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Must have done! Baffled as to why Rendelharris is so intent on dismissing the concerns about the effects of this trial raised by those actually live on the roads taking the displaced traffic, who are experiencing and observing them daily, and by other residents whose kids have to use these roads to walk to school. Coming on the forum to accuse others of making things up is not a good look. It is simply untrue that traffic on Grove Lane is the same as it ever was. I have lived on Grove Lane 22 years and never seen anything like it. ?Allegedly??! The tailbacks in morning rush hour which were once contained on Champion Park now extend all the way down Grove Lane, on a bad morning almost all the way back to Champion Hill. Plenty of photographic evidence of this from multiple sources has been and will continue to be captured and passed on to the Council.

Agree. Residents are observing a clear and unacceptable increase in congestion and pollution as a result of the scheme - ironically, its stated purpose was to reduce pollution! This is a scheme for which there was no evidenced need and which is failing in its vaguely stated objectives. The pollution it is causing is precisely what is worrying residents, our children have to breathe it in on their way to school. The delay to bus journeys is also unacceptable - journeys taking more than twice as long as they should between Dog Kennel Hill and Denmark Hill in morning rush hour. Here?s a link to the consultation https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/champion-hill-no-entry-trial-monitoring-form/

The objectives of the scheme are unclear and no evidence for its need has been produced by the Council. If it is about making streets healthier and safer for children walking to school, it is failing in its objectives. It is having the opposite effect. Many more children live on and walk along the roads taking the displaced traffic and are suffering increased pollution in morning rush hour than live on or use Champion Hill. The Pupil Entrance to Dog Kennel Hill School is not on Champion Hill but on Dog Kennel Hill. Ideally both No2 and PM2.5 levels should be monitored but the Council is focusing exclusively on NO2 (cheaper to monitor). The NO2 tube on Champion Hill (where NO2 levels would already have been significantly lower than on Dog Kennel Hill, Grove Lane or Champion Park) is already broken and incredibly, none were planned for Dog Kennel Hill, Grove Lane or Champion Park, despite this constituting a major pedestrian route to three local primary schools and the first two being densely residential. Residents are pressing for these. The scheme is as deeply flawed as the failed Loughborough Junction trial, which was aborted when the Fire Brigade lodged an official complaint about the impact of the congestion it caused on emergency response times and Kings commented on unacceptable (20-30 minute) delays caused to patients and staff and on a perceived increase in pollution in the area around the hospital. Interestingly, another reason for the ending of that trial was its unacceptable impact on the residents of the Loughborough estate - over-use of estate roads. It was fully anticipated by Southwark Council in its planning of this trial that westbound displaced traffic would head south and seek to rejoin Dog Kennel Hill via Bromar and Puthchley Roads, ie via the East Dulwich estate, none of whose residents were consulted. This consultation is open till September https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/champion-hill-no-entry-trial-monitoring-form/

You?re right, it didn?t. There is no evidence that NO2 levels were above EU limits on Champion Hill - nothing to justify driving them up (quite possibly above EU limits) across the wider, surrounding area as the no entry trial is clearly doing. Even more shocking, the Council which promised comprehensive air quality monitoring for the scheme made no provision for NO2 tubes on the roads that would take the displaced traffic. Under duress and pressure from residents (because these are residential roads!, they have promised to instal some in March but too late for baseline readings. Here?s a link to that Southwark News article https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/southwark-air-quality-pollution-invisible-killer-revealed/

Absolutely right. The dangerous increase in congestion on Melbourne Grove and East Dulwich Grove has coincided exactly with the Champion Hill no entry trial, it cannot be attributed to the roadworks which long predate the trial (though yes, the displaced traffic from the Champion Hill trial is encountering roadworks when it reaches EDG). Unable now to access Denmark Hill via Champion Hill and faced with gridlock on Grove Lane and Champion Park between 8 and 9am every day, motorists are clearly seeking an alternative route to Denmark Hill via Melbourne and East Dulwich Grove. This is the very opposite of ?healthy streets?, the slogan used to justify the no entry trial - this is vehicles including diesel buses siting in long queues alongside primary and secondary lschools at both the top and bottom of the hill, spewing out pollution. James, you are a resident of Champion Hill and in favour of the trial. Fine, but please don?t let?s pretend that the significant rise in congestion and pollution we?ve seen on northbound and westbound routes around Champion Hill since the closure have nothing to do with it.

