heartblock

So.. pollution is higher on the roads that are not closed.....

Yes I saw that ambulance... huge queue on EDG as cars couldn?t divert off the smaller roads.

Exactly Dulwich girl, the impact of more pollution is on people in higher density housing with less access to gardens and open space. This council has shat on the most vulnerable residents.

Thanks KidKruger, my thought exactly. I am pro reducing car travel, reducing pollution, I have campaigned in fact for green policy for many of my 55 years on this planet. I have a plant based diet, avoid plastic, recycle and upcycle. Have driven twice in the last 10 years and own a bike that is used often and walk as much as I can. The road closures for roads that in the 30+ years I have lived in East Dulwich have never been as polluted or busy as East Dulwich Grove, which now has an extra school, nurseries, a health centre and is a major road for pedestrians and cyclists. This road can accommodate a cycle lane with a bit of imagination and financial input from Southwark. The current closures are cheap, lazy and represent poor planning. Pedestrians and cyclists now both use a crowded and polluted pathway during the school rush, cars idle and braver cyclists use the right hand lane at high risk. East Dulwich Grove is also a high density residential area, less affluent than the gated communities and with a higher burden of health inequality. Very poor Southwark Council, very poor.

How about applying for a safer, greener, cleaner East Dulwich Grove.... you have 3 days to flood the website. https://www.southwark.gov.uk/engagement-and-consultations/grants-and-funding/cleaner-greener-safer

I don?t drive ?The two views seem to be: 1. Those who really want to be able to drive without hindrance 2. Those who want to make it easier to walk and cycle and more difficult to use ones car. The main disagreement is whether attempts to achieve this with filtering traffic on certain roads, leads to better or worse outcomes in general, when it comes to health, the environment, quality of life etc. Reasonable people may take different views on this, as clearly there are knock on impacts. But if you agree with aim 2. , but not the approach to trying to attain it, then it would be interesting to hear alternatives suggestions. I haven't really heard however, anyone explaining how the first approach (sticking with the status quo) can possibly make anything better.? I walk and cycle...my road is now awful to cycle or walk on for 4 hours a day during the working week. I?m sure if my road had been closed I would also be saying ?these closures are wonderful?.... but instead I now have all your traffic on my road. Thanks.

I think it means - the road closures to cars has made my lovely street even more lovely and although your scruffy horrid street was already polluted, with poor paving, higher density housing and higher number of pedestrian/ cyclists, I don?t care because my road is ok. An alternative (and apparently ?Stalinist?) take is - I would prefer less cars across the borough, more cycle lanes, more shared cycle/pedestrian paths, speed cameras and cycle to school/work schemes. If Southwark paid for Boris bikes this would be a start... but a couple of large flower pots and pitting neighbours against each other is the ?Southwark? way...

The robin in the garden was not happy about the long tailed tits! I planted a silver birch Sue, plus two ?shrubs? that are now trees. The silver birch was a twig when planted, 5 years later it is a thing of beauty. The heron in Dulwich Park, looks like it has completion from a cormorant... there was a very young heron this summer, maybe it is trying to find it?s territory?

It?s not a meme, it is a phrase that you have written and placed inside quotation marks. Labelling residents who have concerns about pollution as Stalinists? Really?

They are so entertaining, I love their contact calls to each other, my little flock are probably your Underhill gang on a little day trip 😂😍

Exactly Mako.... the cars on my road at school delivery of children time, are the cars that belong to the ?gated? communities delivering their children to Alleyn?s and JAGs, many getting annoyed at the traffic and trying to U turn in front of cyclists, beeping at pedestrians trying to cross the road. The extra traffic makes it hard for cyclists, pedestrians and people trying to use the 37 bus. Meanwhile the ?square? is having dancing parties and string quartets. All roads need to have more access for pedestrians and cyclists. The encouragement of less car use needs to be borough wide not just for the lucky few. It?s always the poorer and more polluted areas that get shat on in Southwark.

Greendale isn?t far and my very small garden has trees, so I think I was a pit stop for some tasty insects!

