To receive any questions from members of the public which have been submitted in advance of the meeting in accordance with the cabinet procedure rules. The deadline for the receipt of public questions is midnight Wednesday 3 March 2021.
Minutes:
The following twenty four public questions were received for cabinet. The responses were sent to the questioners in advance of the meeting and are set out below:
1. Matt Reynolds
Some of the key aims of the low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) have experienced vast improvements but may be difficult to measure; primarily modal shift to cycling/walking and a reduction in vehicle speeding. How will the council ensure these impacts are measured accurately when determining the success of the projects?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
All of the LTNs across the borough will be comprehensively reviewed. The monitoring plan for the review will also be published which will explain how impacts are to be measured.
Full details of the first of these reviews for the LTNs in the Dulwich area are intended to be published to the council web pages later this month. The launch of the review will be accompanied by a newsletter delivered to all properties in the review area providing details of the review and how to access the relevant web page.
2. Maggie Brown
Can you please confirm that the forthcoming consultation will include and actively seek responses from all residents, businesses, schools and others actually or potentially affected by displacement of traffic arising from the measures, and that the implications for them are made clear and not diminished or glossed over?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
It is presumed that the question relates to the forthcoming review of the Dulwich area schemes.
Full details of the review are intended to be published on the council website later this month. The launch of reviews will be accompanied by a newsletter delivered to all properties in the review area providing details of the review and how to access the relevant web page.
3. Trevor Moore
Given the timed restrictions introduced in other parts of the Dulwich area, why does the council consider that continuing 24/7 closures are needed at the Village junction with Calton Avenue, given that the overwhelming cycling usage (especially by children) is during the timed hours?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
The council is to carry out a comprehensive review of the Dulwich area LTNs with the current intention that the review will launched later this month.
As previously advised, consideration will be given to how current trial measures at the Dulwich Village/Calton Avenue junction meet and support the objectives of the wider area scheme.
4. Caroline Annesley
Councillor Rose has implied that Dulwich residents need to stop making short car journeys. What evidence does Southwark have that Dulwich residents are making unnecessary short car journeys, and does this justify the pollution caused by forcing residents to take long detours to complete all journeys?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Councillor Rose has not stated or implied that Dulwich residents need to stop making short car journeys.
5. Caroline Connellan (Clive Hill-Archer to attend on behalf)
Please can you confirm that the forthcoming consultation and review of Dulwich traffic measures will not be predicated on assumptions about ‘traffic evaporation’ which, if they turn out to be incorrect, will likely cause serious harm to residents, schools and others on the ‘displacement routes’?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Full details of the review for the Dulwich area LTNs are intended to be published to the council website later this month. The launch of the review will be accompanied by a newsletter delivered to all properties in the review area providing details of the review and how to access the relevant web page.
6. Bridget Furst
Councillor Rose has indicated that permits will be made available to blue badge holders and other vulnerable groups. Given the clear harm that forcing residents to detour onto main roads is causing, and the lack of any technical obstacles, why is a more general permit scheme not being made available?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
I can confirm that permits will be available to Blue Badge holders. The traffic measures currently in place are designed to encouraging alternate means of travel such as cycling or walking.
Allowing a more general permit scheme would not support the objectives of the schemes.
7. Richard Aldwinckle
Given the abuse and intimidation that has been directed at members of the Dulwich Alliance, including traders, will the cabinet confirm that they deplore such behaviour, and that they will ask councillors to refrain from any actions that could be interpreted as condoning such behaviour?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
All councillors will be aware of the code of conduct expected.
If you believe that a councillor has breached the code of conduct, please raise a complaint to the monitoring officer by completing the breach of the member code of conduct complaint form that can found at the below web page link.
The web page also explain the arrangements for dealing with complaints:
https://www.southwark.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/councillors-and-mps/your-councillors?chapter=2
8. Linda Oliver
Could the cabinet please confirm the specific steps it has taken and is going to take to help local businesses in Dulwich, in light of the business issues they are facing due to the current experimental traffic orders (ETOs) and their almost uniform objection to them?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
The council is looking at various measures to help businesses in the Dulwich area, primarily related to providing additional and improved parking arrangements.
