rollflick

Balanced article about the council run meeting last week on East Dulwich Low Traffic Neighbourhood: https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/southwark-council-vows-to-create-coherent-plan-for-east-dulwich-low-emissions-neighbourhood-scheme/ I definitely count myself in the middle category, supporting the principle but not all the detail, e.g. agreeing we need "more connected cycle paths to create longer routes, rather than piecemeal areas". Also suggest the council should do something to make the north (station) end of Melbourne Grove more inviting. Why can't they move the car parking bays so that the cafes etc. can have outdoor seating. Realise it's cold but on days it's sunny it would be great to have more places to sit out to catch up with friends/family while being able to support our local businesses.

Peckham Rye car park largely empty because everyone parking on Strakers Road leading to it through the park, as it has no parking restrictions on it! Besides the cost of introducing restrictions, there is more visual impact on the park with a line of cars parked along the road through it. Honestly how could council staff not foresee this happening?

Meanwhile Virgin down again today 9-5 (actually was from 8) "for essential works...to ensure you get the absolute best from our services". Lost count of downtime days this year, VM are total jokers.

Southwark has published plans for a trial bus & cycle gate on Peckham Rye, between Nunhead Crescent and Nunhead Lane. Only buses, cycles and authorised vehicles (refuse & emergency vehicles) would be allowed through at any time. http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s91051/APPENDIX%201%20PECKHAM%20RYE.pdf Bus delays have grown in Southwark, even before the surge in driving post-lock down. So bus lanes, bus gates and reducing parking on narrower sections of road are essential if we are to have better bus services. Especially now as increasing delays mean a given number of buses can make fewer runs on a route, meaning more BUS FULL signs. The thing is, this is not a delay hotspot, not least as buses only operate southbound. Indeed most buses through Peckham operate on the *west* side of Peckham Rye, where this scheme will make congestion *worse*. Southwark even consulted on a new bus lane slightly north of there in 2016 but seems to have forgotten about installing it: https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/peckham-rye-proposed-bus-lane/ Even that wouldn't be enough to mitigate the effects though. The scheme is also supposed to help cycling, as this is the future route of Cycleway 35 to Catford. But TfL's collision data shows its the sections immediately north and south of here (plus also the western side) where cycling is unsafe and where Southwark drew up plans for cycle tracks three years back but has done zilch to implement them. Here it's very safe (one of the few collisions involved a cyclist in 2017 and no other vehicle). Plans to remove car parking would in any event enable separated cycle lanes to be installed anyway. Likewise the scheme is supposed to help walking but it's the west side that's harder to cross and where the collisions have been. Inevitably making changes to streets to increase sustainable travel will provoke disagreement, particularly in the short term when things bed in. However I'm left wondering if this is scheme where there need not be such disagreement- as there currently appears scant objective justification for it. That would be a shame as it could damage the case for the bus gates that Southwark needs elsewhere.

First Monday 8am after filters installed, so before traffic has settled down and also the return of schools. As the attached shows traffic is free-flowing. Where there is congestion is the ED Grove/ Townley junction, as usual. Google Maps not showing all the filters, so likely to be extra drivers having to do u-turns. Yes that junction does need addressing too. Area wide measures to encourage modal shift (not least a borough wide CPZ) would be helpful in reducing congestion there, on top the next stage of Dulwich healthy streets. dougiefreeman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Congestion is far worse right now than it has ever > been *because* of these closures. Whilst the > fortunate ?few? are benefitting from lovely clean > air, everyone else is having to put up with > increased air pollution.

Having been one of those people suffering with Virgin Media outages and sharing info on here, thought I'd pass on some good news. Full Fibre (Fibre to the Premises) is being rolled out in Southwark at the latest by March 2021. There's lots of BT markings appearing in last fortnight on pavements around Bellenden Road so could be sooner, expect more roadworks too. However this is only extending south as far as the New Cross exchange / old 071 code, so about as far as Oxenford Road, ED Road, Peckham Rye. Maybe less of an issue for those of you served by the Dulwich exchange, who can shop around. For some of us the copper wires back to New Cross are in such a bad state, any provider other than Virgin was limited to 2Mb. Map attached from https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/fibre-first