Long-tailed tits....loads of them in the garden 😁😁😁😁😁😁

Yes that end would work well, it is very wet on the road today, so I have seen cyclists giving up with the centre with slippery white lines and cycling on the pavement instead. This is what happens when ?planning? is poor. Large shared pedestrian-cycle paths with specified areas work well and keep cyclists safe.

EDG is a Resedential road that has schools and a health centre and a high percentage of cyclists and pedestrians. Making a wider pavement/cycle path by reducing parking on one side of the road, will not make the road smaller. The only thing slowing up the no 37 bus is the new road closures. This standing traffic is awful for cyclists during the commute, so they ride up the middle, the opposite lane or on the pavement. A cycle lane just requires good planning, so yes it will never happen as good planning for roads does not exist in Southwark.

A cycle lane on EDG is needed, cyclists either end up in the middle of the road or on the pavement....open the closed roads, ban parking on one side of upper EDG and have a larger split pavement for cyclists and pedestrians.....easy.

Dear James, Can Southwark rethink buying Boris bikes to encourage cycling. Can the noisy drain between The Health Centre and the School running from LL to DV direction be repaired so we can all sleep at night. Can the useless speed bump on the bend of EDG be removed and replaced by cameras so that traffic (when it is moving) is going at 20 or less rather than making more pollution and noise as it hits the ramp shedding particulates. Can EDG have new paving as this has not been replaced for over 30 years, while the gated communities have lovely new paving. Now the parking zone has come in ...the middle section after the bend could easily accomadate a cycle lane with parking on one side making it safer and the pavement in other sections could be widened as a shared pedestrian cycle path. Maybe time to spend some of my 30 year + rates on my road?

I think you are right Rockets the DV closure is causing the main issues. Returning back from West Sussex on Friday through the main road in DV was the worst part of the journey. I pity all the people eating outside in the Village breathing in the fumes from idling traffic. EDG is impacted by both DV and side road closures, as an EDG resident who hates the increase in traffic I dislike both closures, but DV is definitely the main culprit.

In today?s Observer. Healthier streets around the Oval. Sam Cooray, who lives on the border of the scheme, claims the traffic that used to filter through the streets in the Oval triangle has ended up outside her home. ?I?m between two main roads so I?m in a cloud of pollution, and my children are in a cloud of pollution,? she says, sitting in a park cafe beside a busy road. Cooray, 42, adds that the proponents of the scheme are drawn from a very narrow, privileged section of the local population. ?They are not representative of working classes, of BME communities, of the disabled, of local businesses,? Cooray claims.

How about a bowling green?

I passed the planters in ?Dulwich Square? on my walk from a very busy EDG to the park. They were as dry as a bone and most of the plants were dead or dying. If EDG is made into a lovely traffic free road, I will be happy to water our planters.

https://www.peabody.org.uk/media/12948/guide-to-setting-up-ra.pdf I thought about starting one....

I?m not sure how many times one has to say... I do not drive, I walk and cycle, I have lived here on this road for 30 years and this is the worst it has ever been. I want less cars on all roads, but shunting more traffic on already polluted roads with high density residences is not a gain in health and environment for my neighbours. If I lived on a gated road in a lovely big house with a lovely big garden that would be great. People living on East Dulwich Grove in flat with no garden have to put up with noise and pollution for over four hours a day, while other residents have only local traffic.. it stinks of inequality.

The only benefit of the standing traffic from LL all the way along EDG today is the cyclists are enjoying scooting past it all by using the opposing lane...until a car or van makes a frustrated u-turn and takes a cyclist out. Witnessed one near-miss during my daily run. Quote from friend who lives near Rosendale ?oh those poor people living on that road, must be hell?.

I cycle and walk and use public transport. Mynroad East Dulwich Grove is now a nightmare for cyclists, pedestrians and bus users. Everyone walking down that road 5 days a week to school or work is breathing in standing traffic fumes. It is also horrible living on my street during the 6 hours that the road is taking up displaced traffic.