Tag: tfl

Update on Quietways next steps – changes we’re pushing for

Last Autumn a surprise announcement of an experimental road closure on Rosendale Road mobilised the community. As your local councillors, we worked with businesses, residents and community groups to oppose the closure and successfully got it taken off the table. We organised a series of codesign workshops to make sure that TfL, Lambeth and Sustrans listened to residents’ concerns and ideas. We have consistently said that we are keen to encourage and enable cycling, but that this should be done collaboratively with local communities, not in a way which creates conflict between cyclists, local residents and local businesses.

Once the feedback from workshops was brought together, the designs went to public consultation – advertised online as well as in letters which went to 4,200 addresses in Thurlow Park. Over 250 residents responded to the consultation, and many got in touch with us too.

Residents who contacted us were also keen to understand the next steps, and we’re aware that there has been a long period with no updates on progress. The mayoral election caused some delay, but mostly the volume of responses meant it has taken officers a long time to process everything. Their published report will provide a detailed response to every query raised by you in the consultation.

Timeline:
September – The report with answers to queries raised in the consultation and a breakdown of people’s answers will be published
September-October – New proposals will be published and put to formal consultation
January – If the new proposals are agreed from the second consultation, work will take place

From talking and corresponding with many of you, we’re aware that there is still a lot of unhappiness with the proposals. We have been pushing for changes to the proposals ahead of any new designs being put forward. We’ve met with the cabinet member and officers in Lambeth, and highlighted the changes we need to see in any new designs for the scheme to be acceptable to local residents as well as improving cycling.

In particular, we are working on:

  • Significantly reducing the number of parking spaces lost
  • Ensuring good access to the allotments
  • Greening at the junction of Rosendale and Turney Roads
  • Tackling rat running on Dalmore Road and Carson Road
  • Preventing any changes to the junction of Rosendale and Parkhall Roads which make traffic worse

Quietways update – public consultation

Since last summer, there have been a number of workshops and public meetings regarding Quietway Route 7, which includes part of Rosendale Road.

While many of you are unhappy about the choice of route, this was decided a number of years ago before we were elected councillors. However, since this was raised with us, we have done all we can to give residents a say over what this section of Quietway looks like. We have raised your concerns right to the top – having met with Andrew Gilligan, who is responsible London-wide for the Quietways programme, plus regular contact with Lambeth, TfL, the cabinet member, the leader of the council, the MP and Sustrans.

The proposals for public consultation are being completed and this will begin later this month. We’ll post links here on how to feedback online, and you’ll also receive a letter informing you the consultation dates and how to get involved if you live near the route. The project has been handed back to Lambeth officers to deliver on behalf of TfL from Sustrans, who were hired by TfL to help with hosting workshops and public engagement events.

In the meantime, please do continue to contact us with your thoughts and questions.

Bridge over Troubled Traffic*

A big thank you to residents and David McKenna from TfL for yesterday’s meeting about bridge strikes on the railway over the South Circular. 

It was a very productive meeting looking at – 

  • Bridge strike statistics – Thurlow Park has the most bridge strikes in the country
  • Impact on the local area of bridge strikes – economic cost of delayed journeys, effect on air pollution, impact on Lancaster Avenue when it is used to divert traffic, road safety, damage to bridge, cost to train operating companies
  • Long term strategy – David and his team are developing the business case for lowering the road as a way to prevent bridge strikes and to remove the need to divert any traffic down Lancaster Avenue. This will take some time because it is a complicated engineering challenge thanks to bridge foundations and the sewer. It will also have a huge impact on the road, as it would have to be closed for the works to be completed.
  • Short term strategy – David is installing better signage within the next 4 months. These will be “smart”, triggered only by oversized vehicles which should mean they are more effective. CCTV will be installed to monitor and measure impact

Our next steps as a community are to – 

  1. The community will write to the mayoral and GLA candidates requesting that they all prioritise this issue.
  2. David will feedback based on questions raised by attendees, including about whether lorry drivers and their companies can be prosecuted or fined when they hit the bridge, more data, maps showing locations of signs and how the community can support his business case. 
  3. The signs will be installed within the next 4 months.
  4. Feasibility studies will be developed, beginning now. This may include some drill holes and radars to identify services underground. These will be ongoing for the next few months.
  5. Once a new London Mayor and GLA member are in post, we will organise a meeting to request that this is high on their agenda.
  6. We will organise a progress meeting in approx. 6 months where David can share how he’s getting on. We can invite Network Rail and Thames Water, as appropriate. 

Thank you LARA for organising the meeting and Rosemead for hosting. If you would like to be involved in this project but weren’t aware of or able to attend the meeting, please get in touch on abirley@lambeth.gov.uk

*excuse the pun, borrowed from Richard Alford on Lancaster Avenue!

Another bridge strike on Thurlow Park Road

This morning another bridge strike involving a large lorry disrupted commuter trains and traffic. This bridge is the worst in London for strikes and the disruption has a huge impact and cost.