With Islington and neighbouring Bromley this week being in the top ten councils seeing a spike in COVID cases nationally, and Lambeth also having a significant increase, closing Rye Lane was clearly the right decision to help prevent an increase in Southwark. Before lockdown, 40% of the vehicular traffic on Rye Lane was pedal cycles. Sure it's more than 2500 per day now and this will only increase with more filters going in this week, e.g. Bishopsgate and Walworth. https://roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/manualcountpoints/86015 Telling everyone on two wheels to walk isn't going to walk on a major cycle route, you'd need police every 100m. In the short term Southwark should burn off the yellow lines etc. to reduce the perception of the kerb and then mark a 4.5m strip down the middle as a cycle track. That would make things simpler and clearer than everyone going everywhere. There's also a massive need for cycle parking to encourage all those people cycling to stop and spend, especially around Choumert Road and either side of the station. Next Southwark is planning to make Peckham Rye east side (the bit by the Rye pub) cycle & bus only, with access for residents. Maybe the Consort/Copeland Road junction could be made into a mini-roundabout, allowing just cycle & bus access into Copeland Road, so there's a stop closer to the station.

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/2020/jul/rye-lane-temporary-closure Rye Lane is being made walking and cycling only from Monday 6 July, with buses diverted and trolleys to help shops with loading. Seeing how busy the footways have been, this seems months overdue, so better late than never for social distancing. The change may last longer than COVID as it will help the works around Peckham Rye station. This change will increase motor traffic on Bellenden Road and Camberwell Grove however, as happened during the closure for gas works. Camberwell Grove forms part of cycleway 17, the same route Carlton Avenue is on. Clearly the council will need to take urgent measures to filter rat-running through this area too.

No it's not piecemeal, both Melbourne Grove and Carlton Avenue have been designated as cycle routes, that's a key part of the reason they've been prioritised, and rightly so. There are six times more signs than legally required to sign the traffic order. Carlton Avenue could do with more advance signing though but that should happen as the scheme bids in. Google Maps does show Carlton as closed but not MG yet. Just like the SUV driver who didn't "see" the signs, the planters or the people on the pavement she wanted to drive round ('Oh sorry it was a mistake'), so people on this thread don't see the need to cut out rat-running for these cycle routes to appeal to more people. Instead the keep moaning about how this is piecemeal and fail to provide any credible alternatives. Honestly.

It's a great improvement for walking and cycling. Hope the half of carriageway by the hairdresser/ shops can be made walking /seats only, with bikes going round the other side of the island. rahrahrah Wrote: ------------------ > That said, CPZs only entrench the idea that cars have an unquestionable right to dominate public space. Personally, I > would like to see a lot of space reallocated away from car storage, to prioritising bikes and people. Well the Peckham West CPZ has done exactly that, lots more space for social distancing now on some of London's narrowest pavements. Hope the council can extend CPZs soon south of ED Grove, where pavements are narrow too.

The experimental traffic orders to close the streets clearly need to be made to apply 24/7, as indeed they were when made last week. The way these orders are designed is that they can be loosened (e.g. exceptions added) rather than tightened during the experimental period. So if there really are disproportionate problems outside peak hours, that could be easily changed. Now let's just get on with the experiment and focus on requiring Southwark to communicate more credibly and transparently about the results from its monitoring. The actual impacts will be hard to work out as the background traffic situation is not normal or stable, so you can't simply ascribe impacts to the scheme. A dialogue between supporters, opponents, councillors and council staff is urgently needed to agree some ground rules about how this 'living lab' will work. Off-peak is definitely important to measure. The most health benefits from active travel (let's not forget either that COVID-19 affects the overweight etc. more) comes from enabling a wider range of people to walk and cycle more, especially those who aren't working. Likewise if we are to make Dulwich Village a place to linger during lockdown, so helping local business, a different balance between driving and space for people is needed daytimes and weekends.

This scheme is about enabling far more people to walk and cycle, in recognition that capacity on public transport is seriously limited due to social distancing. Melbourne Grove has been repeatedly designated as a future local cycling route but the council has failed to deliver. Trouble is the council has now also failed to communicate this plan or explain that it has a legal obligation to provide for dramatically increased levels of walking and cycling. Given this legal obligation, anyone writing into the council to complain based on the comments in this thread is wasting their time, as well as that of officers and councillors. If you have a better suggestion that can be delivered in a similar length of time that could be different. Certainly there is a case for also filtering Crystal Palace Road too (rather than as an alternative).

