legalalien

I was interested to see in the most recent decision notice that ?Concerns were raised regarding the additional time required to collect waste due to closures being proposed as part of the GSTTC and wider Southwark LSP schemes.? I was reflecting on that the other day - presumably Veolia have contractual service levels - I wonder if they made these dependent on there not being lots of road closures or not? It would be an easy thing for them to miss. I guess with a 25 year contract they must have given themselves some wriggle room on the traffic / road configuration front. Just idle speculation.

Here is the decision notice for the LTNs being funded by the Guys and St Thomas?s charity and discussed at the recent Environmental Scrutiny Commission meeting http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50024511 Those who attended / watched the meeting will know that these ones have been a bit more thought through. Interestingly this decision notice contains a slightly more detailed ?consultation? section: ? Consultation 15. Meetings were held with Ward Councilors to discuss each location. Main concerns raised related to increased journey times for residents and increased traffic and air pollution of surrounding roads as a result of traffic displacement. 16. Emergency services (Fire, Police and Ambulance) have indicated they will not support schemes which promote hard road closures, as they will increase response times. Their preference is for camera enforced closures without physical prevention for vehicles. Camera enforcement will be considered should any of the measures be made permanent. 17. All measures have been designed in consultation with Southwark Waste Management. In order to ensure residential waste collection is maintained, removable bollards have been proposed. Concerns were raised regarding the additional time required to collect waste due to closures being proposed as part of the GSTTC and wider Southwark LSP schemes. 18. Consultation with schools and businesses will be undertaken prior to the schemes being implemented. 19. Further consultation with residents will be undertaken during the period of the Experimental Traffic Management Order via Commonplace? I?d hazard a guess this has gone in in response to concerns expressed by ward councillors and generally about the process on some of the measures to date.

Interesting. Still can't see anything on the Southwark site other than the point closure promulgated back in August - but as we know it's not the easiest to navigate. Maybe take a pic of the notice,and we can try and find the underlying order?

I used to flat with a weather forecaster in another country - he set up a business (run out of our ground floor) in competition with the Met Office equivalent, based on their data feed and supplementing it with info from a network of people on the ground (farmers, amateur meteorologists etc) who used to phone our flat with info late at night and into the early hours. He always told me that although the met office model had much more data than previously, it still wasn't over a long enough period, and there was much to be said for people who knew their environment. He won the contract for the equivalent of radio 4 and was wildly successful (the met office continued to supply tv). So whether or not the change to someone else has worked in this case, maybe weather is another area where there is not just a simple, one version of "the science"? I've used dark sky until recently, it seems to have got less accurate since being adopted by apple.

Have been watching last night's Southwark Overview and Scrutiny Commission meeting on youtube and the second half turned out to be a really interesting discussion about council regeneration projects with inputs / q and a with reps from projects in Bankside, Walworth, Elephant area and Camberwell. If you have time on your hands it's well worth a watch. From about 2 hours in until the end.

Agree. Not sure they?ll make great alternative cycle routes for adults though- post Covid I imagine they?ll be packed with parents / carers/ children having a pre and post pick up gossip!

Still watching last night's OSC meeting on and off. They've just discussed the most recent version of the council's performance reports for 2019/20 which are in the doc below - really interesting as a point by point analysis of all the things Southwark is trying to achieve. From about 1:50 onward it gets into a discussion about the fact that a number of the targets need to be more measurable and reporting needs to be a bit better than "in progress" - the new leader seems reasonably on board with this. And the chair of the scrutiny commission is recommending quarterly reporting. Sounds like they've found it difficult to perform their role based on data provided. All good developments IMHO. http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/g6738/Public%20reports%20pack%20Monday%2009-Nov-2020%2018.30%20Overview%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=10

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/assets/attach/25190/School-Streets-trial-notice-dated-5-Nov-2020-.pdf Yes it is true - notice at this link.it's an experimental traffic order. (And yes it should refer to east dulwich grove rather than east dulwich road)

There's some stuff about that in the onedulwich fact checker that I came across yesterday - as of August they don't seem to have got to the final figures.. (It's towards the bottom of the page) https://www.onedulwich.uk/fact-checker

Rockets - am currently watching last night's Overview and Scrutiny Committe meeting (it's long but I would recommend it - it's councillors having a Q and A with the new council leader Kieron Williams and covers a wide variety of issues relevant to Southwark, its post COVID finances, cladding issues, divestment of fossil fuel investments from council pension funds, the bakerloo line extension (just seen an interesting exchange where one of the councillors suggested that although listed as a response to the climate emergency, the emissions caused in the construction process were likely to take about 35 years to recover through the benefoit... And, bike storage has had a special mention, it is on the council's agenda for sure. They're looking to double it initially (can't remember timeline) but ultimately make it accessible to all.

