Supporting our petition to Southwark Council’s cabinet on 2 February 2021
Bridget Furst, the Dulwich Alliance
I am Bridget Furst and I am presenting this petition on behalf of Dr David Ladipo, at his request.
I’m a resident of Dulwich Village and deputy chair of the Dulwich Residents Association, which is part of the Dulwich Alliance, an area-wide alliance of residents, traders, businesses, health centres and campaign groups.
Last week the Dulwich Alliance published its analysis of Southwark’s Streetspace sites for Dulwich. 71% of respondents who expressed a view are against the closures – 76% against in Dulwich Village and 62% against in East Dulwich.
The evidence is clear. The experimental measures are not supported by the community and need to be modified or removed.
We strongly support Southwark’s aims of reducing traffic and pollution, and encouraging walking and cycling. However, this is a badly planned scheme that has been introduced in an area that has poor public transport.
Here is a message from the Elm Lodge Surgery in Dulwich Village, a member of the Dulwich Alliance:
“While we recognise that many of our younger patients will benefit from the nudge to cycle or walk more, the introduction of camera gates and the changes at the village traffic lights have had a significant negative impact for many of our frail elderly and disabled patients. A number have expressed to us they don’t know how they would get to the surgery during the restricted times. Our community vaccination efforts have also been hampered as patients with limited mobility have been unwilling to travel to the Tessa Jowell Health Centre during restricted times.
“Our GPs and nurses are concerned that the restrictions make it a lot more time consuming to carry out home visits for housebound patients and we are aware that it makes the work of carers even harder. It would seem common sense to have an exception to the restrictions for blue badge holders and for health and social care workers on duty.”
The closures in Dulwich have pushed all the area’s traffic on to surrounding streets. These ‘displacement routes’, as Southwark now calls them, are residential roads too, on which there are at least 7 schools and 5 nurseries.
The resulting congestion has made it more difficult and less safe for thousands of children to walk and cycle to school, and the extra pollution is damaging children’s lungs. Not to be carrying out kerbside pollution monitoring outside schools on these routes is a grave omission.
The closures and timed restrictions are also damaging the viability of shops and businesses in the area. In a moment Hazel Broadfoot, Chair of the Dulwich Village Association, will speak briefly on behalf of the 35 traders in Dulwich Village.
In conclusion, the Dulwich Alliance is asking the Council for two immediate actions to protect local businesses, minimise the displacement of traffic, and end discrimination against protected groups.
Firstly, we ask you to end the current 24/7 closures. This would bring you in line with the emergency services who are on record as saying that they do not support hard physical barriers, because they increase response times.
We know from recent meetings with the Council that replacing the 24/7 closure at the Dulwich Village junction with timed restrictions is technically possible. And we were delighted to be told by head of highways Dale Foden in a meeting with him on 13 January that our proposal to do this had merit and would be part of the forthcoming review.
Secondly, we ask you to put in place a holistic, area-wide, camera-controlled exemption scheme that allows fair and reasonable access during restricted hours. We now know that the ANPR cameras you have installed in Dulwich do not require a CPZ to be in operation so that, as in Hammersmith and Fulham, vehicles with exemptions can pass through these camera gates without being charged. Which streets should be restricted, how long for, and who should have access, are all key issues that the Council should be putting forward as options for consultation.
Our two requests are urgent. Disabled people cannot wait. Children living and going to school on displacement routes cannot wait. Doctors on home visits, carers, and community midwives cannot wait. Every day these closures are in place is another day of hardship and discrimination.
So please make these modifications now.
Six months after Croydon Council installed road closures in Crystal Palace, it gave residents a vote and 61% said remove the planters. Over 6 months Dulwich residents have also spoken. 71% are against the closures. We urge you to bring back democracy to Southwark by giving people in Dulwich a vote on whether to keep the measures, modify them or remove them. And then, as Croydon did last week, please honour the results.
Thank you for listening to our petition. I will now hand over to Hazel Broadfoot.
Hazel Broadfoot, chair, Dulwich Village Association
Dulwich Village was a healthy local high street before the introduction of these measures. Our members report a huge reduction in footfall and income as a direct result of the measures, independent of the effects of the pandemic. That’s why 98% of local businesses have formally objected to the measures.
Many traders are destination shops drawing custom from further afield which benefits the whole local economy. Local customers who need to drive for reasons of health or infirmity are impeded from visiting. Essential service businesses like the chemist, post office and food shops fear for their future. The road closures are devastating to all our businesses, having to cope at the same time with the pandemic and the rise in online retailing.
We call on Southwark to reopen the Village junction and modify or remove the timed restrictions as soon as possible before people stop coming to Dulwich Village to shop at all.