Fewer streets faster traffic?

A chap called Breass discovered the best overall flow of traffic may not be by the most direct route. In fact adding direct routes can slow down traffic. The corollary is removing shorter more direct routes can actually speed traffic up.

Example to demonstrate this…Imagine a single route between A and B that however many cars take this route it always takes them 10minutes. Add a second shorter route that takes 1 minute for every car using it. If everyone, all 20 cars, take the shorter route their average speed will be 20minutes. Chopping this shorter route and diverting them back to the less direct route would half their average journey time.

In New York they’ve produced this affect in real life. 42nd street, the second busiest road, was closed for a day. Instead of expected chaos traffic flowed much more smoothly.

I wonder what road in East Dulwich and Southwark would produce this effect?

Call For New Secondary School

Do you support a new East Dulwich secondary school?

If you have children due to start secondary school Sept 2016 or 2017 please email me your support for a new exemplary secondary school stating your name, child’s date of birth and your home post code to:

james.barber@southwark.gov.uk

Background:

Locally East Dulwich councillors have been working to solve the Primary school reception places gap. By September 2016 the gap would have risen to 215-235 reception places. We’ve supported one free school that’s opened by finding a site for it and provided the evidence and suggested sites for another two free schools. Together they should provide 170 of the required places and Southwark Council are providing places in neighboring areas relieving demand on Dulwich schools by about 45 places.

But after primary school where will these extra children go – do we need a new exemplary secondary school to provide enough local places?

The bulge in primary school places started in 2009. Those children will need secondary school places 2016. We also know that currently few families are being offered the secondary school places they want.  Instead many are being offered places in New Cross, Crayford, Walworth and that’s before the 2009 primary bulge takes effect.

Council officials tell us we have plenty of places. But they plan secondary school places on a borough wide basis. But most families think much more locally than that.

To test the numbers the Lib Dem leader asked the Labour council leader about school places  (page 19 second paragraph). If you ignore the political ping pong he stated “The forecasts show continuing demand for secondary places and suggest that in the medium term from 2016 additional secondary places may be needed in the borough.”

These jigsaw pieces tell me we need a new secondary school in the Dulwich area opening September 2016.

This date is useful because the East Dulwich Harris Boys Academy will have had two sets of GCSE result by then and should be even more popular with the anticipated great results. So it wouldn’t suffer from a new competing local school. The Charter School and Kingsdale School are both already immensely popular so shouldn’t suffer any rival new school.

Where and what?

Residents don’t need another single sex school because we now have one of each . So a new school would need to be co-ed.

The Dulwich Hospital site is the only Dulwich land with sufficient space for a secondary school. A secondary school would still leave plenty of space for the proposed primary school  and proposed medical facilities.

So which provider?

With your support we will attract a great provider and convince Southwark Council to plan places in a more family orientated way.

Do you support a new East Dulwich secondary school?

If you have children due to start secondary school Sept 2016 or 2017 please email me your support for a new exemplary secondary school stating your name, child’s date of birth and your home post code to:

james.barber@southwark.gov.uk

 

Dulwich Secondary School Places

Locally East Dulwich councillors have been working to solve the Primary school reception places gap. By September 2016 the gap would have risen to 215-235 reception places. We’ve supported one free school that’s opened by finding a site for it and provided the evidence and sugested sites for another two free schools. Together they should provide 170 of the required places and Southwark Council are providing another 45 useful places for our area.

But after primary school where will these extra children go – surely we need more secondary school places?

Council officials tell us not. But they plan secondary school places on a borough wide basis. But most families think much more locally than that.

To test the numbers the Lib Dem leader asked the Labour council leader about school places  (page 19 second paragraph). If you ignore the political ping pong he stated “The forecasts show continuing demand for secondary places and suggest that in the medium term from 2016 additional secondary places may be needed in the borough.”

These jigsaw pieces say we need a new secondary school in the Dulwich area from September 2016.

This date is useful because the East Dulwich Harris Boys Academy will have had two sets of GCSE result by then and should be even more popular with the anticipated results. So it wouldnt suffer from a new local school.

Where and what?

Residents don’t need another single sex school because we now have one of each . So a new school would need to be co-ed.

The Dulwich Hospital site is the only Dulwich land with sufficient space for a secondary school. A secondary school would there would still leave space for the proposed primary school and proposed medical facilities.

So which provider?

Goodrich and Pellatt Road Resurfacing

At the last Dulwich Community Council East Dulwich councillors had to make tough decisions about their devolved highway budget.

After visitng various part of East dulwich we decided to spend your taxes on:

– Resurfacing Goodrich Road between Barry Road and Friarn Road – it’s currently in a shocking state, quite frequented and on a route to schools.

– Resurfacing Pellatt Road eastern end. Again the road is in a terrible state.

The main council resurfacing budget is planning to resurface Ashbourne Grove and the remaining third of Landcroft Road.

 

 

New East Dulwich Primary School latest

Latest news  is that Southwark Council as the planning authority has said it is happy for the Dulwich Hopsital site to have different planning applications for different parts.

It removes one of the Department of Health excuses for not freeing up a small part of this public land for a new local primary school.

Hopefully they’ll now see sense and release 4,500m2 of the total 27,000m2 for a much need new local primary school.