As we shared a couple of months ago, we have raised this issue with TfL and action is being taken as a result. Senior officers are looking to invest in better signage to replace the existing temporary signs before the Spring. These should provide a short term improvement – and signs can be reused so if and when they are no longer needed in Thurlow Park, we can ensure they are reinstalled elsewhere to make best use of resources.

To tackle the problem in the long term, a business case for the large amount of funding it would take to lower the road is being put together. This would also be a significant engineering challenge – there is a sewer below the south circular and the side roads like St Faith’s would need to be examined to work out how to accommodate lower junctions.

Senior TfL officers have offered to meet with Lancaster Avenue residents this month as their road is currently the diversion route for oversized vehicles. We will be discussing new signage, improving 20mph signage to reduce speeding, and the long term plans for the bridge.

Raising Quietways concerns with Andrew Gilligan

Cllr Anna Birley recently met with Andrew Gilligan to raise the questions and concerns that many of you have sent us regarding Quietways.

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We asked –

  • Governance and decision making
  • Timings – can these be more flexible or are they politically driven
  • Choice of route – why was there no consultation and was it influenced unfairly by the Dulwich Estate?
  • Why has engagement been so poor?
  • Interventions – what is on and off the table?
  • Aspirations for the programme – it appears like a lot of money will be spent on a small increase in cycling, so how will success be measured?
  • What happens if changes to Rosendale Road are insufficient to deal with priorities highlighted by residents – speeding and safety?

Anna’s feedback is –

“Andrew said he agrees that the programme has not gone as well as intended and acknowledged residents’ concerns about poor engagement. While it may not be of comfort to Thurlow Park residents, I believe that by learning from our experience the delivery of other Quietway routes in the future will be much better.

“He assured me that the Dulwich Estate did not exert undue influence and that a route through Dulwich Village had its own challenges when it reached some difficult junctions at the South Circular. I expressed our disappointment that there had been no consultation about this at the time.

“I wasn’t very satisfied with his reply to my questions about a lot of money being spent to make minor changes – while I’m pleased to see investment in Rosendale Road, it has been pointed out by residents that a 10-20% increase in cycling isn’t in practice very many additional cyclists on the route. He said that in the context of significant TfL budgets being spent on large projects like Tulse Hill, this was not a big sum.

“He suggested that we could look at phasing the changes – we could make very minor changes now as phase one, and plan to make more significant ones later if there is demand for this locally. Currently this is not the plan, and anything we want to do must be done in the current scheme, but I would be interested in residents’ feedback on whether we should be pushing for anything additional as a phase two.

“I explained that the priorities of many local residents were to reduce speeding, make the road safer and tackle ratrunning traffic on neighbouring roads like Dalmore and Eastmearn. He is committed to investing in a route rather than a group of trees so any changes to neighbouring roads would need to demonstrate why they make the route safer. With the issues that residents have raised about the Dalmore and Eastmearn, we perhaps need to focus on why ratrunning traffic makes the Eastmearn junction with Rosendale Road, by the shops, so dangerous. That in turn will hopefully mean we can look at including Dalmore, providing a plan is put on the table that residents like.

“Regarding speeding, I shared the desire for better speed cameras and proper enforcement. He didn’t give the impression that this could be included in the Quietways funding but I have followed up by email to underline the strength of feeling held by many that this is key to tackling speeding.”

Many thanks to Val Shawcross, Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark, who organised and facilitated the meeting.

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Quietways – update from the first workshop

Last week Sustrans held the first of a series of workshop sessions to discuss traffic in Rosendale Road.

This is the start of a programme of community engagement and co-design to look at the possibility of making improvements in the Rosendale Road area. The initiative is part of a wider programme of creating a network Quietway cycle routes.

We, like many of you, were alarmed at initial proposals to close Rosendale Road to through traffic – these plans from TfL had not been consulted on locally and there had been no opportunity for local councillors, businesses and residents to have their say. 

We believe that it is important for local people to lead any change to their neighbourhood and have successfully got the road closure plans scrapped. 

We have subsequently worked closely with Sustrans to organise a series of co-design workshops which will give local communities the chance to take part in the design and decision making, before any formal consultation even begins.

The timeline is –

  • Information gathering drop in – between 225 and 250 people attended on 30th September at All Saints Church. This session was so that Sustrans could gather your feedback on living, walking, working, cycling and driving in the local area so that any new plans are based on local experience
  • Second and third workshops on 10th October at 10.30-1pm and 14th October at 5-7.30pm both at All Saints Church – These two events will be the same, so residents only need to come to one. Space is limited, so please RSVP here. If more people want to take part than there is space for, we will be requesting an additional session be organised. These sessions are more hands-on – people can get involved in creating designs. There will be large scale maps, traffic engineers, tools and data to hand to help you. And as there is currently no plan on the table you can discuss any issue from zebra crossings to street planting.
  • Following the co-design workshops, engineers will work up a number of feasible concept designs. These may vary in terms of scope, scale and cost as they will be completely shaped on the feedback and ideas gathered at the co-design events.
  • Workshop 4 will be a “feedback concept showcase” on 24th October between 10.30 and 2.30pm at All Saints Church. This will be more of a drop in so that you can see the variety of designs drawn up from the previous sessions and choose a favourite. Don’t worry if you can’t make this date – your voice will still count as we will be putting the plans online and sending them out by email for your feedback. There is still scope at this stage for adjustments to be made if your preferred design still has room for improvement.
  • Formal consultation – the design which the majority of local people and businesses choose will then be put forward for formal consultation. This will begin on 17th November

We will work to make sure community expectations and questions are met. We have had mixed feedback following the first workshop and wanted to share what information we have to try and address some of those concerns.

