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Not trying to pre-empt James, but this is was the first question I asked the DCC clerk, as I don't remember being able to do this when I was DCC Chair. But it looks like the constitution has now been changed to allow this type of "emergency" allocation of underspend (I think we used to be able to do this before, but it had to be approved by the relevant Cabinet Member?). Here's the reply that I received from the clerk, but for some reason I can't access the link at the moment:- 'Please note the advice I have received from the CGS team: "The CGS budget is delegated to CC so councillors have the final decision on how money is allocated whether or not there is an application. http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s55143/03.%20Who%20Takes%20Decisions%20June%202015.pdf page 51: To take decisions about local matters. At present community councils have delegated authority in the following key areas: the neighbourhoods fund, cleaner, greener, safer capital programmes, traffic management and community project banks" ' Bear in mind that the CGS program for next year will be launched at the DCC meeting this Weds 9th at St Barnabas Calton Ave where, conveniently, we are making our anti-barrier deputation at. Also, FYI, it's fairly routine for the DCC to use CGS on highways problems around here because we don't get much borough allocation because our stats are so low. But normally we used to recommend for residents to submit proper bids so that highways engineers could advise before allocations were discussed.

Attaching the amazing leaflet to a new post so it's at the top of the page under the petition link!

In the meantime, we're going to carry on collecting signatures for our petition for a "comprehensive traffic management study" without any preconceptions. To this end, a local graphic artist, the amazing Stuart Redfern ( http://www.redferndesign.co.uk/ ) has designed us a leaflet, which can also be used as a poster. I've attached a copy to this post so that supporters can print it out and display it in their windows! I'll be handing them out to all the shops in the area... ETA - the PDF looks huge, but it prints out on regular A4 paper.

This is the highway manager's advice regarding a barrier in the councillor briefing for the last DCC meeting:- "Officers would not recommend any form of restricted entry or closure on the public highway unless the there were special circumstances. Any such proposal needs detailed consideration given the likely impact on the wider highway network."

The 76% figure is fiction. So is the local consultation claim.

Thanks for posting the minutes to the last DCC meeting, Woodwarde. This whole experience is beginning to inspire me to start writing fiction again! I think we need to continue our campaign. As of last night, we had 225 total signatures along with 30 "supporters" who didn't state a full address, which isn't bad for just over a week's effort. I wonder if we could hit 400 by next week's DCC??

I'm almost calmed down enough to type... but before I waste too much time on this madness, I just need to clarify what the "action group" means by "pinch points"? Do they mean build outs or chicanes?? Here's a bit of information about chicanes, so we're all on the same page:- https://www.trafficchoices.co.uk/traffic-schemes/chicanes.shtml Chicanes will lose a large number of residents parking spaces, cause more backups, and only slow the traffic down to 23mph, which is faster than the existing average speed... depending on how narrow they are, this could affect services such as rubbish collection and displace everything into the southern end and side streets. The problem with the EDG/Melbourne junction is a different matter altogether and has nothing to do with speed of volume.

I think any major changes will have to be submitted as a highway order and therefore subject to consultation, but we should keep our eye on it just in case. Minor tweaks could be possible without notification. I had a friend drive me around there yesterday and it seemed to be flowing okay, but I haven't watched the coaches try to navigate it yet. I saw engineers monitoring the traffic, which was reassuring. I'm buried with the blasted Melbourne Barrier situation at the moment, but will have a better look at the layout over the weekend.

In a nutshell, this is insane. I spent hours talking to people on the doorstep over the weekend and I was actually getting optimistic that we were reaching a unified view on what the problem was, and possible solutions, but now I read the above Terms of Reference and it makes me want to scream. I can't even type right now, I need to go breathe.

Yippee! You guys are brilliant! Update to come when I have more time to type...

We're five signatures away from 100 online in addition to the paper sigs. Sign here!:- https://www.change.org/p/southwark-council-no-barrier-for-melbourne-grove

Zeb, to be fair, from what I saw at the DCC meeting, almost all of the cllrs at the DCC meeting got sucked into the "action group" performance... the only cllr who spoke any sense lives near Townley Road and therefore personally understood the dynamic of what would happen. It took us approx six weeks to get to the bottom of the flaws in the paperwork that was submitted by the "action group", which some cllrs appear to have only glanced over quickly. Unfortunately, it appears to me that changes to the constitution allow this kind of allocation of funds, which is probably a loophole that should be adjusted.

ianr, none of the police I've spoken to have said that the speed or the volume of traffic on Melbourne Grove is excessive, so I would love to know the name of the alleged officer who made this comment. Bear in mind that there are at least 100 residences on this end of Melbourne, plus seven roads that feed into Melbourne (including two "landlocked" roads who have no other way out), so my guess is that there are easily 1000 locals who use this road regularly. As a resident, I notice that August is noticeably quieter because of the school holidays, so the school run dramatically affects the volume in addition to local residents going to and from work. Volume was a bit higher this August because of the Townley Road junction works, but still not as bad as school run time. I personally don't object to mums driving by my house to take their kiddies to school...

