One (part of) Dulwich

[OutOfFocus]

Can someone please explain who "one Dulwich" are?

[Spartacus]

I have no names for you, as I'm neither a member or signed up support, but a quick search will allow you to ask them directly 

https://www.onedulwich.uk/contact

 

[march46]

Richard Aldwinkle is always referred to as their spokesperson in press pieces. These are some of his distasteful tweets.

[Rockets]

Well worth signing up to become a "supporter" as they send their updates and often shed light on things the council and their supporters would rather didn't get too much attention!

https://www.onedulwich.uk/get-involved

[ArchieCarlos]

I feel like I need a 'Rory Stewart' style quick explanation on the debate around Dulwich LTN. Would anyone have any pointers to a balanced summary?

I'm moving to the village soon and I feel like I need to understand this better given the strength of sentiment expressed on some of these threads. Any help appreciated!

 

[malumbu]

I tried to engage one Dulwich by email.  They sent me a lot of flannel but were not prepared to discuss things.  I clearly will not be joining.  I support groups  that campaign to improve the environment, our health and well being etc not single issue groups who want to maintain the status quo.  

[Rockets]

39 minutes ago, malumbu said:

I tried to engage one Dulwich by email.  They sent me a lot of flannel but were not prepared to discuss things. 

Doesn't sound too dissimilar to my engagements with the council!

 

1 hour ago, ArchieCarlos said:

I feel like I need a 'Rory Stewart' style quick explanation on the debate around Dulwich LTN. Would anyone have any pointers to a balanced summary?

Zero chance of a balanced summary in a single place I am afraid - read anything by Peter Walker in the Guardian on the matter, then read anything in the Daily Mail on the matter and plot a course for somewhere between the two and there you shall find the truth!

[Moovart]

4 hours ago, ArchieCarlos said:

I feel like I need a 'Rory Stewart' style quick explanation on the debate around Dulwich LTN. Would anyone have any pointers to a balanced summary?

I'm moving to the village soon and I feel like I need to understand this better given the strength of sentiment expressed on some of these threads. Any help appreciated!

 

You probably don't need to understand it better!!

But basically you used to be able to drive up and down Court lane and Calton Avenue across the Dulwich village junction with gay abandon and now you can't because that part of junction is now blocked by multicoloured woodwork and planters.  So Dulwich village is split in half for vehicles and you have to drive a long round to get from one side to other.  Some people (the majority who responded to Southwark's seemingly flawed consultation) hate this, especially those living on roads to which the through traffic has been displaced and those who have to drive alot further to get from one side of DV to the other and some people like it.  The debate will go on forever without a happy ending for some of the people.  That's it really 🤔

[malumbu]

I enjoy cycling with gay abandon down Court Lane, across Dulwich Village and onto Herne Hill.  I sometimes put my feet up on the beach too.

[first mate]

One of the many, many beaches around the world you have flown to?

[ab29]

.

Edited July 1 by ab29

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

On 29/04/2024 at 08:08, Spartacus said:

I have no names for you, as I'm neither a member or signed up support, but a quick search will allow you to ask them directly 

https://www.onedulwich.uk/contact

OneDulwich is OneGuy. There are no members. It is not an organisation. It's a nom de plume for an ex-PR consultant that lives locally, didn't like the traffic changes 4 years ago (!), and is still banging on about it. (And that's fair enough - he's perfectly entitled to his opinion).

[Rockets]

Whomever he is/they are - they are doing a fantastic job holding the council to account and shining a bright light on some of the lies the council, councillors and pro-LTN lobby are trying to spin to the wider public. Thank goodness someone is doing it.

[malumbu]

With all his data gathering  is he rich enough to spend £30k on a judicial review?  I'm surprised with some of the depth of feeling on this website he hasn't asked others to join him.  It keeps on reminding me of the Prisoner, the 1960s series where the name of the person running the show was not known "who is number 1".

