Rockets

So what you're saying is this is an attack on wealth rather than anything to do with climate change? So by your own measure you would agree that any use of the public streets should be charged for - so if you walk or cycle? Are people not paying for the council to maintain the streets via council tax?

Malumbu - not sure how you come to that conclusion. But you claim to not want to put people into camps and yet the article you post has the architect of the 15-minute city concept reverting to the well-used "how dare you not agree with my view of how we tackle this problem" trope: "This kind of fear-mongering is, to me, something very fascist," Moreno said. "But it's also so absurd that it shows that the people buying are terribly gullible, terribly ignorant, in line with flat-earthers or those people who think the world is controlled by lizard people." Moreno is a left-wing thinker who had to flee Columbia for Paris because he was a member of the 19th of April Movement and he is teaming up with a left-wing mayor in Paris to force his vision on Parisians and then when they say, hey, we don't like what you are doing, don't agree with the measures you're taking and you're killing our city's ability to function he calls them fascists. Here's another take on this - the "right-wing" mantra/conspiracy trope is perpetrated by those people (more often than not left-wing thinkers) who have spectacularly failed to communicate to people, beyond their own echo chamber, why they should support and engage with the changes they are forcing upon them. If you're not capable of bringing people along for the ride it gives you no right to lean back off your horse/bike and scream at them "fascist" just because you have not been able to convince them - the problem lies with your inability to get people onside.

But Malumbu - Streeting was doing this to try and show he is on the side of drivers so referencing housing or rentals would not have met his objective (and merely validated the war on cars message). Watch for more of this during their party conference - Labour has to respond and they will want to show they are supporting drivers because it is a huge swathe of the electorate. Interesting as well that Laura K opened with the "war on drivers" gambit as her first question to Sunak so it shows it is starting to drive, pardon the pun, the agenda. Penguin68 - I am afraid it seems to have been a case that the "lunatics have been running the asylum" for far too long in terms of active travel and those pushing their own agenda have been allowed to do that scott-free since Covid. All of the things the Tories are targeting have been carefully selected, I suspect, to do most damage to those who have been championing them (i.e. Labour, Labour run administrations and the pro-active travel lobby). Right now I would not want to be a council that has run a less than transparent consultation or a researcher paid to prove LTNs (by the very people who are implementing them) have delivered on their objectives (especially if you are personally closely allied to the pro-active travel lobby or have a history of vandalising posters from anyone who opposes your view...;-)). Very quickly we will all learn how robust the procedures have been and whether they did actually meet the thresholds required in a democratic process and how nepotistic the industry telling us this is all great actually is.

Anyone else thinking that Southwark will have to u-turn on the timing of the CPZ rollout and kick the can down the road until after the general election? I can't imagine Labour will be doing anything locally to stir the "war on motorists" hornet's nest ahead of either the mayoral or general election.

Legal - you are right and I am pretty sure I remember councillors lauding the 15-minute city concept as the strategic aim/goal. A bit like Oxford council did https://www.oxford.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/8144/bgp_14_15_minute_cities.pdf so the concept has been thrown around for a while but the Tories are throwing it in to the mix probably to be able to use it as a deflection technique and to point at the disaster that is Paris right now as Mayor Hidalgo tries to turn Paris into the poster-child for 15-minute cities. I watched the politics show as well and three things stood out: 1) Sunak has clearly been told he needs to assert himself more (which he is clearly struggling with) btu was struggling to land his points because Laura K kept interrupting him (probably because the expectation is that he just waffles and repeats the same soundbites over and over again 2) what was also interesting was Wes Streeting when he talked about "as a motorist I worry not about whether my council stops me speeding past my primary school with 20mph limits but the cost of petrol at the pump". Which I wonder is an indication of how Labour will try to counter the Tory narrative and try to distance themselves from the war on motorists - very refreshing to hear a Labour voice admit they do drive! 3) But Jon Culshaw summed it up beautifully at the end with his closing impressions of both leaders and how you do their voices and personality. Rishi Sunak: the closest you can get to AI whilst still remaining human and Keir Starmer: more hesitant and in instalments and "now it's time for Songs of Praise...."

And Malumbu, is this just not the democratic process in play? The Tories are desperate for votes and they think they have found somewhere to get them because they believe there are a number of people who are tired of Labour administrations abusing the democratic process when it comes to active travel policies and their "war on cars". This is politics and you can't say people weren't telling Labour administrations that it was more than a "small vocal minority' who had problems with the way Labour were managing these policies? Whether the Tories get anything from this remains to be seen but I suspect a few reputations will get trashed in the process and there will be collateral damage. If the Tories can show (although one suspects they will gerrymandering this whether it exists or not) that Labour administrations did not follow the democratic process when rolling these out then it puts Labour HQ in a real pickle and look what a mess they got into over Uxbridge.

