Rockets

And therein you highlight a key flaw in your argument. Would you consider Dulwich as an inner London borough like, say Islington or Camden? Nope, not even close. And this is why Southwark have failed in their attempt to force CPZs in areas where there is no justification for them - an area where transport links are "poor". If you can't prove (or create in Southwark's case) parking pressures then CPZs are an absolute non-starter. And remember, Southwark claim their "mandate" for the CPZs came from, ahem, "research" done that was conducted in the north of the borough that included a large proportion of primary school children and students. Although, let's be honest, that was a futile exercise to retrofit that "research" they realised they had no mandate for the CPZs and went scrambling to find some mention of them somewhere and tried to gerrymander it and spin it to desperately reach the legal threshold. Clearly the council's lawyers told them that wasn't good enough!

Why is it disingenuous for OneDulwich to highlight a cross-party parliamentary report saying that the active travel measures are failing to deliver against their stated aims? Do you somehow think that Dulwich is single-handedly bucking the national trend? Just look at a graph in another report Malumbu kindly brought to our attention. Of course, I am sure we would love to be able to analyse the trends in Dulwich but the council stopped updating their Streetspace dashboard in September 2022 so there has been no data shared for over a year - I wonder why? On the subject of OneDulwich and their "transparency" I suggest you are only concerned about this because you would really prefer them not to be a voice for those within the community who do not believe the council is acting in good faith over LTNs and CPZs. Thank goodness they have been else the council would have had free reign to do as their please with zero accountability - I very much suggest that it is the actions of groups like One Dulwich that has meant the council have had to u-turn on their CPZ plans, that the scrutiny being forced by the likes of One Dulwich is forcing the council to rethink their plans - they are finally having to be accountable for their actions. I do also wonder if you share the same concerns about who Clean Air Dulwich are, or EDSTN Healthy Streets or the Melbourne Grove Residents association are and whether any of them have strong links to the council and the Labour party. If not, then I am sure that you are very concerned that the only source of data suggesting LTNs have been working were produced by a group being funded directly from the organisations who put the measures in and whose lead researchers are the ex-policy chair for the London Cycling Campaign and a researcher caught tearing down posters urging people to sign a petition against LTNs. In light of the cross-party parliamentary report one wonders whether there are now real questions being asked about the validity of those LTN research projects and whether the £1.5m invested to "independently" assess the impact of the LTNs was well spent - perhaps this will be something Labour's Covid Corruption Minister will take a look at ;-).

Zero need for CPZs across the whole of Dulwich. The council knows this and knows that the plans they just aborted did not pass the legal bar for what constitutes a proper consultation. They will be back to try again but will struggle to make the case because Dulwich residents clearly don't want them and, perhaps more importantly, there is no need for them. Except maybe in Cllr McAshs own ward near Lordship Lane but one suspects his own political career and survival takes precedent over the ideology he is willing to try and force on other neighbouring wards.

Cllr McAsh's attempts to spin his way out of this seem to confirm your view Legal. https://southwarknews.co.uk/area/peckham/southwark-council-says-borough-wide-cpz-plans-were-within-the-law/ Some key points below from the article - which lead me to believe the council is going back and determining where they think they can 1) drum up enough support to justify a CPZ in smaller areas (a re-run of the tactic they used to "justify" LTNs on Melbourne Grove and 2) if they can't get majority support lean in on some other criteria that they are trying to create (a re-run of the "some school kids in the north of the borough thought CPZs might be a good thing so we will roll them out for you in the south of the borough" justification for the CPZ proposals in the first place). At the end of the day our elected officials are there to represent their constituents so if the majority of constituents do not agree with their proposals then they should not be pursuing them - simple as and what Cllr McAsh is saying sets a very dangerous precedent: However, it will now consult on new CPZs within the Queen’s Road, Dulwich Village and Nunhead areas. Southwark Council is now finalising the boundaries of those proposed CPZs and will provide “evidence to justify” them. In the upcoming consultations, Cllr McAsh said: “We will be including a question where people can very clearly say whether they support the proposals.” However, Cllr McAsh said these consultations were not “referenda”. Asked if an 80 per cent ‘no’ vote would be enough to prevent future CPZs, he said: “I’m not going into any hypotheticals because it would be based on a number of other different factors. “Resident feedback is one part of it but then looking at all the evidence that we’re gathering as well. That is all important.”