Pity with all this dedication to a cause he hasn't put this towards something that I would find more worthy.

[Rockets]

Mal, you're back! The self imposed exile didn't last long! Welcome back - we missed you.

[first mate]

Never mind Mal,  enough of us are very glad someone is maintaining pressure and scrutiny on the council and its position on local LTNs. Great work by One Dulwich and more power to them.

[Earl Aelfheah]

On 29/04/2024 at 12:18, ArchieCarlos said:

I feel like I need a 'Rory Stewart' style quick explanation on the debate around Dulwich LTN. Would anyone have any pointers to a balanced summary?

I'm moving to the village soon and I feel like I need to understand this better given the strength of sentiment expressed on some of these threads. Any help appreciated!

 

The council closed the junction of Calton Avenue and Dulwich Village to through traffic around 4 years ago (can't remember exactly when). The road connects East Dulwich and the Village. A lot of children use it to walk and cycle to school, and motor vehicles were using it as a rat run. They have pedestrianised the junction and created what has been called 'Dulwich Square' (the bit where there is seating and a lot of people enjoying the space outside the bookshop / cheesemongers / café). It previously looked like this

Opponents claim both that there was no problem with lot's of through traffic, and that there is now a problem with large amounts of displaced traffic as a result of lot's of through traffic having to take a different route (go figure). They would like to remove the seating / community space and the safe cycle route, in order to shave a few minutes off a local car journey. 

'One Dulwich' are an organisation that puts out regular 'missives' (some unkind souls would say rampant misinformation), arguing that car drivers should have priority to the exclusion of all else. No one really knows who they are or how they're constituted. There are a number of similar 'One' groups around London, all similarly opaque.

There are a handful of people on the forum who have relentlessly moaned about the new space that's been created (and one of very few, relatively safe routes for kids walking and cycling locally) and will probably never stop. In many cases, this extends beyond simply objecting to the LTN, to generally being opposed to cycling, or the extension of pedestrian spaces, or any restrictions or regulations on motor vehicles (ULEZ / 20 mph speed limits etc). A few minutes looking around the 'roads and transports' section and you'll get the gist.

The council are currently looking to do some landscaping / make the area look a bit nicer. 

Edited July 9 by Earl Aelfheah

[alice]

The emotion packed above post there’s no resemblance for the actual facts of the matter. Rory Stewart? Nah

[Earl Aelfheah]

🤣 Fair

Here is a less partisan summary:

The council closed the junction of Calton Avenue and Dulwich Village to through traffic around 4 years ago. The road connects East Dulwich and the Village. They have pedestrianised the junction and created what has been called 'Dulwich Square' (the bit where there is seating outside the bookshop / cheesemongers / café). 

There are some people who would like to see the junction returned to how it was previously (like this). 'One Dulwich' are a group who have been campaigning for this. The constitution of 'One Dulwich' has been criticised for being opaque. 

The council are currently looking to do some landscaping / make the area look a bit nicer. 

How's that? All still factual but this time non-emotive.

Edited July 9 by Earl Aelfheah

[malumbu]

I enjoyed the first version more. 

Going slightly off thread I've cycled twice through the village around 8.30 the morning and it is empty, it feels too early for the private schools to have broken up.  It is like 70 years ago. 

Edited July 9 by malumbu

[Pugwash]

Private schools tend to break up end of June or first week of July

[Moovart]

2 hours ago, Earl Aelfheah said:

🤣 Fair

Here is a less partisan summary:

The council closed the junction of Calton Avenue and Dulwich Village to through traffic around 4 years ago. The road connects East Dulwich and the Village. They have pedestrianised the junction and created what has been called 'Dulwich Square' (the bit where there is seating outside the bookshop / cheesemongers / café). 

There are some people who would like to see the junction returned to how it was previously (like this). 'One Dulwich' are a group who have been campaigning for this. The constitution of 'One Dulwich' has been criticised for being opaque. 

