Living on a ‘displacement route’
The Dulwich LTN has pushed traffic on to what Southwark calls the ‘displacement routes’. What difference has it made to people living on these roads?
*****
“For the first time in decades, I step out of my house on Croxted Road and can smell the pollution. This is at a time of day when families are dropping off their children at school and will soon be walking to the station for work and waiting for buses, which are now hugely delayed. We are a route for ambulances to King’s Hospital which now struggle to get through in the mornings.”
*****
“I am a mother of two young children living on East Dulwich Grove, a road that has the dubious honour of absorbing displaced traffic from all three local LTNs. As a family, we do not own a car. It is hard to put into words how divisive this issue has become, but to say that it is tearing our community apart, pitching neighbour against neighbour, street against street, is an understatement.
“Put bluntly, the road closures that may work elsewhere are not working here. Indeed, in the years I have lived here, I have never seen East Dulwich Grove as congested, or indeed as dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists alike, than I have since the LTNs were introduced. The fact that there has been a noticeable increase in lone adult cyclists on the pavement speaks volumes about the impact of this scheme on active travel on this road. This is the biggest school street in the area, on which over 3,000 schoolchildren are educated, with many more using East Dulwich Grove to access schools in Dulwich Village and Herne Hill. The situation is untenable.
“I think it’s fair to say that local councillors have, to date, behaved abominably on this issue. As a long and densely populated residential road, our superpower is in numbers. If there is to be a silver lining, it will be in our ability come May 2022 to come together and use our collective voting power to banish a group of local councillors that have let us down so badly. I would encourage anyone who feels that their voices are not being heard on this issue to do the same.”
*****
“Who knew that councillors could cause such widespread public health harm and – even more worrying – that it continues unaltered even when they realise the extent of it? It feels like we are living in a dystopian society where all truth and reason are being ignored.
“When the phase 2 Dulwich Village cameras went in on 16 November 2020, the traffic increased dramatically on Croxted Road. There are now idling vehicles in a slow-moving traffic jam for up to five hours a day outside our house. This queue often extends from Brockwell Park to the South Circular/Thurlow Park Road. It’s a constant din of engine noise and the fumes feel heavy in the air.
“As I walk my two young children to primary school, we navigate what is now our new 'normal' – a polluted and dangerous road. Why are we being experimented on? Why is clean air for some but much dirtier air for others an acceptable policy decision? Did councillors think that our health and our children's lungs were different to those in Dulwich Village?”
*****
“As a resident of Lordship Lane, I was perplexed when I learned which streets in East Dulwich and around Dulwich Village were to be closed to traffic. Melbourne Grove? Court Lane and Calton Avenue? All so quiet and pleasant. Yet these were the roads being closed at the expense of Lordship Lane and East Dulwich Grove.
“The Council seems to ignore the fact that Lordship Lane has a large number of residential properties and a school. It seems determined to funnel traffic here. The smell of fumes is marked when you come back from Dulwich Park to the junction outside Dulwich Library – it's like hitting a wall of pollution.
“We all want to see a reduction in noise levels and pollution, but surely that should apply to everyone? Why should those on 'boundary roads' have to worry about the damage that opening a window might cause to our lungs? We see the evidence on our windowsills and curtains, and in the house physically shaking at times. How does Southwark Council propose to clean up our air and reduce pollution and noise levels – or are we to be collateral damage in their street closure initiative?”
*****
“We were looking forward to welcoming a new baby when we moved to Croxted Road almost a year ago and thought how lucky we were to have a first-floor flat with the spring air breezing in through the open windows. Fast forward to the present day, and we are fearful of the impact our choice of location will have on our child’s health. Every morning we are greeted by the sound of engines running as traffic builds up from the lights at the junction of Croxted and Turney. No one turns off to drive through Dulwich Village any more because of its newly implemented special measures and fines. We can no longer open the windows, or consider making a nursery in the small front bedroom – there are simply too many cars on Croxted Road and the noise and air quality is unbearable.
“Diverting traffic away from affluent areas such as Dulwich Village, with large properties set back from the road, concentrates pollution and noise in areas like Croxted Road with a much higher population density. The new measures place the burden on streets lined with multiple occupancy buildings or maisonettes such as ours. It may have been done with the best of intentions, but the few pockets of calm directly impact the health and wellbeing of so many – including our ten-month-old baby.”
*****
“We have lived on Dulwich Common for many years. We have always accepted that living on the South Circular would mean a lot of traffic. But in the past, even in rush hour, the traffic kept moving. Now, because of the LTN measures, people are having to avoid the Village and it’s much more congested. We are subjected to frustrated drivers and idling engines, east to west, and west to east. The traffic junction adjoining Lordship Lane is frequently blocked. How can this be fair to all who live in the area? There’s a significant increase in blue light emergency vehicles, presumably now forced to use Dulwich Common because they can’t get through elsewhere. Surely this puts lives in danger? None of this can be healthy for residents or for children cycling or walking to school.”
*****
“My house actually vibrates. I have lived on Croxted Road for 22 years and I have never experienced traffic such as we are getting now, day in day out. I can smell the fumes from the back of the house together with the constant hum of vehicles with sounds blaring. It is totally depressing. I feel angry at the injustice of it all and the intransigence of Southwark is unbelievable.”
*****
“This week my neighbours packed up and left. They told me that their three-year-old son, born in East Dulwich Grove, had been progressively suffering chest and breathing problems, to the extent they had spent £500 on air filtering. They dated it back to the introduction of the Dulwich LTN, which has resulted in what residents believe is doubled traffic down East Dulwich Grove.
“Almost everyone is a member of the growing band of protestors who have complained to local councillors without any apparent success or any indication from the Council that this mess should be abandoned. All raise concerns about the huge numbers of children we see walking up and down to schools, in all directions, through a traffic-jammed road. Those who are retired or working from home are especially upset at the sight of little nursery children in a crocodile, walking daily to lunch as lorries thunder by.
“If ever there was a prime candidate for a safe route to school it is East Dulwich Grove. Instead, the view is that Southwark Council, in its attempts to fix the climate change issue, is trashing EDG and a much-loved local high street, Lordship Lane.
“East Dulwich Grove residents are furious. The LTN has a devastating impact and pays no attention to the needs of the elderly, the disabled, the local network – and, above all, children.”