LEWISHAM AGAINST ROAD CLOSURES
This page covers the campaign run by local residents and supported by the FFDF against the closure of many roads in Lewisham as part of the “Healthy Neighbourhoods” policy. In summary, these proposals are causing enormous inconvenience to local residents, visitors and delivery drivers apart from causing congestion on other roads. The latest changes to the LTN scheme will be unlikely to help everyone or solve the problems which have generated the complaints.
The first area Lewisham Council planned to cover was Lewisham and Lee Green where road closures were installed on a "trial" basis but other areas they propose to cover are East Sydenham, Telegraph Hill and Bellingham.
See Background for more background information. Such schemes are of course a part of the Mayor of London's Transport Strategy to get us all walking, cycling and using public transport and prejudicing those who wish to use motor vehicles of any kinds. These proposals are being funded by central Government and the Mayor of London via Transport for London (TfL) - the cost has not been disclosed. As the finance for such schemes was cut back, the Covid-19 epidemic was then used instead to justify road closures and to obtain funding for them.
More Details
The closure of Cambridge Drive, Leyland Road, Upwood Road (see photo above), Manor Lane and Manor Park are causing great inconvenience. Some closures are also affecting residents who live in the Borough of Greenwich and other adjacent boroughs who have not been consulted.
These closures are causing traffic to be diverted onto already congested roads such as the A20, A205 (South Circular) and A2212 (Burnt Ash Road) and mean even longer queues of traffic on the latter at the traffic lights.
Residents who are likely to be affected by these proposals should certainly contact their local councillors.
We have received numerous comments on the road closures and a file of those received up to 02/04/2021 is present in this document: Comments-Received-2 .
We have made objections to these plans but local residents need to do so also!
Note that there is a report on the “Public Drop-in Event” for this scheme on the 6th February 2020 on our London Blog here: Event-Report . There is also a report on the Lee Green Assembly meeting on the 11th February 2020 here: Meeting-Report . Councillors were clearly still not listening to the objections and have continued to ignore them since! The Meeting-Report contains their contact details.
This note was published on our blog in early June 2020 to give an update on the proposals for Lewisham: Lewisham-Update.
Road closures in other parts of Lewisham have also been put in for Scawen Road, George Lane, Kitto Road, Glenbow Road, South Row (later cancelled), Bishopsthorpe Road and Silverdale. These closures have been authorised using Temporary Traffic Orders. We have sent the Council letters formally objecting to the Traffic Orders. You can use this example as a template: FFDF-Objection-Letter . Local residents are advised to submit similar objections.
One of the justifications for the Healthy Neighbourhoods and subsequent proposals in Lewisham were that they will promote "modal shift", i.e. encourage more walking and cycling, and reduce air pollution by reducing traffic. But there is no hard evidence from other similar schemes that have been implemented that modal shift actually takes place in reality. In addition the claims for air pollution reduction are very unlikely to be true - in fact, it could get worse as a result in Lewisham if roads are closed. We have published this note on our blog which covers the air quality issue in depth: Air-Pollution
We have been distributing leaflets against the road closures in Lewisham and can supply free copies if you would like some to distribute to local residents. Use the Contact page to request.
Our comments on the latest proposed changes to the LTN schemes in Lewisham are present here: Lewisham-Backtracking and how they are closing roads using the excuse of School Streets when there are no schools on the roads: School-Streets
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU OBJECT TO THESE ROAD CLOSURES AND TELL YOUR COUNCILLORS WHAT YOU THINK NOW!
PLUS SIGN THIS PETITION: PETITION
PUBLIC CONSULTATION:
Lewisham Council issued a public consultation on the Lewisham and Lee Green LTN in June 2021. Go here for more information: CONSULTATION. A report on the results of the consultation and what they plan to do has now been published. See this blog post for comments: CONSULTATION-REPORT. In summary, it’s a misleading report and ignores the majority view of respondents.
This blog post gives a template letter that you can use to object to the Permanent Traffic Orders and comments on the difficulty of obtaining information from the council: Template-Letter
Postscript: All of the objections submitted to the Council were ignored.
Complete the form below to register your interest in this campaign and to be kept informed on future news and how to object (entering your postal address is optional but it helps us to know which road you live in).