Progress on our campaign for a safer South Circular!

For the last five years as your local councillors we have been campaigning for a safer South Circular.

Following the tragic death in 2017 of Dr. Jasjot Singhota at the zebra crossing on Thurlow Park Road, by Birkbeck Hill, in February we organised a walkabout with TfL, Helen Hayes MP and our GLA representative Flo Eshalomi to highlight the problem of speeding, as well as lobbying the transport deputy mayor of London.

Sadly, another young woman was killed on the South Circular a year ago crossing at the pedestrian crossing between Ladbrokes and the Co-op. This is a very dangerous junction, and while the £5 million we have secured as part of the Streetworks project to completely redesign it, clearly it needs to be made much safer much sooner while those plans are developed.

We met with London’s deputy mayor for transport and got a commitment that the Streetworks project would experience no further delays. In the interim, they agreed to review the positioning and lighting at the corner where the hit and run took place.

We are incredibly pleased to see that action has been taken – the crossing has been realigned to improve pedestrian visibility on this corner.

This is by no means enough, and we will continue to campaign for safety improvements. Soon, we hope to be able to share detailed plans for the gyratory redesign – the high level designs were developed with the community and have been with TfL technical officers to model.

Recent Streetworks co-creation workshops at City Heights and the Salvation Army Hall focused on the Tulse Hill Gyratory and saw over 90 people attend.

As well as a general update on the project so far there was further information given about an initially popular co-design idea of the partial closure of the Norwood Road with access only for pedestrians, buses and cyclists as seen in the first image, while there was also the launch of the design competition for the new diagonal crossing as seen in the second image.

StreetWorks is a community-led project to improve Norwood and Tulse Hill. The project is funded by Transport for London and supported by officers at Lambeth Council.

The Norwood Forum, the Tulse Hill Forum, local councillors and community groups are working together with residents, businesses, schools and road users to design a better space, remove the one-way system at Tulse Hill and provide training and support for future local projects.

If you’d like any further information or want to get involved in the Streetworks project please visit – http://www.streetworks.london/

South Circular crash: Lidl lorry overturns at Tulse Hill gyratory

Yesterday an HGV overturned at the junction of Norwood Road and Christchurch Road, outside the Coop. The Lidl lorry crashed at about 11am and it took most of the day to move it and get traffic flowing again. The driver is apparently fine, suffering only minor injuries.

As your local councillors, we have consistently campaigned for better safety at the Tulse Hill gyratory. vehicles travel too fast around the one way system and the busy roads break up the town centre. Before our election, prompted by an incident of a speeding car coming off the road and into the front room of a house, we worked with council colleagues and the community to organise a petition calling on the Mayor of London to invest in improving the space. We were successful in getting a commitment of £5million to redesign the space, and a further £2million to continue improvements the length of Norwood Road going south.

The project has been a community led effort, and a huge amount of time, skills and imagination have been contributed to coming up with a design. At monthly co-design sessions, 50 plus residents have been taking part in detailed design conversations, and with our estates, schools, youth groups and community organisations we have mobilised hundreds of you to have your say and get involved in training, local procurement, walkabouts and creative projects.

The consultation for the Norwood Road design will begin after the Mayoral elections in May, and work should begin by the summer. The Tulse Hill gyratory is a bigger project and will be completed by 2020. We are excited that we will soon have a safer, more pleasant town centre, and that it will reflect the ideas and aspirations of local residents.

If you want to get involved, contact hello@streetworks.london

South Circular crash: Lidl lorry overturns at Tulse Hill gyratory

Streetworks – codesign the gyratory

It’s that time again when we invite you to get involved in Streetworks. Tuesday evening is the next in the series of workshops to improve West Norwood and Tulse Hill and we hope that many of you will come and have your say.

When: Tuesday 9th February 6.30pm
Where: the HUB, 357 Norwood Road (near Tulse Hill Station, by the pedestrian crossing over the gyratory)

Streetworks grew out of a community petition to the Mayor of London to invest in improving streets in West Norwood and Tulse Hill. It has continued to be community-led and since the summer there have been monthly workshops to codesign changes to the neighbourhood. We have also helped to run and fund events and activities in the community – from a Wiggle and Rhyme picnic at the Old Library in West Norwood and a student-led project at Elmgreen School, to a Christmas party and discussion on the St Martins Estate and a tea party with the Norwood Pensioners’ Group.

So far we have been focusing on Norwood Road and Station Rise. The next workshop will focus on the one-way system – please bring your ideas and aspirations! We have a real opportunity to transform our area and we need everyone’s input.

Twist on Station Rise first time success

Twist is a new monthly pop-up market on Station Rise by Tulse Hill station. Thursday was the first event and it was a great success!

