heartblock

Good public transport means the ability to take kids, shopping, dog.... etc. on transport that is clean, easily accessible and travels to and from where people want to go. If I remember rightly the good people of Calton Avenue didn't want a bus with us plebeians on it spoiling the look of their road... same for Gilkes. Melbourne Grovers ..... pressurised Southwark and LT to stop the 37 bus ruining their lovely rd. Funny isn't it. But owning 3 cars and 'demanding' a closed rd is apparently fine.

Car ownership is higher inside the LTNs than outside. Maybe LTNs should have no street parking, except for disabled bays...... methinks that might make some 3-car-owning gated community advocates rethink their position. I'm for free at the point of use public transport - funded by higher taxes for the Uber-wealthy and getting rid of the tax breaks for private schools. LTNs just benefit the wealthy and we all know it really...

Most of the boundary roads are traditional Labour strongholds, so even a dip in the vote will not matter . The gated rds are in swing seats, so they may vote Labour to keep their car storage and to keep their right to pollute my rd with fumes and noise while their rd is quiet and unpolluted. Which rd had their community garden taken away from them - a boundary rd. Which rd with access to a huge park was given a ‘square of shame’ an LTN rd in a swing seat. It’s obvious really.

There is some interesting data about car ownership inside LTNs and on boundary roads coming out of the last census- the main drift being a much higher car ownership inside than on boundary rds where residents complain of longer queues of idling traffic and slower bus journeys. So- after my drama-rama I decided to partake of some mini-research and asked a friend living in the closest LTN to me to look at her 3 neighbours one side and 3 the other and count adults and cars across those 7 (including hers) properties. So.... Outside LTN - 21 adults in 7 properties (mainly flats) and 4 cars Inside LTN - 14 adults in 7 properties (large semi-detached) and 15 cars Unscientific.....but quite interesting.

Long day at work is my only excuse...I was going to delete but then thought it was quite funny in a crazed sort of way. Sorry everyone. Back to LTNs I was wondering when the measures to reduce pollution on Croxted, LL and ED Grove were happening? Wasn’t there going to be ‘green’ fencing? And what happened to the exercise at looking at a dedicated bike lane.

The early Blair Government was prepared to do what? What actual practical endeavours was it really going to do? Propped up by Murdoch... what do you think? The only way to stop polluting the planet is to stop multi-national companies making short term profit and as long as the public blindly like zombies believe the **** they are shovelled daily.. fossil fuels will be dug, consumerism encouraged and light palliative policy put in place so we all carry on thinking that recycling our plastic makes any difference at all.

it's gone wrong! Yep ... we all in truth know that ...... but many clinging on to the fundalmentalist zombie line ........ LTN GOOD, public transport BAD...... LTN GOOD...... public transport BAD..... cyclist GOOD.....disabled BAD.....cyclist GOOD...... OLD people BAD....

Change hearts and minds..... sounds like a quote from Rish! No - have kids going to local schools that are accessible by public transport, walking and cycling - and close private schools and put that charitable money into excellent local state education. Actions matter - not words. (and actions that actually have a wider impact - rather than benefitting the richest few..)

As usual your assumption that I think double parked cars a a ‘good thing’ is in your brain and not in mine. Yes, discourage illegal and dangerous parking - I would be very pleased if Southwark and the private schools enacted that on ED Grove. The issue is that just like Southwark Council’s bumbling and ineffective changes to roads and junctions across the years, these bollards are ugly, dangerous for anyone with a visual impairment and a poorly thought out option. Street trees by the side of the road, would have been attractive, green and not posed a danger to pedestrians. The ugly barriers and street furniture barricades of the Village junction and the continued messy confusion of the Townley Rd, ED Grove crossing (designed by a mate of the Council and a private gated road enthusiast) show a lack of any real planning or thinking. I suppose it’s all about putting one’s career on track for a highly paid job with a private construction company or the greasy pole of politics.

Absolutely - sounds great - maybe our hard-working councillors can pick this up and think about a lovely community asset?

East Dulwich Grove is daily polluted and has to put up with pavement and poor parking by selfish parents driving private school kids to JAGs/Alleyn's during term time - but Southwark and the Schools have done zilch/ nothing/ zero to make this issue go away - in fact is worse than I have ever known across 35 years of living here - now with added terrible coach parking by both private and new state school. Satisfied?