The council are currently looking to do some landscaping / make the area look a bit nicer. 

How's that? All still factual but this time non-emotive.

Repetition!

Concisely answered April 29 😁

[Kathleen Olander]

2 hours ago, malumbu said:

I enjoyed the first version more. 

Going slightly off thread I've cycled twice through the village around 8.30 the morning and it is empty, it feels too early for the private schools to have broken up.  It is like 70 years ago. 

They broke up last week.

[first mate]

On 03/07/2024 at 21:30, Rockets said:

Mal, you're back! The self imposed exile didn't last long! Welcome back - we missed you.

 Not only that, he and some others are back to derailing threads that query any aspect of their rose tinted view of local cycling infrastructure. Please go and post on your 'joys of cycling thread'.

[Rockets]

On 09/07/2024 at 14:47, Earl Aelfheah said:

The council closed the junction of Calton Avenue and Dulwich Village to through traffic around 4 years ago. The road connects East Dulwich and the Village. They have pedestrianised the junction and created what has been called 'Dulwich Square' (the bit where there is seating outside the bookshop / cheesemongers / café). 

There are some people who would like to see the junction returned to how it was previously (like this). 'One Dulwich' are a group who have been campaigning for this. The constitution of 'One Dulwich' has been criticised for being opaque. 

The council are currently looking to do some landscaping / make the area look a bit nicer. 

Actually here is what really happened.

 

• The council had tried, for years, to convince people that the junctions needed closing but they could not get local support for it (it was the OHS programme)
• The DV junction was an awful junction not because it was a "rat run" as you claim but because it was one of the only East/West routes across the Dulwich area
• The council did, however, spend lots of money on making changes to the junction that actually (according to their own data) increased congestion and pollution.
• Covid came
• The council then used emergency Covid powers given to them to close the junction to "aid social distancing"
• The council did this because they didn't need to consult and get local support for their closures (which they had failed to do previously) - they used Covid as the Trojan Horse to get their changes through
• A lot of local people were very angry about this and One Dulwich was born to represent those voices as the council were trying to convince people that only a "small vocal minority" objected to them and were trying to actively drown out any people who dared question their actions.
• One Dulwich asked people to register their email on their site if they supported their cause - that total currently stands at 2,100 people and they shared the locations of where those people were located to drown out accusations that they were not representing local people https://www.onedulwich.uk/supporters
• The closure made the junction wonderful because no traffic could use it but it displaced the traffic to other routes across the area increasing congestion and pollution for those not lucky enough to live in the closed area.
• The council then went chasing the displacement by rolling out timed closures and new traffic measures around the new routes people were taking because the shift to cycling they dreamed of never materialised because closures never have the % modal change needed for them to be effective
• The council had to put a red light filter on the turn from Dulwich Village onto East Dulwich Grove because the traffic was worse than it had ever been through Dulwich Village. The council put in timed closures along many of the displacement routes to try and mitigate the impact of their closure
• The closures caused huge issues with response times for emergency services but the council, for some reason, ignored the input from the emergency services for over a year - and actively tried to convince people there was no issue.
• The council prioritised cycle traffic over everything else at the junctions which is causing issues for pedestrians
• The council already spent huge amounts of tax payers money on that junction at a time when it was pleading poverty and when other parts of the Dulwich transport infrastructure was crying out for investment.
• They submitted a plan for around £8m that was laughed out of the room
• They were then forced to consult on the junction and they did not have a mandate from the responses to roll out anymore changes yet they are going ahead anyway
• The council are doing more than landscaping at a huge cost to the tax payer - attached is the copy of the letter sent to local residents to warn about the disruption which is due to last at least 5 months.
• Local residents are continuing to question why the council is hell-bent on wasting huge amounts of tax-payers money on that junction - but they are pleased that the council is putting cycle speed calming measures in place (despite the council and their supporters claiming there is no issue with this)

 

 

Councillettertoresidents.pdf