exdulwicher

That's right Rockets "it's a bit less desirable / more difficult doing roadworks in December" absolutely translates to "thou shalt only do roadworks in June". 🙄

Well it does, you need to dig the road up to widen the pavement... It's not just the tarmac setting though, there's a host of related issues. More chance of bad weather delaying the work (which means it lasts longer, costs more and causes more disruption and we all know how much Rockets hates disruption...). Shorter working days because of less daylight so either you bring in lights and generators or the work just takes more days, either of which means more cost, more disruption. If you have to do it then fair enough - emergency stuff will always need fixing there and then - but if you can avoid it then it makes sense to do it when it needs less resource and less chance of bad weather causing delays. Added to which, as I said, tarmac doesn't set / cure as well when it's cold and wet.

No, it's a popular myth though. Doing roadworks over winter is quite challenging, the (usually) wet / cold conditions mean that tarmac doesn't set properly. Fine if you have to do emergency stuff (although you usually need to come back and re-do it later) but winter is also the time that roads degrade the most. Freeze / thaw cycles, salt and grit etc mean there's always a load of remedial work to be done as soon as it's drier and marginally warmer. Hence a load more roadworks appear in March and everyone predictably goes "ooh, they're using the last of the budget..." 🙄 And because so many people have heard it so often, it's the one "fact" they remember. Much like how everyone knows that a swan can break your arm yet no-one actually suffers from swan-induced arm breaks. Funding comes from a number of sources, it's not always ring-fenced or time-constrained, there's no one pot which must be spent by 31st March.

So according to you, Southwark Council have limited resources all being spent on Dulwich Square; meanwhile on the gas works thread, Rockets is complaining that Southwark Council have so much surplus that they have to rush out and spend it all in March. Is it too much to ask for some sort of consistent narrative around all this? Schrodinger clearly worked at Southwark Council where they simultaneously have so much money they can do "non-essential" work but not enough money to fill a pothole.

Please define "non-essential". Why are they not needed (according to Rockets) but needed according to TfL / Southwark? The A205 works have been on the cards for years. Prevented by Covid initially, then by TfL's financial situation post-Covid, then by some unforeseen landowner / access issues. So these apparently non-essential works have been planned for years, it's not something that Southwark / TfL have gone "we're bored and have a million quid to spend, what can we dig up today?" You cannot go around claiming that something is non-essential. You don't know that at all. Neither do I to be fair although at least I'm not going round claiming it. And regarding the phasing of works, I assume you're thoroughly up to date on the council's pipeline of schemes, prioritisation principles, workforce availability (and the tender / procurement process and timelines), supply chain limitations, related nearby works (both highways and other general building works), scheduled community events (probably not relevant to the pavement outside ED station but very much a concern if you're going to do work outside somewhere like Dulwich or Brockwell Park...), funding availability... By all means ask the council though. Do post their reply up here.

I said nothing of the sort Rockets, stop trying to put words in my mouth. You could of course just ask Southwark Council - in fact their finances must be available on their website, why don't you go and have a look through that seeing as you're always saying how you "do your own research" and how much you love council data. Also the gas works will be paid for by the utilities company, not the council.

You could honestly make a conspiracy out of anything couldn't you?! That myth perpetuates because it's difficult doing roadworks over winter when it's cold and wet so once the weather improves a bit, they're out in force fixing winter defects so everyone goes "ooh they're using up the last of the budget..." 🙄 It's total nonsense.

There's a limit to how much coordination can be done though. Some of the works will have been planned a long time in advance. Some of them will be reactive and therefore urgent. And there's a strong argument that a relatively shorter period of higher disruption is better than massively prolonged lower disruption.

Well A205 is TfL and that's been on the cards to do for years, there have been safety concerns around that junction for a long time. "non-essential" - excellent, I'm glad that you can determine how essential these are. Can you share the Rocket's Scale of Essentiality? I assume it's based on all manner of calculations such as government funding, road safety, traffic management, contractor availability, weather, school holidays, neighbouring work times, complementary utility works and the council pipeline of schemes? Radical thought but you could have a look on their website or you could contact your councillor. And what would you do with that info? Demand that they come along personally and stop all disruption immediately? Like it or not, there will always be disruption of one sort or another - assuming of course that you want functional roads and utilities, they need maintaining. You've been given the necessary info around when and where it'll be, there is an element of personal responsibility now for you to minimise that disruption to yourself. Maybe think about re-routing your journey or re-timing it or perhaps going by a different mode of transport? I was given some info that central London might be really quite busy today so rather than try and get the bus into town or go for a bike ride along The Mall, I made other plans. Somehow managing not to post my outrage about this undemocratic infringement on my personal liberty on here.

Your handy guide to all roadworks and road closures: https://one.network/

Surprising though this info may be to you, utility companies have to pay to access the road and to undertake repairs - it's called a Lane Rental Scheme - and they can be fined for exceeding the allowed duration. No-one is going out to deliberately cause as much disruption as possible or to make the work last as long as possible. The fact that they've publicised this work and explained what is going to happen and when is an indication that, wildly unfair though this may be to your personal liberty, you might wish to look at your own options for minimising disruption. You now know it's going to happen so you could sit in traffic and scream about how Southwark Council / the utilities companies set out every day with the sole aim of causing as much outrage to Penguin68 as possible or you could maybe think "I might not drive down this road today cos I know it'll be slower due to the roadworks, I might drive that way around instead".

Taxation pays for many many things in life, that doesn't entitle anyone to unlimited free access to them. I suspect the loss of gas (or worse, the existing main leaking and going BANG!) would be a considerably greater loss of utility...

There's quite a strong push for that to happen as a complementary part to the Oxford Street works. The success of outside dining during / after Covid is credited with keeping a number of the establishments there trading in the first place - and then it was all taken away again. https://www.timeout.com/london/news/soho-could-bring-back-its-pedestrianised-street-dining-zones-this-summer-041225 Well really, PEOPLE should be prioritised, no matter their mode of transport to actually get to Oxford Street or Soho or wherever. I mean, that's kind of how shopping centres operate. You travel to the shopping centre (via whatever mode of transport you choose) and then you actually get to go shopping in a traffic free environment. Now imagine that along Oxford Street.

At the risk of getting extremely technical, free-flowing traffic basically applies to motorways when you start to introduce number of vehicles per lane per mile, average speeds, distance between vehicles and so on - the whole point of residential and "shopping" streets is that you'll only ever have "free flow" in the middle of the night when there's sod all around. In fact you can argue that such streets should not have "free flow" at all since that would imply everyone was just driving straight through; no stopping, no parking, no "just waiting for my friend off the train", no loading, no pulling out or turning in, no waiting to overtake a bus, no stopping for a pedestrian to cross the road, no traffic lights.... Trying to claim that you should have "free flow" along LL is ridiculous - you *might* get some semblance of free-flow by driving down it at 2am and being lucky with the lights. And trying to blame lack of free flow on a slightly wider pavement is even more of a non-starter.

They occasionally have Penny Farthing races, exhibitions, demo days etc at Herne Hill Velodrome, there's at least a couple of people fairly locally who can occasionally be seen riding around on one. Stopping - you just sort of step off the back of it. As a general rule, to ride one of them you have to be pretty experienced anyway - to my mind someone on a PF is less of an issue than pretty much any other cyclist cos at least you know they're never going to be caning down a hill or jumping off a kerb or skidding to a stop outside the shops.