I like the idea of random consultation. What I will say is that the zoom calls necessitated by COVID are much easier to access / understand than some of the slightly incoherent video recordings of some meetings in the past, and a great way of reaching those with work/ childcare commitments who find it hard to attend public meetings. I really hope they keep them going.

Did anyone mention militant cyclists? I think there's a strong tendency in all areas for the council just to speak to the "usual suspects". Take the climate emergency. The council's strategy papers are full of statements about the need to consult fully, engage, educate, bring everyone along for the ride. Yet so far they've set up a Partnerships Steering Group to act as an adviser / give input on the strategy - described as "a group of local residents, partners, interest groups and others with an interest and expertise in this area to provide advice to the Cabinet Member and the Council." Has anyone heard about this body being set up? I suspect few have. Does anyone know who is on it? I've spent some time googling without success, I will email the councillor. Then there's some consultation, including the online one I've posted to earlier that noone was told about. The decision was to "promote the online portal as part of our corporate communications through this period, we will also use known groups within the council such as those that work with young people, BAME groups, interest groups, community groups and others to promote the hub". Deliberately or not - this is not a conspiracy theory - the Council tends to consult and involve only those within its bubble. It might just be because it's cheaper and easier, but that doesn't make it OK. How hard would it be, for example, to post information on sites such as the EDF and get to a wider range of people? http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s89020/Additional%20Consultation%20Information%20Ltr%20from%20Cabinet%20Member%20for%20Environment%20Transport%20and%20the%20Clim.pdf

I've never been fined for anything (except jaywalking on my second day in an Australian city - I had no idea there was such a thing)! I am so boring. But for the record I don't think that has any relevance to my views on the current council's failure to provide adequate /accurate data, consult fairly and properly (and possibly as required by law), provide a sufficient level of transparency/ attempt to engage with all members of its constituency on a fair and equal basis, or respond to criticisms that it is failing to meet its own stated criteria for the implementation of its LTN policy. These issues are bigger than the question of whether or not LTNs are a good thing: if the council acts in this way on this particular issue, there's every chance they are acting the same way on other issues. Once you start scouting around the recesses of the council website you find all manner of things that never see any degree of public scrutiny. So it's potentially a problem for us all at some point. And yes, it is true that we all have the ability to make ourselves engage more (I am trying to do that): but from my experience that requires a LOT of time, effort, lateral thought in terms of trying to find information - and it's not reasonable to expect everyone to do this, many people don't have the time/ resources (in terms of internet etc access) or skills. And breathe.

No there are no conservative councillors in DV / Southwark any more I don?t believe.

The irony is, though, that most of the residents of DV that you speak to are equally unhappy about the situation. I'm actually starting to come away from the view that this is being driven by the DV ward councillors as a vanity project - they may however have been willing to turn a blind eye to the deficiencies in process in an effort to satisfy some of their more vocal constituents. I think maybe it's more driven by the "coalition" of interests referred to at healthystreetsscorecard above (sustrans, london/southwark cyclists/ mumsforlungs/ livingstreets et al with Rachel Aldred advising them, coupled with a highly inadequate (some might think deliberately) consultation process, designed to effect a bigger cyclist/ climate emergency agenda before the ordinary person in the street realises what is happening. And that's not to say that such an agenda is not well-meaning/ well founded / well-justified. But the plan seems to be to impose it on a kind of "means justify the ends" basis. And that's where I have a problem. I'm wondering where the "opposition" Lib Dem councillors sit in all this, given the "Dem" part stands for democracy.... dulwichfolk Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I just wonder how the councillors of wards outside > of DV are happy to accept all the pollution and > cars that these measures will bring. > > We might as well have a big tip in the middle of > lordship lane for the DV resident to throw any of > their excess rubbish in, and they might as well > make some the parking spaces available to DV > residents only. Why stop there how about a speedy > bus service which cuts out all the inconvenient > stops outside of DV. > > Makes you wonder why some people take up the > position in the first place and how the transport > planners if they have any say are happy to go > along with this form of social inequality.

So, on the basis that democracy and transparency are well and truly dead in Southwark, this would seem to be the best place to work out what will happen next may be https://www.healthystreetsscorecard.london/. I?m predicting segregated cycle lanes on EDG and LL and much worse (if possible) traffic as a result... any other guesses?

I haven?t seen anything concrete to that effect but will keep an eye out - it is pretty difficult to keep track even when you are actively trying to do so. You?re right that planters there would potentially create a lock in...

But surely the residents are most likely to be the ones with the 2km journeys to school that we?re supposed to be stopping? Plus in our Leafy LTNs, most people have off street parking? More likely to charge them a reduced per journey fee?