But look, as far as the pro-LTN lobby are concerned job done by the "researchers" because someone pushed this out as "proof" that "LTNs work" without actually spending any time looking at the data within the report and what it actually says. It's a well used tactic to try and convince people that your plans are delivering what you promised. It's the same as touting the ludicrous statement that there has been a "40% increase in cycling" - a case of never let the truth get in the way of, what you think, is a good story.....;-)

...at reducing traffic WITHIN LTN zones (pretty bleeding obvious) but with increases above the mean average on boundary roads....concluded using the same flawed council datasets Aldred et Al used. Specifically, this study found substantial reductions in motor traffic within scheme areas, while across boundary roads there was very little aggregate change (+0.7% mean average compared to background trends). We have not attempted to calculate overall traffic reduction due to these schemes, because aggregation is affected by the number of count points, and in most cases, more counters could have hypothetically been placed (particularly on internal roads, more numerous than boundary roads). However, the results indicate that motor traffic has been reduced, and only a small proportion re-routed to boundary roads.

Oh Malumbu - you are sailing very close to your old diversionary tactics again. But let me help you get back on track shall I (to avoid another censure from admin). Whilst you encourage people not to post or change their style I recommend you keep doing what you are doing because your posts are excellent - for example, did you actually read the report you just posted, like actually read it and took time to look at the conclusions and recommendations........I don't think you can have because it actually validates my position rather than yours...www.nao.org.uk/reports/active-travel-in-england/ Let me show you.....look at Page 10 of that report: 12 DfT’s progress to date suggests it will not achieve three of its four 2025 objectives for increasing active travel, and progress on the fourth is uncertain. DfT’s objectives relate to increasing overall walking and cycling activity, with specific objectives for school journeys and short journeys made in towns and cities. The latest survey data, from 2021, show little overall progress against its objectives. Whilst one measure was close to its 2025 target, this may reflect changes to travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic which appear not to have been sustained. For the other three, levels of activity are lower than they were when the first Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy was published in 2017. And now look at page 26 of that report... This shows that DfT made little progress against its active travel objectives between 2017 and 2019 (Figure 7 on pages 26 and 27). In 2020 and 2021, travel behaviour was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as more people worked and attended school from home. Cycling increased in 2020, largely because of a surge in leisure cycling, before falling back in 2021. Progress in increasing the proportion of short journeys cycled or walked in towns and cities appears more positive but this may reflect the large decline in use of motor vehicles during the pandemic which appears not to have been sustained. The time-lag in DfT’s active travel statistics means that data for 2022 are not yet available and the longer-term impact of the pandemic on changes in active travel behaviour remains uncertain. Or Page 28.....what is the top graph showing.....exactly what many are arguing is not happening....

Earl, as I said before you are wrong - you can keep repeating the question but the data is there - the datasets for regions, including London, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/nts03-modal-comparisons Maybe you can analyse the data and come up with a different set of results - but until you do I will lean in on Vincent's analysis because I don't have time to do it..... And he isn't some random guy on twitter but Vincent Stops who "worked for 20 years for London TravelWatch, London’s transport watchdog. For much of that time he worked as their Streets Policy Officer covering, amongst other areas, disabled access. Vincent was a Hackney councillor for 20 years and for some time led on transport for the borough. Vincent is now retired from both roles". - I took that from a submission he made to a parliamentary committee not his twitter profile just in case you chose to question it! 😉 Of course cycling has gone up in the last ten years - I have never said it hasn't - and I am one of the cyclists who joined the revolution over 10 years ago - my point is that since Covid (and since the £2bn+ spend on active travel) cycling has been declining significantly in London - and seemingly nationally too. And please, don't hit me with the claims of a 40% increase from the TFL report (unless you caveat it that the 40% increase was seen for one week comparing the same week in October 2019 to the same week in October 2022). That is not an annual increase - it's a weekly increase with no established baseline for comparison - it is utterly meaningless in this discussion I am afraid - publish that data over the whole year and you have something to discuss - which is what Vincent has done with the DfT dataset.

