Author: thurlowparklabour

Thurlow Park's Labour councillors sharing news and ways to get involved in the local area - including West Norwood, Herne Hill, Tulse Hill and West Dulwich.

Some success in our campaign to end bridge strikes – a south circular technology upgrade

Many of you will be familiar with the regular delay and disruption caused by bridge strikes to the railway bridge over the South Circular in Tulse Hill. It is the most regular hit bridge in the UK – the regular collisions have caused over 200 hours of delay to Southern and Thameslink passengers in the past 12 months.

The impact of a bridge strike is incredibly disruptive – the roads are blocked, the trains are delayed and traffic is routed down residential streets. After years of inaction from TfL and Network Rail, we have been working hard to raise the profile of the problem and get some investment in solving it. We have been working with local residents, TfL officers, our MP and the London Assembly member, Flo Eshalomi AM.

The bridge’s location, near to the Tulse Hill station platforms, means it isn’t possible to raise the level, so we are petitioning for long term investment to instead lower the road in order to ensure all vehicles can fit underneath without any collision. This is a significant engineering challenge and will require substantial investment.

In the meantime, we have successfully lobbied for better technology and signage to prevent oversized lorries from attempting to go under the bridge. A detector system has been installed which is triggered by overheight vehicles. This will set off an alert to drivers that they need to stop or turn off the road before the bridge. We have had additional signage installed on the bridge, steel beams to protect it and engineers based nearby at peak hours to inspect the bridge quickly if needed, to minimise delays to train services. We have also successfully pushed for CCTV to be installed.

The cost of installation and future maintenance has been shared by TfL and Network Rail, and the systems are linked to TfL’s London Streets and Traffic Control Centre. That means the condition of the system can be monitored remotely and if a fault occurs it can be dealt with immediately. The LED signs are low energy.

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Peabody Youth Board

The Peabody Youth Board is a dynamic group of young volunteers from London aged 12-25, who set up youth activities. With help from Peabody and other partners, the board gets involved in local communities, supporting the voices and views of young people.

The board has identified three main issues important to young people –

  • anti-social behaviour
  • activities and places to go
  • opportunities and guidance

For more information, or to get involved please email youth.board@peabody.org.uk

Could you be Peabody’s next young ambassador?

If you’re aged 11-24 and live in a Peabody property you could access up to £500 funding to develop your own projects – such as trips, events and activities for all your community. You can also get support and training for an OCN level 1 award equivalent to NVQ Level 1 or a Foundation Diploma. And if you’re over 16, you could travel to the United States as a Peabody Ambassador, in partnership with the US Embassy.

How?

1) Complete an application form by emailing youngpeople@peabody.org.uk for details

2) Develop your idea with support from Peabody and other professionals

3) Deliver your activity and become a young leader in your community

Meet Sadiq’s new deputy mayor for the environment

Sadiq Khan has appointed Shirley Rodrigues to be the Deputy Mayor for Envrionment. She has previously worked in senior environmental policy roles, helping to implement the London Low Emission Zone and developing programmes to retrofit the capital’s buildings.

Ms Rodrigues has said that her priority is to make London one of the world’s most environmentally friendly cities, and is keen to tackle air pollution. Around 9,500 Londoners die from long term exposure to air pollution every year, and Sadiq Khan has said that tackling this is one of the biggest health emergencies facing the capital. Ms Rodrigues will be driving forward ambitious plans for a T-Charge for the most polluting vehicles, expanding the Ultra-Low Emission Zone and creating green bus zones.

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Norwood Road closed to traffic as police recover machine gun from car

Norwood Road was closed to traffic in both directions on Tuesday evening as police pulled over a car suspected to be carrying firearms. A 23 year old man and a 30 year old woman were arrested on suspicion of possession of firearms. The man was tasered when he reportedly refused to comply with officers, and was taken to hospital as a precaution before being taken into custody.

A search of the car revealed what police believe to be a Mac10 machine pistol and ammunition. These have been sent for forensic testing.

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Detective Superintendent Mark Maberly of the Trident and Area Crime Command said: “Trident is committed in its efforts to proactively target those supplying and possessing firearms. We continue to work with the local community to tackle gun enabled crime and the associated criminality that comes with it. These types of operations can be challenging but are conducted by highly trained officers to bring about a safe resolution and ultimately make London streets safer.”

If you have any information about gun or gang crime you can contact Trident via 101. To give information anonymously please contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Lambeth Labour secures investment to help residents into employment

Lambeth Council has secured a share of £6m funding to help unemployed residents into work – especially those who are homeless or overcoming substance abuse. Lambeth is one of six initiatives commissioned by the London Councils, with funding also coming from the European Social Fund, part of the EU.

The programme will offer enhanced support for homeless residents and residents who have recently recovered from substance abuse, plus disabled residents, over-50s, BAME residents and women. It will be delivered by voluntary and community organisations across the borough from September 2016 to December 2018. Across the six projects, 4,500 people will be helped back into work in this needs-led approach.

Our deputy leader Paul McGlone, who is chair of the London Councils’ grants committee, said: “The money will be focused on those who are a long way from employment and will offer tailored support.”

It’s Night Tube time!

The first Night Tube services begin TONIGHT! Running on the Central and Victoria lines from tonight, the service will be extended to the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines in Autumn. It will offer a 24-hour service on Friday and Saturday nights.This means that tonight trains will run every 10 mins to and from Brixton, with the 37, N2 and N3 bringing residents back to Thurlow Park through the night from Brixton station. There will be an enhanced police service during overnight services to ensure that the Tube remains a safe, low crime environment.

After the delays to the rollout of night time services, we are thrilled that Sadiq Khan has managed to come to a resolution with staff and unions that everyone is happy with and deliver the new service within just first 100 days of office.

Cleaner greener bus for Brixton

The Labour Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has confirmed his plans for Low Emission Bus Zones across London. These will identify the most polluted routes and prioritise them for the greenest buses in order to clean up our toxic air.

From October 2017, this will see big improvements to the A23 route between Brixton and Streatham. This route will be served exclusively by hybrid or diesel buses with top of the range anti pollutant systems whoch meet or exceed European standards. Lambeth is one of the two first schemes to benefit from the new plans and it is expected to reduce NOx emissions by over 80%.

Cllr Jennifer Brathwaite, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport said: “This is great news in the fight to improve London’s air quality. Brixton and Streatham see a huge amount of buses travelling through and it has had a real impact on air quality in the area. In Lambeth, we are determined to see our air quality improve and we welcome the new low emission bus zone – it is something that we have been lobbying the Mayor for and it is encouraging that he seems as determined as we are to make a difference. We will continue to work with the Mayor and TfL to make Lambeth a cleaner and safer place to live.”

See more information from the Brixton BID here.

Bridge strike in Tulse Hill…

… but a different bridge to normal.

The bridge over Thurlow Park Road is the UK’s most frequently hit bridge, but today, it was the railway bridge over Norwood Road that caused the problems.

Norwood Road is currently closed to traffic as emergency services deal with this:

And earlier, the bridge was hit by a vehicle transporting vans, causing delays to traffic and trains.