9. Richard Cail
Please can you confirm that the Dulwich roads consultation due to be announced shortly will allow residents, businesses, schools and other respondents within and without the affected areas to express a clear view as to whether or not they would like the experimental traffic orders (ETOs) to be retained in their current form?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Full details of the review for the Dulwich area LTNs are intended to be published to the council web pages later this month. The launch of the review will be accompanied by a newsletter delivered to all properties in the review area providing details of the review and how to access the relevant web page, which will contain links to a survey questionnaire where all stakeholders can state their views.
10. Alex Hamilton
The 24/7 experimental closure of Court Lane for the Covid-19 crisis has significantly obstructed the expeditious movement of traffic required by the council’s network management duty. Will the council have regard for this duty when the crisis is over and restore through movement either partially or totally?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
The council will consider all possible alternatives to the individual elements of the LTN measures before the end of the trial period. Any decisions will be based on all aspects of the highway authority statutory responsibilities, including those attributable to the Traffic Management Act.
11. Grahame Merrifield
Last autumn the London Ambulance Service (LAS) wrote to Southwark Highways listing 10 instances of delays caused by the hard closures of Calton Avenue with diverted vehicles (DV) and hard closures in and around Melbourne Grove. They asked for cameras to be installed instead. Why is the council ignoring the wishes of the LAS?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
The council continues to work closely with the London Ambulance Service and meets regularly to consider any potential changes to the trial LTN measures.
As a result of these discussions, a number of sites have been converted to timed closures enforced by cameras. The council works with the London Ambulance Service and all blue light services to ensure the right local solution is found.
Dulwich Village has a combination of a physical closure and a number of camera gates in operation elsewhere.
12. Catherine Mitchell
Why is our money being wasted on low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) schemes that we do not want?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
The council delivers a broad range of transport measures to reduce traffic, improve safety and encourage walking, cycling and public transport use. The planned investment programme for 2020/21 was agreed by cabinet and can be found here:
http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=302&MId=6416&Ver=4
The pandemic and changes to funding structures have resulted in Transport for London requiring all councils to produce a Streetspace Plan in order to explain their investment programme during the pandemic, and this can be accessed here: http://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?AIId=57398
13. SophieDaranyi
50% or fewer with disabilities possess a blue badge - partly as it is an arduous process to get one - what do Southwark Council intend to do for the other 50% of the disabled or elderly in the area to prevent negative impact of increased journey times and access they are enduring from the closures?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Southwark Council has led the way on this matter and is one of the only council’s in London to have taken action to support Blue Badge holders, ensuring that they are exempt from fines if they need to use a camera controlled route to gain the quickest access to their own homes.
Badges are issued to those who apply and evidence eligibility, based on legislation.
14. MarianneKavanagh
Southwark have made assertions about road closures being good for businesses which are not supported by the cited evidence or by the experience of Dulwich traders. Please can Southwark confirm that such misleading assertions will not be repeated in the forthcoming consultation ?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Full details of the review for the Dulwich area LTNs are intended to be published to the council web pages later this month.
15. Lianne Ludlow
Which traffic monitors and available data sets will you be using to assess displacement, traffic flows and congestion around low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and how will you be modelling pollution and assessing its impact on residents, schools, pedestrians and businesses? Please break this down in detail.
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Full details of all reviews are intended to be published to the council web pages. The details will include a Monitoring Plan which sets out the proposed monitoring regime.
16. George Derrick
How does the council reconcile its own evidence and statement that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in the borough have been gradually falling but are still commonly found at illegally high levels on residential main roads with the introduction of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) which displace and concentrate traffic and pollution onto those same residential main roads?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Highways measures are one of the few tools the local authority has to encourage traffic evaporation, leading to overall better air quality for everyone.
Road closures and traffic filters may cause short-term highways impacts on traffic flow across other roads. As they are done as experimental measures, it may be possible to mitigate the local traffic impacts with other traffic measures, e.g. re-phasing lights to account for locally varied traffic volumes and speeds. The area reviews will help us to understand, identify and support that work even further.
The long term trend in pollution is downwards due to improvements in engine combustion technology, reducing percentage of Internal Combustion Engine vehicles, and policies like the ultra-low charge emission zone (ULEZ). But we must work with Transport for London (TfL) to improve the main road network even further.