Govt set up the idea of LTNs but they didn't implement them - that was down to local authorities and, clearly, local authorities took advantage. Now, if the local authorities did everything by the book, ran fair consultations and engaged the views of the local communities and deployed the LTNs within guidelines then they have nothing to fear surely? If they didn't do everything by the book then they only have themselves to blame. P.S. One suspects the Tories know Labour councils did not do everything by the book and I suspect Labour councils and Labour HQ are more than aware of this. You reap what you sow....but if this does bear fruit for the Tories you have to question how Labour allowed themselves to sleep walk into this trap...it was bleedingly obvious what was going on from the outset (from a perspective of Labour councils bending the rules to their advantage and ignoring local sentiment/views of constituents)

Malumbu, where did I rejoice...sharing the info is not rejoicing is it....? Is this not one part of the government's U-turn?

Ha ha.. at least 3 of these things Cllr McAsh claims are actually also the issues caused by his LTNs!

It's starting..... BBC News - Sunak vows to stop 20mph zones and review LTNs https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66965714 The government said its plan would: Review guidance on 20mph speed limits in England, to prevent their use in "areas where it's not appropriate" "Amend guidance" on LTNs "to focus on local consent", and weigh public support for those already introduced Stop councils implementing "15-minute cities", where essential amenities are always within a 15-minute walk Seek to reduce the hours where cars are banned from bus lanes Target "overzealous" enforcement of parking Consult on extending fines for disruptive street repairs which run into weekends

Spartacus - you missed the best bit of Sarah's quote which is actually beyond incredulous given how single-mode focussed London's "active travel" plans have been on cycling....;-) Oh my...if we had had a holistic plan from Sadiq, TFL and Will then London wouldn't be in the mess it is in now!!! “We need a holistic plan for how people can travel – not a plan that zooms in on one particular mode of transport. “Better public transport and safer ways for people to cycle and walk are entirely compatible with driving. “Focusing on one way of travelling is like trying to complete a jigsaw with half the pieces missing.”

Not sure where I blame Southwark and TFL for the national picture Malumbu. What I am saying is that it is exactly because this government is so awful that they are using the local picture to try to mould the national picture and Labour run administrations in Wales, London and other places are providing the fuel for the fire because of the awful way they have handled the roll-out of active travel and their "anti-car" policies. The Tories are trying to scare the living daylights out of anyone who uses a car, in the same way that the fools who voted for Brexit got scared in the run-up to that referendum. The Tories are hoping that people around the country see what Labour has done at the local level and go, nope, don't fancy that - it's the only thing the Tories have left - they're at rock bottom and will do anything to try to survive. Their strategic goal is probably to try and create a hung-parliament - cos that's the best they could hope for and remember this is just the warm-up because the date for the election has not even been set yet. Legal, that's a very good point. Once Keir gets into power centralisation might afford him more control of the far-left elements of his party and he might use it to continue the purge and Southwark would probably be the poster-child for a Labour administration that would need fixing.

It's starting - if I was a councillor and the council I would probably start donning hard hats because there's probably incoming heading their way....both from the Tories and Labour HQ

Malumbu - I don't think anyone on here has suggested they want a car-centric policy I think what you will find is that this is born from the awful way that councils around the country have treated residents - the Tories are merely trying to grab at anything they can so the blame, as far as I am concerned, lies with those who have tried to steam-roller these policies in without proper engagement with constituents - they are now reaping what they sowed. My fear from the outset has always been that the way councils like Southwark have managed this would backfire and actually set the active travel cause back significantly and, I am afraid, those fears are now starting to be realised. Who wants to bet how long it will be before the Tories turn their attention to the amount of money Sadiq and Will have spent putting in cycle infrastructure and the fact that the latest DFT figures show that there has been a continued decline in cycling numbers in London year on year - the numbers are still higher than pre-pandemic (nationally they are now lower than pre-pandemic) but probably not enough for the £1bn spend in London not to come under the microscope.

Snowy - the Tories clearly knew it would fail but it was used by them as another tool to up the "Labour's war on drivers" narrative. And look how the Labour leadership (in light of a claimed 440,000 strong petition against the measures) are having to say they will listen to concerns - what they meant to say was "we will listen and make changes if we and Labour HQ think this is going to cost us votes in the general election". Moving forward I am not sure who will be looking more closely at what happened in areas like Southwark to find the flaws in the LTN and CPZ strategies: the Tories or Labour HQ - either are likely to make it rather uncomfortable for the council and councillors as they probably know they are sitting on a ticking time bomb. Maybe we will read about it in the inevitable book from one of the councillors: "LTNs and my role in the general election" 😉 We are getting to the point where political parties start cleaning their manifestos as they go searching for votes ahead of an election - Labour's u-turn on private school tax status is a clear example of this - they are doing the maths and equating policies to votes won or lost and the Tories clearly want to make car use a massive Achilles heal for Labour. This comment below from the BBC's political correspondent in this article sums it up perfectly https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-66929515 Senedd arithmetic meant this motion was bound to fail. The 20mph law was in Labour and Plaid Cymru's manifestos. It would have required a screeching U-turn for any of their members to vote against Lee Waters. That won't surprise the Conservatives. This is part of a broader strategy to try to convince drivers that the Tories are on your side. We saw something similar with the row about the Ulez charge in London.