 

Herne Hill Flood Alleviation

Over the years the centre of Herne Hill has been flooded every few decades – 60’s, 2004 are mentioned by some residents. Herne Hill sites at the bottom of Brockwell Park, Herne Hill, Red Post hill. Even Burbage road slopes down to Herne Hill. The completely buried River Effra flows under Herne Hill on its way to the River Thames.

A scheme has been talked about for some time since the last weather related major flooding in 2004.

But talk has accelerated since the  UK’s interpretation of EU Floods Directive (2007/60/EC). This means local councils have to compelte Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments and Flood Risk Maps.

The government has also recently made water companies responsible for the connections from homes and businesses into their networks.

Any Herne Hill flooding would see water flowing back through the network into people homes – gushing toilets. So with the new responsibility Thames Water is now keen to install non return valves for all the Herne Hill connections.

The government DEFRA via the Environment Agency is also keen to avoid large flooding events in London. So they’re keen to fund water storage and capture capacity – similar to the bunds on Alleyns’ School playing field.

Together this means Southwakr Council Herne hill Flood Alleviation project has obtained £2M funding from Thames Water and £1.755m from the Environment Agency/DEFRA.

The plans are that contruction works start March 2014 and end December 2014. Herne Hill should then be safe from weather related flooding.

Lordship Lane 20mph – at last

This week our long term plans to make Lordship Lane 20mph have come ot pass.

It’s now 20mph between Goose green roundabout and Melborune Grove where it meets Lordship Lane. 600m of high street now just that bit calmer.

We started trying to make Lordship Lane more friendly for locals and visitors walking about in 2006. In 2007 we had a Living Streets walkability assessment done which worked with locals to test the areas walkability.

Why? Because 99.99% of us walk.

We’ve added two extra formal crossings before, had many side roads with raised treatments, improved Goose Green with thrid arm having zebra crossings.

Last year Living Streets produced a report which reenforced our reasoning for this 20mph in particular is a Living Street report called The pedestrian pound. Making the main high street parts of Lordship Lane 20mph should make it better for people to walk around.

Any way the reports key findings:

•Research shows that making places better for walking can boost footfall and trading by up to 40%
•Good urban design can raise retail rents by up to 20%
•International and UK studies have shown that pedestrians spend more than people arriving by car. Comparisons of spending by transport mode in Canada and New Zealand revealed that pedestrians spent up to six-times more than people arriving by car. In London town centres in 2011, walkers spent £147 more per month than those travelling by car
•Retailers often overate the importance of the car – a study Graz, Austria, subsequently repeated in Bristol found that retailers overestimated the number of customers arriving by car by almost 100%
•Landowners and retailers are willing to pay to improve the streetscape in order to attract tenants and customers.

 

M&S Appeal Fails

The Planning Inspector has made their decision about the M&S/Freeholders planning appeal about replacing the current Iceland shop on Lordship with a much large shop unit, removing the current car parking and building eight flats above.

The inspector agreed with residents and East Dulwich councillors that the scheme as proposed would add to local parking stress and the deliveries plan was not acceptable.

To read the who decision, which I recommend, please see:

2198122 DECISION

What next?

Well we know Waitrose has been patiently waiting in the wings hoping for this outcome and hopes M&S will walk away. M&S may decide they want to proceed with the shop unit as is. It seems unlikely Iceland will want to extend its lease beyond January 2014 when it ends. But it’s now in the hands of the freeholder.

What will they do next?

New Crystal Palace

After many attempts to redevelop the site of the old Crystal Palace a new Crystal Palace has been proposed. It’s described as a £1/2bn project to recreate a cultural attraction.

New Crystal Palace

Chinese developers are proposing with London Mayor Boris Johnson supporting a replica of the original Crystal Palace. But hopefully with better fire alarms and sprinklers to avoid a repeat of 1936 when the original burnt down!

But such a huge structure with 94,000m2/990,000ft2 of space predicted to employ 2,000 people would have to draw huge numbers of visitors.

How will they get there?

What’s not been mentioned yet is that the original Crystal Palace was so successful it needed an extra railway line and Crystal Palace High Level Station: 265px-Crystal_Palace_High_Level_Station_1908

 

 

 

 

Recreating this railway line to ensure the success of the New Crystal Palace would likely need the rebuilding of Honor Oak, Lordship Lane and Upper Sydenham railway stations as well as a high level station in Crystal Palace to serve this rebuilt railway line. This would revolutionise public transport in south Southwark.

Do you think a these schemes should happen?

New East Dulwich Cinema

The Thomas Moore Hall (116A Lordship Lane) is owned by the local Roman Catholic church. In 2011 they closed it as a community centre and have been consulting their congregation and considering what to use this site for next. They’ve had one interested party obtain planning permission for a nursery. But their latest thinking is to have a cinema.

We think this is a great idea – do you?

Picturehouse Cinemas, who run the Ritzy in Brixton, are interested and so are Curzon Cinemas and Everyman. I’ve spoken to all three groups. A cinema again in East Dulwich, but especially on Lordship Lane, could give the area a real boost seeing more money spent locally. Clearly it needs to be sensitively done to avoid parking issues. It’s likely to be busiest when most shops are closed which should help.

Please do tell us if you do or don’t want a cinema in East Dulwich and why?