First do no harm

The junction in the middle of Dulwich Village remains closed 24/7. But it also – unlike all the others in the Dulwich LTNs – denies access to Blue Badge holders and health care workers. Why?

The 24/7 closure of the Dulwich Village junction has increased congestion and pollution on roads across the whole area.

But it has also badly affected vulnerable residents and those who care for them.

At other junctions with ANPR cameras in Dulwich, there are exemptions for Blue Badge holders, SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) school transport vehicles, taxis, and NHS rapid response teams (as yet undefined, but presumably includes GPs, nurses, midwives, first responders and hospital transport).

But not at this location. Why?

The Council’s reasons for denying access

The answers given for this are many and varied. Cllr Newens (ward councillor for Dulwich Village, and standing again in the 5 May elections) says she is “given to understand” that having a few cars driving through the junction, as opposed to lots, would be dangerous as cyclists and pedestrians wouldn’t be expecting them.

She also claims that it would be “technically difficult” because it is a “complex five-way junction”, even though the junction is almost identical in layout to the five-way junction at East Dulwich Grove, Greendale, Townley Road and Calton Avenue.

Another explanation, provided on 15 February this year by the appropriately named Rachel Gates (Southwark Highways Project Manager), as she supervised the alterations being made to the junction, is that opening it up would make it dangerous for cyclists turning right into the junction when travelling northbound along Dulwich Village, even though there is a dedicated right-turn lane. This was not a problem previously, so it is difficult to understand why this has suddenly become a problem now.

Safety at the junction

It has also been suggested that the junction should remain closed for less specific safety reasons, because a lot of children and parents go through it on their way to school. That might be an argument for closing the junction during school travel times. But why close it 24/7?

Safety, after all, has never been a problem at the junction, despite the disastrous £500k redesign in 2017 which removed a pedestrian island at the bottom of Court Lane and gave priority to cars on Calton Avenue, creating conflict with cyclists.

In fact the website CrashMap, based on police data, shows that there was only one incident between 2005 and 2021. This was on 16 September 2019 – after the junction re-design – when a car and a cycle collided, with a slight injury to the cyclist.

While even one cyclist being knocked off their bike is one too many, this hardly constitutes such a big safety issue that it requires the 24/7 closure of the junction to services that are critical to the health and wellbeing of the community.

Causing deliberate harm

That’s not to say that cyclists aren’t vulnerable road-users and it is right that dedicated cycle lanes should be provided where practical to give them more protection.

But people with disabilities, young and old, who depend on private cars, taxis and special transport, are also vulnerable road-users. It cannot make sense for cyclists to be given special protected status while those with legally protected characteristics, such as age, disability and pregnancy, are not.

Last September, the company that carried out Southwark’s Equality Impact Assessment recommended that “the groups who are car dependent because of their protected characteristic should be assisted by the Council to mitigate any disadvantages they may suffer.” More than six months have passed and nothing has happened – no assistance from the Council, and no mitigations.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at this. The final decision document (see paragraph 47) contained the particularly unpleasant statement (our italics) that “Officers are cognisant of these groups, however on balance the benefits of the Dulwich Streetspace schemes outweigh the harm that these may cause.”

What kind of council considers it is morally acceptable to cause deliberate harm to vulnerable people?

This is all the more shocking when at this particular location – with ANPR cameras allowing emergency vehicles through – it would be easy and straightforward to allow further exemptions for Blue Badge holders and health care workers.

Hidden reasons for denying access

We have puzzled over Southwark’s determination to keep the junction closed 24/7 with only emergency vehicles allowed through.

What’s behind it? A desperate need to be seen to be doing something about climate change? The Council’s admission that the improvement in air quality is “negligible” rather puts paid to that idea.

A misguided belief that closing roads in the middle of a community will make more people walk and cycle? Even if that were true (there’s no evidence showing a direct correlation between them), it still doesn’t explain why exemptions cannot be given to the relatively small number of people who aren’t able to walk or cycle and are dependent on their cars.

Could it be that this keep-it-closed-at-all-costs obsession is nothing more than a vanity project based on some sort of weird notion that Dulwich needs to look more “villagey”, as Cllr Leeming (ward councillor for Dulwich Village, and standing for re-election in May) once said?

Open the junction for vulnerable road-users

If so, the Council should think again.

Firstly, as anyone who lives in Dulwich knows – and as many of the people who used to visit it until they received fines also know – Dulwich is not short of what the Council calls ‘public realm spaces’.

It’s always referred to as “leafy Dulwich” because of its numerous parks and gardens (and even a recently created orchard) that members of the public can enter free of charge to enjoy fresh air, exercise and meeting friends.

Secondly – and more importantly – no council should close roads to make somewhere nice to have coffee if this means causing harm to the most vulnerable in the community.

In the run-up to the elections on 5 May, councillors might like to think again about this crucial local issue. Do the right thing. Consider the needs of everyone in the community. And, at the very least, let Blue Badge holders and health care workers through the junction.