Here is a link to a Southwark Council online consultation form inviting comments on the no entry trial, which apparently went live on 7th February, unbeknownst to local residents, who yet again, were not notified. https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/champion-hill-no-entry-trial-monitoring-form/ This closes on 30th September 2019. Please take the time to complete this if you?ve experienced or are experiencing increased congestion and pollution, road safety issues, and/ or bus delays etc, as a result of the no entry trial. If the survey will let you, it is worth attaching photographic evidence to illustrate your concerns. It is becoming clear that the effects of the trial are far-reaching and are being felt as far south as Melbourne Grove and East Dulwich Grove, on the main bus and pedestrian route to East Dulwich secondary schools, as well as on the hill?s pedestrian routes to Goose Green, Dog Kennel Hill School, Lyndhurst School and Denmark Hill station.

The northbound buses queueing on Grove Lane and Champion Park to access Denmark Hill were, however, very much in service! I recently had to attend a medical appointment at Kings using the 185 and found the journey time had more than doubled since the no entry trial began. Neighbours have reported the same.

Here is a link to a Southwark Council online consultation form inviting comments on the no entry trial, which apparently went live on 7th February, unbeknownst to local residents, who yet again, were not notified! https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/champion-hill-no-entry-trial-monitoring-form/ This closes on 30th September 2019. Please take the time to complete this if you?ve experienced or are experiencing increased congestion and pollution, road safety issues, and/ or bus delays etc, as a result of the no entry trial. If the survey will let you, it is worth attaching photographic evidence to illustrate your concerns. It is becoming clear that the effects of the trial are far-reaching and are being felt as far south as Melbourne Grove and East Dulwich Grove, on the main bus and pedestrian route to East Dulwich secondary schools, as well as on the hill, the main pedestrian route to Dog Kennel School, Lyndhurst School and Denmark Hill station.

Grove Lane at 8.26am today. Healthier streets, really? Good luck to the people trying to get anywhere on time in those buses.

Grove Lane, while a main road, is ALSO a residential road and a major pedestrian route to local schools, bus stops and stations. The congestion caused by displaced traffic as a direct result of this trial is driving pollution up to dangerous levels. My kids and many others have to breathe it in on their way to school every morning. Bromar and Pytchley Roads likewise are residential. As others have observed, they are much less able to cope with the traffic than Champion Hill was. Dog Kennel Hill is not only densely residential but is where the main Pupil Entrance to the primary school is located. I fail to see how excluding traffic from what was already the healthiest and safest street in the area to make all these streets (and others, from what I?ve been reading) so unhealthy, unpleasant and unsafe, and delay northbound buses in morning rush hour into the bargain, is in any way a positive move.

Yes.

I?m afraid the Deliveroo guy?s intention to turn into Champion Hill and his outrage at being stopped by you perfectly illustrate my point about the inefficacy of the signage! I don?t know if the particular camera you mention is operational, I would love to believe it is but nothing about this trial has been properly planned or implemented. The NO2 tubes demanded by residents to monitor the effects of the trial on air quality on Dog Kennel Hill, Grove Lane and Champion Park (three roads that constitute a major pedestrian route to local primary schools at the top and bottom of the hill) have yet to materialise. They should have been planned as a matter of course and in place before the trial began.

The project manager for the Champion Hill trial is Joanna Lesak: [email protected] She is the Council?s lead contact for feedback about the trial and its impacts. If writing to her, it is worth copying in Councillor Richard Livingstone who is our local Cabinet Member for Transport and Air Quality: [email protected] and the two Councillors for Champion Hill Ward [email protected] [email protected]

Good idea. I wonder if the reason the signage for the scheme is so poor is that Southwark don?t want local people putting two and two together, understanding it is the new no entry from Champion Hill onto Denmark Hill that is causing this congestion with attendant bus delays and pollution in morning rush hour. The signage is so poor that a lot of motorists are still heading into Champion Hill unaware of the no right turn at the end until it is too late, they then find themselves performing U turns and in one case a few days ago a car was seen mounting and driving down the pavement to get down the newly forbidden leg of Champion Hill. None of this is being monitored by the Council who have not yet bothered to get cameras on down there! There have been reports of people driving down as far as Green Dale looking for an exit. The scheme is unnecessary, misguided and dangerous. Re feedback/consultation, a leaflet went to residents of Champion Hill and a few selected neighbouring streets prior to the online survey some months ago but Grove Lane, Camberwell Grove and the whole of the East Dulwich estate (bisected by a brand new rat run thanks to the closure) were all left out. The questionnaire was in any case a tokenistic exercise which the council said would have no effect on the trial going ahead since an experimental traffic order could be undertaken without consultation. Formal consultation is however promised after a six month period of monitoring.

Thank you!