Latest One Dulwich update: The most telling piece might be this: The DfT has reassured One Dulwich that they have made commitments to consider “new guidance on LTNs with a focus on the importance of local support” and “how to address existing LTNs that have not secured local consent”. The Dulwich LTNs were rejected by two-thirds of those who responded to the 2021 consultation. There may be trouble ahead......... One Dulwich Campaign Update | 10 Nov Report on Dulwich LTNs submitted to Government’s review Following Southwark’s decision not to cooperate with the Government’s LTNs Review – referring to it in an email to a resident as a “political stunt” – One Dulwich has submitted a summary report of the impact of the Dulwich LTNs to the Department for Transport and to Ipsos UK, the research company appointed to carry out the review. Our report concludes that there is no evidence that any of the council’s stated objectives have been met. There’s no evidence, for example, that the LTNs overall have improved road safety, cut carbon emissions, made walking and cycling safe, reduced inequalities in health and wellbeing or – crucially – improved air quality. Instead, data has been misrepresented, communications were misleading, survey questions have been biased, and the results of the public consultation were ignored. Inadequate signage has led to excessive revenue-raising (more than £13 million in fines in the Dulwich Village LTN alone). The DfT has reassured One Dulwich that they have made commitments to consider “new guidance on LTNs with a focus on the importance of local support” and “how to address existing LTNs that have not secured local consent”. The Dulwich LTNs were rejected by two-thirds of those who responded to the 2021 consultation. Southwark News, which reported Southwark’s refusal to cooperate with the LTNs Review, said in an editorial that campaigners are justified in saying that the LTNs were forced upon them. Government report says LTNs have failed to boost walking and cycling A new report from the Public Accounts Committee says that £2.3bn has been spent by the DfT on active travel schemes, which include LTNs, but that the impact and benefits are unclear. There has been no sustained increase in cycling rates, and fewer children now walk to to school than when targets were set. Dulwich news Please continue to let us know via [email protected] of any protests about LTNs in the Dulwich area so that we can keep everyone informed. Croxted Road residents recently got together to demand cross-council action to reduce congestion, and residents continue to raise concerns about increased traffic and pollution on East Dulwich Grove and Lordship Lane. Thank you for your support. The One Dulwich Team

The answer to your question is clearly in my response above and you have made my point even more strongly as you are doing what so many in the pro-cycle lobby do - you focus first on cycling - cycling is one part, not the ONLY part, of active travel. There is a cult-like obsession with using active travel as a way to further cycling's growth and going searching for a ten-fold increase in cycling was never going to be viable - it was never going to happen - it's what happens when you put cycle-lobbyists in positions of power to lead the rollout. I think the mistake was to double-down on cycling as the cure-all and as FM says...if you improve public transport that will encourage more active travel as it gets people out of cars and walking/cycling to and from train stations and bus stops. Just think how TFL could have strengthened public transport with some of the money spent on cycle infrastructure. I would love to see the walking stats for Dulwich now and I bet you walking is down due to the number of children now cycling rather than walking to school. Here's a question for you - what do you think went wrong and why do you think cycling is declining year-on-year in London? I love your sense of humour and your wonderfully ironic self-deprecating posts! 😉

There will be a new one in Dulwich Village for the small area where the council thinks that they have support for it which will be very interesting - especially if they do put a yes/no response mechanism in it this time as they have promised to do. But on the basis of the "mandate argument" posited by some about this council being re-elected can we now definitively say that they do not have a mandate to do this in the Dulwich Village or Dulwich Hill wards and should not be able to revisit until after the next local council elections? One wonders whether they might now try and implement something in the Goose Green ward (which is the only ward that could be considered to have parking issues due to the proximity to Lordship Lane).

And here I think is the problem. The focus was so much on active travel, and cycling as the major investment area within that, that it actually lost sight of the real goal - which was to reduce the reliance on cars and you can do that equally, if not more effectively, by investing in good public transport - since Covid the opposite has happened and TFL and the Mayor's office have been happy to plough billions into active travel yet reduce public transport spending. Those in power decided that the bike was the solution and saw this as an opportunity to turn London into the new Amsterdam but failed to realise that London is not Amsterdam. There are many, myself included, who think cycling in London peaked around 2015, that it reached a natural saturation point - that people like me were happy to cycle to and from work because we were fit and able enough (and hardy enough) to do so but it didn't mean that everyone was in the same position. Covid pushed cycling up beyond those levels, the pro-cycle lobby latched onto it and convinced everyone those growth rates were sustainable (ten-fold increases etc), got more investment on the back of it and are now struggling to demonstrate much growth at all when much about people's willingness to cycle in London is actually all about London. Maybe the best we could have hoped for post-pandemic was a small percentage rise in the number of cyclists. Those drawing up the cycle-centric active travel policy failed to acknowledge that London has a huge number of barriers to entry for people to cycle - its size, its topography, its housing stock, its growth on the basis of developments along public transport links and its weather. It also failed to acknowledge that London is a walking city - look at what happened around here - we walk more than many other parts of Southwark yet Southwark kept telling us cycling was the way forward and did nothing to facilitate better walking routes and facilities. I look at some of the kids cycling to school and wonder how many of them were walking before and are now cycling - we seemed to be robbing Peter to pay Paul. Walking remains, by far, the best form, and most popular form of active travel but it doesn't have industry lobby groups and lobbyists trying to influence policy. If only those in power had shown a more pragmatic approach to dealing with the issue in hand, instead they kept doubling down on the policy they believed was best for us, ignored and vilified anyone who didn't agree with them and now are probably realising they backed the wrong horse.