  • Availability of traffic data – this is available online here. We anticipate there being more data available to share shortly and we have created a page on our website here to upload everything we can. Do keep checking for updates.
  • Quality of survey – we have met with Sustrans to feed back this concern and they will take it on board as the codesign process continues. You can feed your ideas into the process without using the survey by emailing us or Ruth on rosendalefeedback@sustrans.org.uk – and we will make endeavour to sure that the formal consultation after 17th November is vigorous
  • Were resident’s points taken on board? We have requested that feedback from the last workshop is shared to attendees and others locally who couldn’t make it in a comprehensive and transparent way. If, once this has been compiled, you are concerned that your points aren’t included, please do just let us know.
  • Some streets missed out on the communications – the map showing where leaflets and invitations were delivered is here. If you are worried that you’re not receiving the information then please let us know and we will double check you are added to the mailing list.
  • The format (post-it notes and maps) wasn’t the best way to discuss – we’ve fed this back to Sustrans and the next workshops will be much more hands on. While there will definitely still be maps, and probably still be post-it notes, we hope that the hands on format will be more conducive to in depth discussions on the areas that you’re most passionate about.
  • The scheme doesn’t join up with other changes happening locally – as local councillors we are involved in all major schemes in the area and will be working to make sure these join up. We have briefed Sustrans on the work happening at StreetWorks on Norwood Road and have spoken to TfL officers about the importance of these projects complementing each other.
  • There is no opportunity to comment on the Quietways route or discuss whether any intervention is needed in the first place – we agree that there should have been proper public engagement when the routes for Quietways were being drawn up. The decision on the routes was made at City Hall by the Mayor of London’s team, and with our local Assembly Member, we will be meeting with that team to discuss why this didn’t happen and to interrogate the process followed.

If you wish to be kept informed please contact Sustrans at rosendalefeedback@sustrans.org.uk to be added to their email update list. Otherwise, you can always email us with your points or concerns and we will be sure to keep you in the loop.

And don’t forget to RSVP for the 10th October or 14th October workshops

Route 315 Bus service proposal consultation begins

The consultation regarding the Route 315 Bus service proposal began today. The consultation will run from Monday 22 June to Monday 10 August 2015, and we hope you have your say. There is an online survey. Here is the link – http://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/route-315

Transport for London (TfL) will be distributing leaflets next week to addresses within 400m of the current route 315 (east of Streatham High Rd) and the proposed route between West Norwood and Peabody Hill, and in addition to this, there will be an email to current users of the 315 bus.

Furthermore, there will be two drop-in sessions for people to discuss the proposals with TfL staff and we would be delighted if you can take part:

Thursday 2 July, 15.00-20.30, at Aspire Wellbeing Centre, 1 Park Hall Road, London SE21 8EH
Thursday 9 July, 15.00-18.30, at Peabody Hill Centre, Peabody Hill, London SE21 8LA

We received a reply from TfL to our letter about the bus proposal. We sent a list of questions and concerns raised in the public meeting in March to TfL officers – their reply is highlighted in yellow.

We have printed a copy of this and sent it in the post to every resident who attended and signed in at the public meeting. If you would like a paper copy and don’t receive one, please get in touch.

A215 Norwood Road junction with Chatsworth Way – traffic lights

Transport for London (TfL) has appointed CVU to replace the traffic lights at Norwood Road junction with Chatsworth Way. Works will be taking place on the footway. To ensure the safety of road users temporary traffic lights will be deployed on site during these works.

The Traffic Signals that have reached the end of their 15 year life cycle and the modernisation of the traffic signals will improve reliability and maintenance.

A1215 Norwood Road junction with Chatsworth Way is an important route for through road uses, and as such is a difficult route to maintain. The work has a number of phases in order to reduce the amount of disruption caused and to maintain road capacity as much as possible at all times.

The improvement works are planned to start on 02 March 2015 and continue for approximately eight weeks depending on the weather conditions. The works will be carried out in phases, with day time footway works taking place Monday to Friday between the hours of 08:00 and 18:00. Saturday works will be taking place between the hours of 08:00 and 13:00.

Should you require further information or an update during the delivery of these works please contact Streets Customer Services department on 0343 222 1234 or email: customerservices@tfl.gov.uk or via the web at www.tfl.gov.uk/contact.