The Dulwich Alliance’s position (please see ‘What does the Dulwich Alliance want?‘) has always been that we support the council’s aims of reducing traffic and air pollution and making active travel safer and easier, but that any scheme introduced to achieve these aims has to be fair and reasonable and not favour some sections of our community at the expense of others.
In the recent Dulwich Streetspace public consultation, we advised our supporters to reject all the traffic measures because no specific alternatives to the current scheme were offered. Under these circumstances, we felt the only logical way forward was to ask the council to go back to the drawing board and start again.
More than two out of three people living and working in Dulwich who responded to the consultation agreed with us and asked Southwark Council to remove the closures and restrictions. But the council has decided to ignore the results of its own consultation and, instead, intends to make a few tweaks which it says it considers to be a ‘reasonable compromise’.
The Dulwich Alliance continues to object to the scheme, because it fails to achieve the Council’s Streets for People aims, including improving air quality, and continues to discriminate against the most vulnerable, displace traffic on to residential roads with schools and health centres, and damage local shops and businesses.
The Dulwich Alliance believes that there can be no acceptable compromise solution unless and until the Council removes the 24/7 closures, including the closure with the most impact, across the widest area – the Dulwich Village/Calton Avenue/Court Lane junction.
What reasons has the Council given for NOT reopening the junction in Dulwich Village?
The many and various reasons given by Councillors and officers in the past have included:
- the cost of ANPR cameras is not in the budget; and
- it can’t be done because it’s a busy 5-way junction used by lots of schoolchildren
These reasons aren’t valid, because:
- ANPR cameras will be installed anyway if the traffic order goes ahead; and
- the 5-way junction is no different in layout from the busy 5-way junction at Calton Avenue/Townley Road/East Dulwich Grove, which is also used by lots of schoolchildren
What happens if the Council DOESN’T reopen the junction in Dulwich Village?
The Dulwich Village junction is key to any potential compromise solution because, unless and until it is reopened, it continues to:
- push traffic and pollution 24/7 on to neighbouring residential streets;
- prevent access 24/7 for those with disabilities, including Blue Badge holders;
- stop non-emergency health workers, GPs, community nurses and midwives, hospital transport and social care providers from accessing patients and clients in a timely manner;
- discriminate against elderly and other vulnerable residents from accessing GP appointments, health clinics and hospital appointments in a timely and reasonable manner;
- create recruitment difficulties for care providers because carers need to be able to cross Dulwich east/west, not just north/south;
- damage shops and businesses. Retailers say that a significant percentage of their business comes from destination shoppers who no longer visit because of being forced to make long detours on congested roads 24/7;
- worsen public transport by pushing traffic 24/7 on to major bus routes. It also prevents a bus gate being installed here. Public transport in and around Dulwich is very poor (PTAL 1-2), getting worse, and non-existent east to west through central Dulwich. The Council has said for years that it is trying to persuade TfL to introduce a better east-west bus service (the P4 used to come down Court Lane and through the junction before its route was changed). In the absence of action by TfL, it would be possible to create a zero emissions community bus network (green funding could be explored) which would benefit schoolchildren making their way from major railway hubs across Dulwich as well as help those with mobility problems who need to make short local journeys;
- polarise the community and create social disharmony. Keeping Dulwich Village junction closed 24/7 is extremely unpopular among those living and working in all three LTNs, as the results of the consultation showed. This has been going on for two years now and it is morally and civically irresponsible of the Council not to have attempted to diffuse it by producing an acceptable compromise;
- go against the Council’s network management duty to make the best use of road space for all road users.
We will shortly be publishing our formal objections to the traffic orders, submitted to the Council on 9 November 2021.