Yup like doogsey my only alternative to Virgin is 3Mb on copper line, whether it's talktalk, shell etc. Struggled to even stream iplayer SD with that. Just got email from Openreach today saying they are looking at installing fibre for those of us without in Goose Green area: "We are very happy to let you know that we've recently announced plans to start upgrading the network in London, and our initial planning work will include your street. In the near future, you may see people working on behalf of Openreach in your area. Be sure to say "hi" if you see them. It can take a year or more to finish your local network upgrade. Much of the time, you may not actively see us because we're meeting with local councils, landlords and highway authorities to get all the necessary permissions to install the new Openreach kit. Then we work on installing new equipment in our local exchange and other parts of town to get the fibre to your street." The local exchange (New Cross for those of us with 020 7XXX numbers) already has the equipment, it's the cabinets on street that are needed for those of us with Exchange Only lines.

mynamehere - we're other side of ED Road, so prob different fault though whole network here is 1st gen cable from 1980s, which is why it's so ropey. redjam - still waiting for Openreach to cable our street, only could get 3Mb on old phone line and had bad reliability with that too. Yes will jump when can. Virgin claim they will offer 1Gb across all their network by end of next year. Currently feels like the equivalent of switching from paying with clamshells to contactless, so I'm at best dubious. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/07/virgin-media-uk-confirms-1gbps-broadband-speeds-for-all-by-2021.html

Yes, been having this since mid-April, engineer finally came on Friday to replace router and check connection in box at end of street. But it's made zero difference, as unreliable as ever with broadband going down multiple times a day. See my post here /forum/read.php?5,2114700,page=2 I have called up to complain again today as can't face this area outage continuing till September. Apparently (didn't fully understand the advisor) may be able to get some compensation like ?8/ month till then. It's a joke.

If you want to put a filter in, surely better and cheaper to trial it on Melbourne Grove between Tell & Ashbourne Grove. This would allow space for turning etc. As for Cllr McAsh's claim "These measures, if implemented, will be done through an Experimental Traffic Order. These are new processes introduced by the government to get work moving quickly in response to the new circumstances of the pandemic." This process has in fact been around since at least 1984: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/part/I/crossheading/experimental-traffic-schemes

Just spoken to Virgin and there's a "utilisation outage" in the Bellenden area that started at 7.15pm on 27 April and is due to be fixed by the 24th... OF SEPTEMBER. FFS. This is likely to affect up to 250 properties and is the result of human error. Despite this, Virgin Service Status still shows "No known issues" for broadband. My router speed data shows issues since 16 April and with no broadband at all the last few days. On top of this we have a weak line apparently too but getting an engineer round on Friday. Besides Virgin's website breaking down a lot this week (if they can't even run a website, no wonder they can't provide reliable broadband), strongly advise anyone to avoid the text 'service', it's a total waste of (a lot of) time. The only good news is that Openreach will be installing here fibre soon (can't get more than 2Mb/s on the phone line).

ed_pete how did you find out about this? There's still nothing on the VM service status page for me if I log in, is there for anyone else? Where you given a reference number. Can't face going through its 'help'line. Apparently the reason cable broadband is so unreliable around ED is that there's so much 1st generation cable equipment. It's been cobbled together with newer stuff so it takes engineers ages to find out where on the network the faults are.

