The new petition

There is growing opposition to the 24/7 road closures. Over the past month, groups across Dulwich (residents, traders, societies and campaigns, including One Dulwich) have come together to ask for a better and fairer solution. The main concerns are the displacement of traffic, causing congestion and poor air quality on residential roads, and problems with access, affecting both residents and traders. Together, these groups have drafted a new e-petition to Southwark Council to address these concerns. It opened on 22 December 2020, and you can see the full text here.

The groups who drafted the petition have deliberately kept the demands simple, as the purpose is to open up discussion with the Council at what is a particularly crucial time. At some point over the next few weeks, the Council will set out plans to review the current measures in the Dulwich area (Phase 1 and Phase 2). So far, councillors have offered no indication that they are thinking of modifying either phase.

The petition mentions permits. These aren’t linked to a CPZ (controlled parking zone). Southwark’s policy is to introduce CPZs borough-wide, but this petition is about access, not parking – how to allow certain groups through timed restrictions. School streets, for example, often allow through Blue Badge holders and key workers. Across London, councils have given exemptions to various groups, in different combinations – not just Blue Badge holders, key workers and residents, but carers (or family members who are carers), local shops and businesses, and those making deliveries.

So far, Southwark has limited exemptions in the experimental traffic orders to emergency vehicles, buses and taxis. (The 24/7 closures, obviously, don’t even allow emergency vehicles through.) But the Council’s thinking in the past was on much broader lines. The plans that were consulted on in “Our Healthy Streets: Dulwich” earlier this year, for example, included permits for local residents.

The new e-petition to Southwark is the first step in what should be an open and democratic process of review, looking in detail at the effects of the experimental traffic orders in the Dulwich area on all sections of the community, and finding ways to make the measures fair and socially just.