We're not leaving anything to chance! We are providing evidence that a barrier is not necessarily the most sought after option by local residents...

We've now got 84 signatures on the No Barrier online petition and roughly the same amount again on the paper version of the petition. There's been a surprising amount of support for the No Barrier campaign, several residents who signed the first petition have now signed ours. I don't think we're going to have enough time to visit every door before the September 9th DCC meeting, so if you would prefer to see public funding spent on an open assessment of possible traffic measures in the area, and not limited to a study of the barrier option, then please sign the online petition here:- https://www.change.org/p/southwark-council-no-barrier-for-melbourne-grove

To be honest, this latest design doesn't bear much resemblance to the original Living Streets recommendations... it's more of a bog-standard highway junction build-out with a raised crossing. As it develops, it's looking like there won't be much space for anything other than a few cycle racks, so I guess we'll have to just wait and see what it looks like when it's finally done. On a positive note, the raised crossing will make life a lot easier for prams and disabled pedestrians...

The original discussions back in 2007 were based around correcting, at TfL's expense, the errors that TfL's contractors made in implementing the new signal junction a couple years earlier. This quickly evolved into a proposal to improve the junction by building out the corners and removing the pedestrian islands with a view towards speeding up the time it takes a pedestrian to cross, which in turn would speed up the light phases for cars in a way that would address the traffic tailbacks. Bear in mind that the diagonal crossing evolved around reducing the pedestrian crossing times. Unfortunately the junction redesign funding got politically sidelined in 2008 and it's taken this long to identify funding to reconstruct the junction by using cycle funding, which is how everything got diverted in that direction. It will be interesting to see how this emerging redesign without the experimental cycling elements works out, hopefully it will end up being balanced for all users. Bear in mind that, once the works are done and monitored for a year or two, tweaks can be made to the design... although, it may be that residents will have to campaign for CGS funding to implement a requested tweak. But getting the ped islands removed and the new traffic lights in will be the most expensive part of the works, the rest can be tweaked, possibly even the pointed buildout from Townley onto EDG.

That's the million dollar question! Some of the people signing the No Barrier petition are concerned that their signatures on the deputation submission are being used for measures that they don't actually agree with, so who knows WHAT they were signing as there is no statement at the top of the papers that were submitted at the DCC meeting. The problem with all of this is that people with no experience are campaigning for measures that highway engineers have advised against, rather than asking experienced engineers what their advice would be to address concerns. Tail wagging the dog.

It's all a bit lowkey because of the holidays, it will probably ramp up after the weekend. I reckon we've got about 100 signatures now, between the online petition and various bits of paper, and that's just the beginning.

Yes, I think it's the new highway specification for buildouts? It looks like they're using them up at the Townley junction, as well... must go up there and have a good look around. BTW, going back to the troughs... I'll start a thread when the CGS funds are launched and we can all discuss bids.

I don't think that there have been any formal meetings, it's all been sprung out of the blue as a result of a deputation made at the last Community Council meeting in June. Have you signed the No Barrier petition yet?? You can sign it online here:- https://www.change.org/p/southwark-council-no-barrier-for-melbourne-grove There's lots of paper petitions floating around as well, with the same wording, I think there's going to be some Ashbourne door-knocking.

It's more likely that all the new Tooley Street one-size-fits-all standards haven't actually filtered down to the management yet. The workman I spoke to pointed at the "normal" kerbs across the street and said that they usually use those old-fashioned ones that they've been using for years. The Chinese kerbstones are huge... one could build a mini-Stonehenge with them!

I must have just missed you, DulwichFox, as I was there around the same time, chatting to the workmen. They told me that now that they have the politically correct granite kerbstones in stock, they've discovered that the blocks specified by the Tooley Street Dictatorship are actually too heavy for human beings to lift, so they've had to have a special device fitted to the digger to lift them (which I had a good look at). Now that everything is sorted, they now think that they should be done with the works "in a couple of weeks".

Looks good! The CGS fund opens up in Sept, maybe we should make a bid for troughs with Hot Lips!

Attached is the photo of the bus diversion down Melbourne by Tell Grove, dated July 8, 2012. Just in case anyone is doubting that TfL uses Melbourne South for bus diversions...