agree that any use of the public streets should be charged for - so if you walk or cycle? Are people not paying for the council to maintain the streets via council tax?

Malumbu - not sure how you come to that conclusion. But you claim to not want to put people into camps and yet the article you post has the architect of the 15-minute city concept reverting to the well-used "how dare you not agree with my view of how we tackle this problem" trope: "This kind of fear-mongering is, to me, something very fascist," Moreno said. "But it's also so absurd that it shows that the people buying are terribly gullible, terribly ignorant, in line with flat-earthers or those people who think the world is controlled by lizard people." Moreno is a left-wing thinker who had to flee Columbia for Paris because he was a member of the 19th of April Movement and he is teaming up with a left-wing mayor in Paris to force his vision on Parisians and then when they say, hey, we don't like what you are doing, don't agree with the measures you're taking and you're killing our city's ability to function he calls them fascists. Here's another take on this - the "right-wing" mantra/conspiracy trope is perpetrated by those people (more often than not left-wing thinkers) who have spectacularly failed to communicate to people, beyond their own echo chamber, why they should support and engage with the changes they are forcing upon them. If you're not capable of bringing people along for the ride it gives you no right to lean back off your horse/bike and scream at them "fascist" just because you have not been able to convince them - the problem lies with your inability to get people onside.

But Malumbu - Streeting was doing this to try and show he is on the side of drivers so referencing housing or rentals would not have met his objective (and merely validated the war on cars message). Watch for more of this during their party conference - Labour has to respond and they will want to show they are supporting drivers because it is a huge swathe of the electorate. Interesting as well that Laura K opened with the "war on drivers" gambit as her first question to Sunak so it shows it is starting to drive, pardon the pun, the agenda. Penguin68 - I am afraid it seems to have been a case that the "lunatics have been running the asylum" for far too long in terms of active travel and those pushing their own agenda have been allowed to do that scott-free since Covid. All of the things the Tories are targeting have been carefully selected, I suspect, to do most damage to those who have been championing them (i.e. Labour, Labour run administrations and the pro-active travel lobby). Right now I would not want to be a council that has run a less than transparent consultation or a researcher paid to prove LTNs (by the very people who are implementing them) have delivered on their objectives (especially if you are personally closely allied to the pro-active travel lobby or have a history of vandalising posters from anyone who opposes your view...;-)). Very quickly we will all learn how robust the procedures have been and whether they did actually meet the thresholds required in a democratic process and how nepotistic the industry telling us this is all great actually is.

Anyone else thinking that Southwark will have to u-turn on the timing of the CPZ rollout and kick the can down the road until after the general election? I can't imagine Labour will be doing anything locally to stir the "war on motorists" hornet's nest ahead of either the mayoral or general election.

Legal - you are right and I am pretty sure I remember councillors lauding the 15-minute city concept as the strategic aim/goal. A bit like Oxford council did https://www.oxford.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/8144/bgp_14_15_minute_cities.pdf so the concept has been thrown around for a while but the Tories are throwing it in to the mix probably to be able to use it as a deflection technique and to point at the disaster that is Paris right now as Mayor Hidalgo tries to turn Paris into the poster-child for 15-minute cities. I watched the politics show as well and three things stood out: 1) Sunak has clearly been told he needs to assert himself more (which he is clearly struggling with) btu was struggling to land his points because Laura K kept interrupting him (probably because the expectation is that he just waffles and repeats the same soundbites over and over again 2) what was also interesting was Wes Streeting when he talked about "as a motorist I worry not about whether my council stops me speeding past my primary school with 20mph limits but the cost of petrol at the pump". Which I wonder is an indication of how Labour will try to counter the Tory narrative and try to distance themselves from the war on motorists - very refreshing to hear a Labour voice admit they do drive! 3) But Jon Culshaw summed it up beautifully at the end with his closing impressions of both leaders and how you do their voices and personality. Rishi Sunak: the closest you can get to AI whilst still remaining human and Keir Starmer: more hesitant and in instalments and "now it's time for Songs of Praise...."

And Malumbu, is this just not the democratic process in play? The Tories are desperate for votes and they think they have found somewhere to get them because they believe there are a number of people who are tired of Labour administrations abusing the democratic process when it comes to active travel policies and their "war on cars". This is politics and you can't say people weren't telling Labour administrations that it was more than a "small vocal minority' who had problems with the way Labour were managing these policies? Whether the Tories get anything from this remains to be seen but I suspect a few reputations will get trashed in the process and there will be collateral damage. If the Tories can show (although one suspects they will gerrymandering this whether it exists or not) that Labour administrations did not follow the democratic process when rolling these out then it puts Labour HQ in a real pickle and look what a mess they got into over Uxbridge.

Govt set up the idea of LTNs but they didn't implement them - that was down to local authorities and, clearly, local authorities took advantage. Now, if the local authorities did everything by the book, ran fair consultations and engaged the views of the local communities and deployed the LTNs within guidelines then they have nothing to fear surely? If they didn't do everything by the book then they only have themselves to blame. P.S. One suspects the Tories know Labour councils did not do everything by the book and I suspect Labour councils and Labour HQ are more than aware of this. You reap what you sow....but if this does bear fruit for the Tories you have to question how Labour allowed themselves to sleep walk into this trap...it was bleedingly obvious what was going on from the outset (from a perspective of Labour councils bending the rules to their advantage and ignoring local sentiment/views of constituents)

Malumbu, where did I rejoice...sharing the info is not rejoicing is it....? Is this not one part of the government's U-turn?

Ha ha.. at least 3 of these things Cllr McAsh claims are actually also the issues caused by his LTNs!