I got the same U-turn email for the Village area - the weight of feeling/Labour HQ pressure as we head into an election must have been huge. He does, however, suggest a small part of the Village area will get one - will be interesting to see which one and on what justification. Maybe this is the epi-centre of the pro-LTN lobby in the Village!!! 😉 Given the consultation document gave zero opportunity to respond that you didn't want a CPZ I would love to know how the council came to this conclusion..... Also very interesting that the next consultation on those smaller areas in Dulwich Village will "ask residents in each of these new areas if they want controlled parking or not" - something that was severely lacking in the initial consultation. In my opinion I think they got scared and realised the consultation was not sufficient to pass legal muster and scrutiny have analysed the data and think they can get a small area to agree to it and will use that to start parking pressure in other areas. Dear resident, I am writing to let you know the council will not be going ahead with the previous proposals to implement controlled parking across the whole Dulwich Village area. Instead we will shortly be consulting on a much smaller zone where resident feedback and our understanding of parking pressure and traffic levels in the area suggest the need is greatest. I want to thank all the residents who contacted us about this. We have listened to you and are changing our consultation plans. The council is committed to the aspirations set out in our Streets for People strategy, including making it easier for residents to switch from using their cars to making journeys by foot, by cycling and on public transport. Controlled parking can bring many benefits for local people when introduced in the right places in the right way. However, I recognise that the council’s previous proposals fell short. Through the course of the consultation, residents in many areas told us that they did not need or want controlled parking. We listened to these concerns and undertook more work to understand parking pressure and traffic levels in these areas. This work supports the view of residents that controlled parking is currently only needed in some parts of the Dulwich Village area. I thank all the residents who contacted us about this. I also want to thank your local ward councillors who have spent much of the last few weeks representing the concerns of local people, and setting out the need for a different approach. We have listened to you and are changing our plans. The council’s previous proposals were not the right ones. We are learning the lessons from this and are sorry we got it wrong. We will shortly be consulting on a new proposal to implement controlled parking in just part of Dulwich Village. This new consultation will ask residents in each of these new areas if they want controlled parking or not. I want to again thank all the residents who have contacted us about this. We greatly value the time that you have taken to share your views. Yours sincerely, Cllr James McAsh

Earl, you're wrong again I am afraid. Look at the link I shared and then click down to the links that say data tables. It's all in there, data for London, data for every part of the country - maybe you can extrapolate the data for London and see if you agree with Vincent's summary? The TFL report you shared is flagging an increase for one week in October, comparing one week in 2022 to the same week in 2019. Hurrah, a 40% increase for a single week but why do you think TFL, the authority responsible for the build out of huge amounts of cycle infrastructure, chose that week? Perhaps it was randomly selected....;-) So again, for you to claim that cycling is up by 40% on the basis of that stat is wrong, misleading and needs to be caveated. Are there more cyclists, of course there are? Are there double, triple or quadruple the number than before - nope? To be a success does the cycle infrastructure need to be attracting double, triple or quadruple the numbers - absolutely yes? Are there fewer cyclists than during the pandemic and are the number of cyclists decreasing year on year according to research - yes? Is there disruption caused to buses by the building of more infrastructure? Yes. Are more kids cycling to school? Yes. Did many of them switch from walking to cycling to make their journeys? Yes. Is that a good thing? Yes as it gets then cycling but no in terms of active travel as the very best form is walking. Now the question we should all be pondering is, is the focus on cycle infrastructure delivering the results necessary to sustain that level of investment and is the impact on other modes warranted? We seem a very long way off the mooted 10-fold increase.......

Earl you are wrong. The DfT report does look at London and the results taken from the data in the report are pasted above - both of which show a continued decline in cycling in London post-pandemic - you can see average cycle trips per year is just above pre-pandemic levels but below those from 2014-15 and miles travelled as a proportion of all trips continuing its year on year drop since the pandemic. And you're "doing a Will" with the 40% figure. That is not an annual figure but TFL comparing two (as far as I am aware undefined) periods of time in the Autumn of 2019 with the Autumn of 2022. It's a bit like us comparing the number of people cycling last Thursday (when it was torrential rain and Storm Ciaran) to those cycling this Thursday (when the weather is set to be much better) - a massive increase between the two dates but no way indicative of whether there a more cyclists per se.