Organised by Tree Shepherd, Twist is an opportunity for local business owners to trade at affordable prices. Tree Shepherd offer enterprise training to help first time startups and jobless people become self-employed and Twist as an opportunity for them to test and showcase their skills and businesses.

We were at Twist talking to commuters about Streetworks – asking for priorities and ideas on how we can work together to improve Norwood Road and the one way system by Tulse Hill station.

Streetworks will have a stall every month so please come and share your ideas.

Great turnout at the first StreetWorks co-design workshop

Following a petition from local Labour councillors and hundreds of local residents, the Mayor of London granted £5m to transform the one-way system in Tulse Hill. Officers secured an additional £2m to improve Norwood Road.

We believe that local people and businesses are best placed to make decisions about how to improve their neighbourhood, so Cllr Anna Birley has been working to ensure the project is led by the local community. StreetWorks was therefore set up to create a partnership between the Norwood Forum, the Tulse Hill Forum, local councillors, residents and businesses, Lambeth Council and Transport for London. The budget for community engagement has been devolved to StreetWorks and the community chose the design consultants to support the project.

To ensure as many people as possible can have their say, we have organised a series of co-design workshops. These are a forum for local people and businesses to feed in ideas and suggestions, and to choose the final scheme design.

The first StreetWorks co-design workshop was last Tuesday and it was a huge success! With 50 people attending, the discussions were lively and constructive. Updates will be posted to www.streetworks.london – you can also post further ideas on the online forum and find out how to get more involved.

The next workshops are –

13 October 2015
10 November 2015
8 December 2015

– all at 6.30-8.30pm at the Salvation Army Hall on Norwood Road.

Have web skills, looking for project?

We need local web designers and developers who we can commission to create an engaging website for our project to improve Norwood and Tulse Hill.

Take a look at our web brief here

We’ve written a web brief and budget with the local community – if you think you have something to offer, please come along to our Web Speed Dating event on Thursday 25th June 4-6pm at the James Wilson Coffee Shop.

Why speed dating?

We want to do something fun and informal where you can meet the people who will be purchasing and using the website – so that they can ask you questions and listen to your brilliant ideas.

Members of the project group will be on hand so that you can have a short discussion with each. They’ll be listening out for approaches and ideas that impress them and that will help us to decide a local web design and develop partner.

Please let us know if you can make it here. And if there’s anything you’re unsure about, get in touch on abirley@lambeth.gov.uk or @annamayb

An invitation to help us improve the Tulse Hill Gyratory and Norwood Road!

We are starting work on a
project which will bring real improvements to Norwood Road and Tulse
Hill, with funding from Transport for London. There is an opportunity to
come together with others from your community on 6th and 7th of June to share ideas and come up with projects that can make a real difference to the area.

Don’t worry if you haven’t been involved in a neighbourhood project
before. Just come along and meet other people from your community who
want to make a difference. There will be plenty of people on hand to
make you feel welcome, answer any questions you might have and help you
to turn your ideas into live projects.

Not only will you be able to get involved in making your area a
better place to live, you will also be offered training and support to
develop and realise your ideas. Who knows? You may end up running your
own community project.

The sessions will be at the Old Library on Saturday 6th June (10-4pm) and Sunday 7th June (11-2pm). The Sunday session is being run as part of the Norwood Feast and you can also find us at a stall near St Luke’s Church.

Don’t worry if you can’t come to both days, or even to all of one
session. Just come along and join in for as long as you can, you’ll be
very welcome.

Light refreshments will be available on both days and children are
welcome too. If you would like to book a space or have any questions,
please contact abirley@lambeth.gov.uk or georgina@jameswilsoncoffee.co.uk. Alternatively, just turn up on the day!

Norwood Road Improvements

This coming Sunday 19 April there will be a Teddy Bear Picnic for families so that local families can talk about how residents use and travel along Norwood Road. This is all part of ongoing community engagement regarding the discussions around possible improvements to Norwood Road and the Tulsemere Hill gyratory.

The event will be held between 2 – 4pm this coming Sunday and held at the Old Library 14-16 Knights Hill, SE27 0HY so bring your packed lunch and Teddy!

Norwood Road/Tulse Hill Gyratory TFL Project

Last summer, we helped to secure £5million to improve the Tulse Hill gyratory over the next five years as part of the Mayor of London’s gyratory improvement programme, and a further £2million to improve Norwood Road.

We have been working with Lambeth officers and Transport for London to make sure the community takes the steering wheel for this – we hope that you and your neighbours will be part of the project. Even if you’ve not been involved in something like this before, there are lots of opportunities to contribute, lead and get training whatever your experience.

We’re kicking things off this Tuesday with a Supper Club at the James Wilson Coffee Shop in Tulse Hill, hosted by the Norwood and Tulse Hill Forums – please join us, and bring a dish if you can. There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss the project and how you can get involved, or just enjoy the food and meet your neighbours.