17. Penny Morgan
Southwark’s traffic measures in Dulwich risk displacing traffic from roads with low pollution and high car ownership to boundary roads with already high pollution and low car ownership. Please can you confirm that the burden of proof is with Southwark to prove that this has not happened?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
The council is shortly to carry out a comprehensive review of the Dulwich area LTN measures.
Full details of the review are intended to be published to the council web pages later this month.
One of the areas to be considered as part of the review is any change to traffic patterns.
18. Cathy Braganza
The council have been contacted by many residents and businesses negatively affected by the Dulwich Village low traffic neighbourhoods (LTN), many in different council wards and even different boroughs. Will all of these people's responses be equally weighted as those who have benefitted from the measures in the upcoming review?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
It is proposed that full details of the review for the Dulwich area LTNs will be published to the council web pages later this month.
19. Claire Hitchcock
We can see, hear and smell the huge increase in idling traffic and pollution outside our homes. When will a ‘fair and just’ Labour-run council stop experimenting on our and our families’ health?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Transport accounts for up to half of the air pollution in London. The government sets the national framework of road building, laws and taxation for motor vehicles. Within this framework the borough, alongside Transport for London, undertakes the monitoring of traffic levels, behaviour and network performance of our roads. This information is reported within the borough’s annual report and TfL’s Travel in London reports.
The council’s transport policies and funding are focussed on reducing traffic and increasing walking, cycling and public transport to help reduce air pollution. The government, via TfL, provide the council with funding to carry out a number of transport projects in the borough each year.
The council monitors our projects to ensure the impact of the works are better understood and to enable further mitigations, adaption or changes as required.
20. Henna Sherazi-Selby
Croxted Road Residents Association had a meeting with Councillor Rose on the 12 February 2021 where she assured us that there would be additional air quality monitoring for our road. Can you confirm whether this is still planned and who at the council we can contact about this?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
There were previously two NO2 diffusion tubes deployed in this area. Following discussions with local residents and ward councillors, an additional diffusion tube has been deployed in February on Croxted Road between the two bridges.
Following my meeting with residents, officers are working on a substantive response to the requests made for further additional resources of monitoring and modelling and exploring collaborative working with our neighbouring borough of Lambeth.
21. Charles Cary-Elwes
24/7 closure of the Dulwich Village Junction and other roads discriminates against vulnerable groups, impedes emergency services, causes pollution near schools and health centres and traffic congestion on Lordship Lane, South Circular, East Dulwich Grove and Croxted Road.
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Your comment has been noted.
22. Jean Cary-Elwes
By law, the council must carry out a fair and transparent Village-wide consultation with residents and stakeholders as part of its review of the temporary low traffic neighbourhoods (LTN). When will this consultation begin? What form will it take? Will you guarantee that the results will be published immediately?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Full details of the review and associated consultation are intended to be published to the council web pages later this month.
The results of the review will be published to the council web pages when complete.
23. Andrew Grant
Southwark Council have spent more than £18,000 on air quality monitoring for the Walworth low emissions neighbourhood. The council rightly felt that air quality monitoring was valuable and a valid way to assess this scheme. Why has the council chosen not to add additional air quality monitoring for other low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) schemes?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
The £18k spent on air quality monitoring at Browning Street and Liverpool Grove, together with additional diffusion tubes in the established Walworth low emission neighbourhood (LEN), was pre-planned in 2019, and was deployed with sufficient time before the road closure interventions on those two streets to allow a comparison of data collected before and after road closures.
Where road closures are undertaken at short notice such as the low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), it is not always possible to gather the same level of baseline data for comparison with a data set collected after the intervention. Due to annual, seasonal, and weather based fluctuations in air quality. Air quality monitoring data will also need to be supplemented with air quality modelling data drawn from traffic surveys and weather data. We are putting appropriate additional resources into air quality monitoring across other LTNs.
24. Chris Kent
We have been assured by councillors that they are working on solutions to the displaced traffic on Croxted Road but so far have had no further details. What are the proposed solutions and how will these address the increased traffic and pollution we are currently facing outside our homes? Please can you share specific details?
Response by Councillor Catherine Rose, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Environment and Roads
Croxted Road is to be included in the forthcoming review of the Dulwich area LTN measures.
Full details of the review are intended to be published to the council web pages later this month.