Yes absolutely 100% but the current measures being installed are not delivering anywhere close to what some claim or some promised or what is needed. Additionally, the negative impact on other transport modes (public transport in particular) and the people who use those modes is huge. And remember these conclusions have been reached by a cross-party parliamentary committee - so not some angry right-wing rag - and they say: There has been no sustained increase in cycling rates, and fewer children now walk to school than when targets were set. That is a devasting inditement of the failure of the £2.3bn spend on active travel. Some of us could see what was happening - others didn't want to see it or refused to acknowledge it. And P.S. Malumbu - I am not angry (thanks for your concern) I am sad that a once in a lifetime opportunity to make positive active travel change has seemingly been wasted because those who were given the power to initiate the change (many of those who mentioned in your post) put their own cycle-centric ideology ahead of a more balanced pragmatic approach. And I suspect that as the Tories start flinging mud ahead of the general election that a lot of those who have been part of the machine will come into the cross-hairs (and that they will all try to blame one another for the debacle as they look to avoid being accountable). Fasten your seatbelts, fasten your bike helmet and charge your e-bikes and cargo bikes - this is going to be a very bumpy ride.

There are some at the customer service counter at M&S as well.

It's all starting to unravel - some of us on here have been saying for a long time that these measures have not been working and that the numbers being put out by activist researchers and councils weren't right and now the reality is coming to light....let's see how those who have been cheerleaders for these measures and responsible for the debacle try to spin their way out of it and take zero personal responsibility for what has happened (or not happened in these cases)... Unfortunately, too many have been led down the garden path and hoodwinked by vested-interest lobby groups.

The way it is worded suggests these are long-term sick? I suspect it is very deliberate that Royal Mail have added that to their quote as it seems a bit out of context - are they trying to tell us something?

What is the Royal Mail referring to in relation to their comment below? Return to work - from what, or am I missing something? To support the health of our employees and assist them in their return to work, we have introduced a wellbeing programme which provides colleagues with free, confidential, and independent healthcare support, including unlimited 24/7 access to an online GP.

Malumbu - a reminder you have been warned not to try and divert threads. This thread is about whether the cycle-first policy has been working. Now a parliamentary cross-party committe has said that despite £2.3bn spent on active travel measures: There has been no sustained increase in cycling rates, and fewer children now walk to school than when targets were set. So despite many coming on here assuring us there are more people cycling we have seen one report from the DfT and a report from the cross-party committee contradicting that position. The active travel measures aren't working are they - it all looks like its been a massive waste of public funds that hasn't delivered on its promises. Who do you think needs to be held accountable? I am afraid the DfT report suggests otherwise.

What was I saying.....and so it starts and now look for the government to pass the buck to the likes of TFL and local authorities on how they have been investing the billions: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/198260/active-travel-government-programme-offtrack-as-funding-reductions-hold-back-progress/#:~:text=The Government is not on,travel%2C including cycling and walking. Quote from report: The report further warns that the impact of £2.3bn in funding for active travel infrastructure remains unclear. DfT’s efforts to increase active travel have seen disappointingly slow progress. Objectives include a doubling of cycling rates, and a 6 percentage point increase in the proportion of children walking to school. There has been no sustained increase in cycling rates, and fewer children now walk to school than when targets were set.

Are you referring to the Our Healthy Streets programme?

Was anyone predicting a massive jump in car sales post pandemic? Maybe, like house prices, the Covid-initiated cycle boom was never sustainable and predictions of a ten-fold increase were just misguided, fanciful nonsense from those with vested-interests propping up their own agendas. The problem is that the Covid cycle boom was used to set transport policy for London - do we now need to have a reset and rethink given that it clearly isn't being sustained? Isla bikes are brilliant and it is a real shame that no new ones will be made but their struggles, and those of many in the cycle industry, shows the real challenge now - if cycling can't break out of low single figure numbers for percentage share of transport modes then it will always remain a niche transport method and you cannot build your whole transport policy around it - and I don't think anyone can argue that cycling hasn't been the starting point for all of Will and Sadiq's road transport planning and policy since Covid.

DulvilleRes - it's coming from all the data being published that shows that cycling in London is declining from it's Covid peak and, if the current trajectory continues, will likely be lower than pre-Covid soon. And Snowy - they're not tropes but uncomfortable truths about what is happening in cycling right now - surely it's better for people to open their eyes and acknowledge something isn't working and address it before it is too late - the "build it and they will come" approach is clearly not working? If the destination and goal is to seize on the opportunity of Will Norman's proclamation of a potential ten-fold increase in cycling and three years later you have failed to deliver a one-fold increase (and your numbers are dropping year-on-year) surely the path being taken is not the correct one?