Problems with VM in SE15 for last few days - so why does their online service status page say no issues? Does the company that promised lightening fast speed rely on pigeon post to update their status page?? Thankful for this forum! VM mobile broadband going slow too now for those foolish enough to place all eggs in one basket :(

Rockets complained: "And also there has to be some rational and pragmatic analysis of where people actually commute to and from everyday. It's all well and good the likes of Khan arbitrarily closing streets in London to encourage more people to walk and cycle" [etc.] Melbourne Grove identified as a cycle route (as I said above) after detailed analysis then consultation in 2015: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/assets/attach/2215/Southwark-cycling-strategy.pdf That's the key reason it's being prioritised. Plus close it off just south of Tell Grove and it stops rat-running on the back streets here. Siduhe said: "What that says to me is there's absolutely a discussion to have about traffic calming measures in our area, but on an area basis, not street by street. Those people who want the roads closed to through traffic must accept that they can't have that in isolation (so they get all the benefit while others who don't get their roads closed take all the extra pain" This is exactly what other councils including Lambeth and Lewisham are doing, publishing a map of neighbourhoods to filter across their entire borough to engage communities with: https://lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/roads-and-transport/our-traffic-reduction-programme-healthy-neighbourhoods By contrast Southwark's planning is largely waffle or simply ad hoc as for Dulwich. And it's what the govt is now requiring councils to deliver, especially where public transport use highest like here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reallocating-road-space-in-response-to-covid-19-statutory-guidance-for-local-authorities/traffic-management-act-2004-network-management-in-response-to-covid-19#reallocating-road-space-measures "Measures should be taken as swiftly as possible, and in any event within weeks, given the urgent need to change travel habits before the restart takes full effect. ...Modal filters (also known as filtered permeability); closing roads to motor traffic, for example by using planters or large barriers. Often used in residential areas, this can create neighbourhoods that are low-traffic or traffic free, creating a more pleasant environment that encourages people to walk and cycle, and improving safety."

Unless a vaccine miraculously appears, we are going to have distancing rules for at least a year. That means more home working etc. so people around during the week. Any argument about what people/traders did/didn't want years in the past ignores the fact that reality is rather different now and for the near future. A lot of people commenting seem stuck in the past. Good on jakido for coming up with a brilliant idea to help people and local businesses in these difficult times. 3 days a week would be great with some outside tables. We need to experiment to find out what works.

Rockets - Southwark has for years been in breach of its duty to reduce air pollution, etc. and now risk being in breach of its new mandatory govt guidance to provide extra space for social distancing across the borough "within weeks". So plans are urgently needed for legal reasons not political ones. I am shocked by how dysfunctional politics are in Southwark that the borough is falling so far behind on delivery. People I know who've been to local Labour party meetings say they are full of factional infighting. Feels like our borough is run like Brazil when we need to be like New Zealand!

Melborne Grove is supposed to be a safe route to the school and new health centre - so why is the survey only aimed at people living on those streets, not the wider catchment area? (or indeed anyone in the wider area who's at risk from COVID if there isn't space for social distancing?) This is Southwark parochialism gone mad. With attitudes like this no wonder we are years behind other boroughs like Lambeth and Croydon that have published ambitious plans to keep their citizens safe and done more in three weeks than Southwark has in as many years. In any event the Melbourne Grove etc survey looks like an opportunistic data grab for Labour party marketing. Surely people's health should be more important than party politics?

Sissi81 - well said, the alternative route is about 1m wide and impossible to social distance on. From what we've seen you will not get sense out of people in Southwark Council on this, they'll just keep on saying anything to justify its actions, even when presented with law or facts showing them to be wrong. Also worth remembering even if there are 3 x funerals, the rules mean the funerals are much smaller, so easier to discretely walk around.

This is silly nit picking. The minister said that all parks and cemeteries should remain open (or if they were closed to be reopened): https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/communities-secretary-robert-jenrick-on-covid-19-response-18-april-2020 "Firstly, there have been examples of some parks around the country closing. This cannot be right. While the virus does not discriminate, we know that the lockdown is much harder for people who don?t have a lot of living space, who don?t have a garden, and who don?t have anywhere for their children to run around. People need parks. That?s why I have made it clear to councils that all parks must remain open. For the health of the nation, people should be able to safely enjoy fresh air and green space. And, for the health of the nation, people must abide by social distancing rules and not congregate in groups in parks." The reality is that in a densely populated area like Southwark, cemeteries particularly the older ones have a dual use as a place to walk as well as visit graves. Indeed for people have walked through cemeteries for centuries. For many people it's interesting to read inscriptions on gravestones, providing a connection back to the past and memories of an area, even if your family came from elsewhere. Let's hope Southwark will finally reopen the gates, even if it remains unable to be transparent and acknowledge it was wrong.