My guesses: 1. via Eynella or dovercourt / townley etc )LL/ EDG/village way/ half moon lane. Alt is south circ / croxted/ herne hill? But norwood road is already a car park in the morning so would be crazy to go that way. 2. Turney/ burbage/ gallery / alleyn park / alleyn road IF its possible to exit burbage onto the Burbage road roundabout about and turn right? I think you can based on the drawing? But you'd have to do the return trip a different way - probably via park hall road / croxted road - and then park your car somewhere in turney or burbage until restrictions ended. Not much parking around there though. 3.croxted / / norwood road / herne hill (actual Herne Hill, the road). There was at one point a petition for a time closure on turney at the croxted end, if that happened I imagine you could get out but not back in..

Out of interest - has anyone heard of or been engaged in Southwark's Phase 1 consultation about its Climate Change Strategy? If you look here - http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=7130 - you can see the Cabinet decision made in July, it seems that original plans for consultation were amended, but there had still been an online consultation on common space, the outcome of which is set out in one of the Appendices. Unsurprisingly all of the feedback (which covers the first 100 respondents) is in one direction - is that perhaps because no-one outside the bubble had any idea at all that this consultation even existed? This is becoming more and more of a joke, I'm afraid. The online consultation is now closed, in case anyone is wondering... " 3.4.Transport and travel Individual level: Respondents outlined how individuals can change their transport behaviour to include more active transport and fewer trips by car. These recommendations were straightforward and included walking, cycling, and taking public transport, in addition to driving less and flying less. Respondents wanted to see individuals encourage their neighbours to do the same and join campaigns that fight for air quality improvements. A few respondents called on individuals to consume less to decrease delivery transport needs. Borough and city level: Transport was the most commented-on topic area amongst the first 100 respondents, i.e. the highest proportion of respondents gave suggestions on this topic, and within this topic area, local authority action received the highest number of suggestions. Responses here were also more specific than in any other topic area. For example, respondents told Southwark Council precisely where bike storage and lanes were needed, and what features they want these lanes to possess. Comments supported active and public transport and asked local authorities to disincentivise car use through taxes, low emissions zones, and outright car bans. Respondents saw car bans on certain road as an opportunity to reallocate space and pedestrianize streets. Respondents connected these transport changes to decreased air pollution and improved public health. Respondents also called on local authorities to influence national infrastructure projects by openly declaring opposition, e.g. oppose HS2 and the Heathrow Expansion." Edited to add: and then in October the Environmental Scrutiny Commission says this: "The draft climate change strategy is currently going through a full engagement programme and consultation which started in March 2020. The initial phase of online engagement ran from March to July which fed into the draft strategy that came to cabinet in July. This initial phase of engagement was not sufficient to deliver a final strategy due to the impact that COVID-19 had on our ability to have in depth conversations with residents. Since the draft strategy has been published, we have continued to ask residents for their views which will feed into a final strategy that wewill look to publish by the end of the year. As lockdown regulations have been eased, we have been able to run socially distanced consultation events in public spaces to gather these views directly." .. and then a recommendation to work to engage young people/ school councillors and groups who are not digitally engaged. But what about ordinary people who are digitally engaged? I am sure I've never had any kind of communication at all about this - is it just me?

that's possible but I'm not sure what that traffic would do when it saw the sign (and in any case why would they be doing that - wouldn't they be going the other way towards EDG?) If heading to DV then they'd have to do what? Turn left and try and loop around and go back up LL and EDG? That doesn't bear thinking about...

maybe it's linked to the Townley Road thing in some way...eg no through route to East Dulwich Grove? (to stop lots of traffic going to the end of woodwarde/ calton and then realising it can't get through?) ps and now I have "Road to Nowhere" on repeat in my brain.... Talking Heads, takes me back to the mid 80s...

Two new TMOs from Thursday: School Streets trials - Alleyn?s Junior School, The Charter School East Dulwich, Crawford Primary School, Ivydale Primary School, & St. James? Cof E Primary School Various parking and a cycle track order - parking includes disabled bays in Calton Ave, CONSORTROAD north-east side,extend and formalise existing mandatory with-flow cycle lane between its junctions with Nunhead Lane and Scylla Road; some waiting restrictions in Pickwick Road - you really need to look at the actual thing (Minor Traffic Scheme Q4) to see where they are... Both available at https://www.southwark.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/traffic-orders-licensing-strategies-and-regulation/traffic-management-orders?chapter=5

It does seem that the monitoring is to be quite limited ie traffic counts (including of pedestrians so they must have people doing them?) - no air pollution monitoring mentioned.

Just had this letter from Southwark hand delivered through the letterbox (see pics)