These bollards must be a hazard to anyone with visual impairment. They could have planted trees near the road, so not impeding pedestrians - but instead these ugly bollards - just reminded me of Southwark's inability to make the street architecture more attractive and it's inconsiderate attitude to disability in terms of travel/transport and the main mode of transport in EDulwich - walking. I suppose if it was in EDulwich there would be the additional hazard of discarded Lime bikes and e-scooters.

There is evidence that flu vaccine is protective against the worst effects of Covid https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01315-9 Anything that 'pokes' the immune system actually activates responses, so J and B are very much off the mark.....

House mouse - very small, horrible smell, Wood (Field) mouse, bigger ears, no horrible smell. We had a house mouse, caught in a humane trap last night ... released it far away. I felt like killing it after it tried to make the trap into a nice new home by dragging the chewed of corner of my luxury merino and cashmere throw into it. Ggrrrrrhhh

A true community project and a great video. I hope the space stays with the community ..it would be great if the building became a cafe and arts space. Maybe Southwark could part fund, rather than spend time and money making posh and wealthy roads ‘gated’ communities, unfortunately Southwark Labour Councillors are far more interested in their future careers in politics and development rather than being brave about real communities.

Aaah I love this footage...

White flash above the eye = redwing... fabulous bird. A wren somehow got into our lean-to but my partner beaconed it out with their bird-whispering. Wrens are so delightful.

Well... not impressed by the Labour Councillors and shocked by Cllr. Rose outburst. As a former LP member and voter - I am made happier every day since leaving the local LP. The utter arrogance of these people. I will never vote Tory, but I have to say the two representing local residents acted professionally and politely, despite the shouty person.

It’s not a ‘square’ its a junction, but if closed to vehicles - Either bikes can transit, with no sitting area or pedestrianisation or it is a area where people might sit /walk and bikes can’t transit, so cyclists have to dismount. Having both is going to lead to someone getting injured. I walk and take public transport and the main danger for me is cyclists and scooters ridden by adults and children on the pavement, I’m not young and my eyesight is a bit dodgy, I’m usually carrying books, files and a heavy laptop, so can’t move as quickly as I could. This autumn so far, a child hitting my ankle with their scooter and a cyclist forcing me onto the road and a one forcing me against the wall under the pedestrian only tunnel at HH station. Yes more cycling, yes more cycle racks, yes more cycling lanes, but please keep off the pavement.

No problem with ULEZ expansion, but I have issues with poor research - it’s ridiculous that they selected the LTNs where NO2 fell or didn't change, whilst ignoring the two Highbury LTNs where NO2 went up significantly (up to 35% worse and 42% worse) on boundary roads. Cherry-picked research, would not hold up in a clinical trial and considering this is actually a life or death matter - the standards should be equivalent.

Aaah yes this piece of research. OK, so some roads inside LTNs (closed to traffic roads) were counted as boundary roads outside of LTNs and the pollution levels measured on these closed rds , was proclaimed as pollution levels on a road such as Lordship Lane or Croxted Road equivalent. The ‘controls’ were the same ‘controls’ the local authority had to write an apology for in an earlier piece of research. When I have time I’m re-reading the whole article, but it already looks even with poor data points not significant and flawed.

I think it's best that those people who can only afford housing on the South Circular should have more traffic..it's only right that those in 'nice' neighbourhoods where people can afford expensive houses, with off road parking and nice gardens should have less traffic... look, let's face it those individuals are more likely to suffer health inequality anyway, so it's not going to make that much difference. Oh look at the lovely square and all the little (white) kiddies on their bikes.

And again.. not conspiracy. A mix of incompetence and careerist enterprise. If Liz Truss can become PM -then any of these individuals can float to the top.

At least 1 in 20 is what I said and was conveniently ignored ... but where it is positioned on EDG Central (the 'poster-boy' of the success of 'reducing' traffic on ED Grove central) it will be higher as cars slow down and stop on that exact point on EDG - do go see it for yourself. The detail - Where cars only shuffle forwards a couple of car lengths at a time you will not count 25 per cent of the cars (that’s one in every four), in milder congestion where cars move forwards 10 car lengths at a time you will miss five per cent of vehicles (one in every 20). Just to throw in another euurgh point - surveyors sometimes use a filter when generating a report so it also leaves out the slowest moving traffic below a certain speed, but I cannot say if Southwark also added this extra dimension. By the way, the research bounced around by the HTN purveyors - such as Walthamstow Mini Holland scheme - all have used the double-tube system.....