And we must remember that the Councillor leading these efforts is the very same Councillor who went door to door when news of the DV closure became public warning his constituents that the DV closure would mean increases in traffic on EDG and Melbourne Grove and whether they would like him to have their road closed for them.......

Agree, and they are clutching at anything they can to try and deflect from the anti-Tory mood board. I hate to credit the Tories but it is a political master-stroke as, if people start to buy it, then it puts Labour in a tight spot and makes transport policy the key election issue. If people don't buy it then the Tories are hosed but they were hosed anyway - a wounded political animal will do odd things. And Legal and FM are absolutely right, the national agenda is very relevant to the local agenda (and FM yes the govt and councils will start coming for electric cars - they will start paying roadtax from 2025). Councils like Southwark used the national agenda (Covid) to mould and manipulate the process for implementation of LTNs, CPZs etc - and they were able to hide a multitude of planning sins under the umbrella of social distancing and emergency orders. But now the Tories have clearly declared war on those who initiated the "war on cars" and the worm will likely turn because all of those planning sins could now come under scrutiny and analysis and whilst local councils won't care too much Labour HQ will because they will not want to see Labour councils getting scrutiny that adds fuel to the Tory "there's a war on cars and Labour are the ones initiating it" rhetoric. How ironic that Boris' demise has seemingly given the Tories their platform for the election.

If their question set is anything like the questions they asked in the consultation it might make for some interesting and stilted discussions!...."I am sorry resident but there is no facility to record your opposition to the CPZs you can only tell me how long you want them to run for every day...." Does anyone think this street sampling might be the council's ploy to satiate the need for a "legal consultation"? If so then we have every right to be suspicious....

Let's hope the households are randomly selected and not just those on the Labour membership list......as we know Southwark Labour targeted those Labour households when they went out to remind people about the LTN consultations......;-)

Has anyone asked Cllr McAsh what the reason is for his ward not getting the CPZ - is he just trying to ring-fence and protect his political career/longevity? As cabinet member behind the grand CPZ plan it does seem a little odd that he chose not to roll it out in his ward and I wonder how his councillor colleagues in those affected wards feel about this. It does also seem strange that the very ward where the council has told us previously that there is the pressure on parking is not part of the plan........all a bit strange.

Councils have been removing parking spaces for ages - the extension of double-yellow lines to the maximum permissible in Dulwich over the last few years is a prime example - in a desperate attempt to create parking pressures to help justify CPZs. The laughable thing is the only ward not getting a CPZ is the ward where there are some parking pressures due to the proximity to the Lane...go figure...

70 fines issued to red light jumping cyclists Malumbu...thats good news they are enforcing the rules though isn't it because red light jumping cyclists are a danger to themselves and other road users? Aren't they? I have being saying for a long time that this type of enforcement is the only thing likely to stop the persistent abusers of the rules and I hope something similar is done at junctions like Dulwich Library where red light jumping is a daily/hourly occurance.

And 70 PCNs for red light jumping cyclists at that one junction would suggest the article is not biased but that the police are trying to tackle anti-social behaviour at that junctiom much of which is red light jumping cyclists....surely Malumbu it is good that the police are taking steps to ensure the rules of the road are obeyed by everyone and that they are issuing fines for cyclists too?

Looks like some parts of the city are taking action: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/police-lycra-louts-jumping-red-lights-in-the-square-mile-b1108748.html?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=discover&utm_campaign=CCwqFwgwKg4IACoGCAowqvB9MMTRCTDIhdcBMOW8uQI&utm_content=related

As I was saying - the Tories are trying to create a "we support the car driver" narrative and actually, in terms of lifting the ban on petrol and diesel sales, this will do little to impact the direction of travel for the car industry - they are well on the EV path already - it's just a Tory tactic to try and heap pressure on Labour as they have stuck themselves clearly to the anti-car/in favour of active travel mast and the Tories clearly feel this is an Achilles heal for them - as Uxbridge demonstrated a pro-car agenda (rightly or wrongly) will get more votes. The leak of Sunak's change was clearly done by the Tories as a kite-flying exercise so they could assess how people were reacting and course-correct if necessary. Their polling must have suggested it was creating the impact they wanted. BTW VW just dropped the price of an ID3 to $18,000 (£15,000) in China yet exactly the same car starts at £36,000 in the UK - this is how much pressure the incumbents are under. Even Tesla keeps dropping their prices in China.