PS for accuracy,I wonder if this thread could be renamed? The ?no entry? is into Denmark Hill from Champion Hill, not vice versa.

There are no roadworks on Grove Lane. The Council were asked to consider deferring the no entry trial until all major roadworks in the area were completed but chose to ignore this, arguing that the Denmark Hill roadworks would not exacerbate the effects of the trial as they were to be undertaken at night and that the even more major Camberwell Green roadworks would not begin until after the trial was over. The roadworks on Denmark Hill began months before the trial did and only slightly affected traffic flow on Denmark Hill. The gridlock we are seeing on Champion Park/Grove Lane/Dog Kennel Hill every morning, thought not helped by roadworks on Denmark Hill, began with and is the direct result of the trial closure of Champion Hill to through traffic.

I live on one of the roads onto which the traffic has been displaced by this scheme and have two school age children, I have serious concerns about the impacts of this road closure and it is facile to dismiss anyone who doesn?t support it as espousing a mindless belief that the motor car is king. The simple fact is that many more residents, bus users and pedestrians (including schoolchildren)will be harmed by the scheme than will benefit from it. As someone put it in a previous post, this no entry trial is ?nimbyism at its finest? - one road which was already safer and healthier than most being made virtually a private road at the cost of many other roads and most worryingly at the cost of air quality on a major walking route to three local primary schools (Dog Kennel Hill, Goose Green and Lyndhurst School). When cars sit gridlocked like this, all the way from Champion Hill to Denmark Hill, on a weekday morning, how many people are breathing in the fumes? How many staff and patients are now delayed on their way to Kings College Hospital?

Yes, that?s why Dog Kennel Hill, Grove Lane and Champion Park were all gridlocked by 8.15am today in morning rush hour. Doesn?t bode well.

Bang on. A brand new ?rat run? will be created, bisecting the East Dulwich Estate (what consideration is being given to the residents?) Bromar and Pytchley Roads are, as you say, far less able to cope with traffic than Champion Hill. But TfL have ruled out lifting the banned right turn from Grove Hill Road onto Grove Lane due to the impact this would have on northbound buses coming up Dog Kennel Hill.

Does anyone know if they?ve gritted Dog Kennel Hill?

Residents of a number of neighbouring roads that will be directly affected were not leafleted to notify them of the online questionnaire, the leafleting was highly selective. There are legitimate concerns from many quarters (including from residents of Champion Hill itself) that displacing traffic from what is manifestly already the healthiest street in the area (Safer and healthier still since the introduction of the 20MPH speed limit and speed humps) onto other less healthy (but also residential) streets, will add to existing congestion on these roads, pushing NO2 levels up to dangerous levels at peak times across the wider area. These are densely residential roads used by thousands of pedestrians daily to access local schools, stations, bus stops and hospitals. One of these is Dog Kennel Hill, where the pupil entrance is located. There are also concerns about the impact on northbound buses in morning rush hour and on emergency response times (ambulances trying to access A&E via Grove Lane and Champion Park, for example). The monitoring plan did not include NO2 monitoring on those roads traffic will be displaced onto but Councillor Livingstone has agreed to get some installed and to look into extending the monitoring of bus journey times on Champion Park, where the worst effects of the trial are likely to be felt by bus users.

Agree - this actually represents a significant increase. It will seriously affect northbound bus journey and emergency response times. Congestion in morning rush hour at the Champion Park junction with Denmark Hill has already worsened since the closure of Windsor Walk to through traffic. Throw the major roadworks now beginning on Denmark Hill/around Camberwell Green AND the Champion Hill closure into the mix? Doesn?t bear thinking about. Re traffic ?evaporating?, I doubt it. What will happen if this goes ahead is untold congestion and a massive rise in air pollution and highways safety issues, especially on the roads around and bisecting the East Dulwich Estate. One only has to look at the expensive Loughborough Junction fiasco to see how traffic fails to ?evaporate? in the real world. The localised congestion, attendant delays and pollution and impacts on Kings caused the no entry scheme to be abandoned (the whole thing costing Lambeth Council ?100,000).

I take your point. However, there still have to be proper grounds for going ahead with a trial which will impact on as wide an area as this, on peak time bus services and on journey times to Kings. Adequate grounds have yet to be provided for this trial, which proposes to exclude westbound through-traffic from what is manifestly the safest and healthiest street in the area to make neighbouring streets less safe and less healthy. The timing of the proposed trial also could not be worse, coinciding as it does with major roadworks in the immediate vicinity.

Deadline for consultation is tomorrow, Monday 22nd October. Link here: https://consultations.southwark.gov.uk/environment-leisure/championhilltrial/