As you know, the Dulwich Alliance set up a fighting fund in April 2021 to campaign against the road closures in the Dulwich area. Thanks to all your generous donations, we were able to appoint a legal team and have been working closely with them over the past year. We have been pursuing the idea of legal action against Southwark Council, which has continued to impose undemocratic and unworkable traffic schemes against the wishes of the majority of residents, local businesses and stakeholders in Dulwich Village, East Dulwich and Champion Hill.
When the traffic orders were made permanent last month, our experienced and highly successful QC carefully considered our legal position and, despite identifying a number of areas in which Southwark Council have failed in their duty to local residents and businesses, he has been unable to recommend further legal action. This is due solely to technical legal difficulties. In short, Southwark has ticked enough technical boxes, in spite of the fact that it has paid scant, if any, regard to the needs of the community as a whole, including families and children living on main roads where congestion and pollution have increased, the elderly and disabled, and the local businesses on which we all depend. On the other hand, we are convinced that it was only the threat of legal action that forced the Council to make any concessions at all, even though these go nowhere near far enough.
We would like to thank you all for the considerable support you have provided over these past months as we have drawn together to fight this massive Southwark overreach. You may understandably now want to channel your anger and frustration into the political process and, in particular, show your feelings at the ballot box on 5 May.
There will be further updates, including more information about those standing for election in May, on our website www.dulwichalliance.org and via Twitter @AllianceDulwich.