The following comes from the Met Police. Do contact them if you have any information.
Police are appealing for witnesses or information to a collision in which a 42 year old man died.
It happened on Monday 2 November, around 05.30 hrs, on Lee High Road at the junction with Brightfield Road, Lee.
A motorcycle rider was in collision with bollards at the side of the road. At this stage it is not known if there were any other vehicles involved.
The 42 year old rider was taken to University Hospital Lewisham but sadly died at 6.40 hrs. We believe we know the identity of the dead man but formal identification is awaited.
An inquest will take place at Ladywell Mortuary on Thursday 5 November. Inquest details are awaited.
The incident is being investigated by the Collision Investigation Unit based at Catford Traffic Garage.
DI Mark Cam said: “Even though it was early in the morning, the collision occurred on a busy main road and not far from the junction with Burnt Ash Road, another main route through south east London.
“I would like to hear from anyone who saw anything of the incident or may have seen the motorbike beforehand. The motorbike is described as a BMW GS 1200 model and it is grey and black.”
Anyone with any information is asked to call 020 8285 1574, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 to remain anonymous.
My Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon AM has passed on the latest bus route changes to me, two of which are of particular interest to us here in Lee Green.
Route 321, which goes up Lee High Road, is to become a 24 hour service betweeen New Cross and Sidcup (Foots Cray). Buses will run every half an hour during the night and the existing operator, London Central, will continue to operate the route using existing buses.
The existing N21 night bus will continue to run, but will take a different route between Eltham and Sidcup, so it runs to Bexleyheath via Blackfen and Bexley Village. The N21 will continue to run every 30 minutes, but at weekends, extra buses will provide a 15 minute frequency between Trafalgar Square and Eltham. Again, London Central have kept the route, but will use new double deck buses.
Taken together, these two changes mean more night buses for our area (especially at weekends), which should prove useful to people who work shifts or are returning home after a night out.
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that my Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon AM was going to meet with users of the Greenwich foot tunnel.
I wasn’t able to make the meeting myself, but I understand it went well, and Chris Maines and Pete Pattisson were there representing the Lewisham interest. Caroline’s now written to Greenwich Council, who are responsible for the tunnel.
1,500-2,000 cyclists use the Greenwich foot tunnel every day to cross the River Thames, and I know some of them are commuters from Lee Green who do the ride across Blackheath and down through Greenwich Park each day. The tunnel is due for refurbishment, and part of this will involve replacement of the lifts and then closure of the tunnel completely for a period. Obviously this is going to cause some problems for regular users, particularly cyclists.
My Lib Dem colleague Caroline Pidgeon AM has arranged a meeting with representatives of Lewisham and Greenwich cyclists tomorrow night. Caroline will be at the Greenwich end of the tunnel from 6pm until 7pm tomorrow night (Tues 25th August) and will be joined by Cllr Chris Maines (Leader of the Lib Dem Group on Lewisham Council) and Greenwich Councillor Paul Webbewood (from our neighbouring ward of Middle Park & Sutcliffe).
Caroline wants to discuss cyclists concerns about the closure and possible alternatives measures Greenwich Council should take during the closure. Caroline’s the Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, so is well-placed to stand up for cyclists on this issue. Please do feel free to pop along if you’d like to discuss this issue with Caroline.
How do you like my new wheels? We spent this weekend in Brussels and Luxembourg, having managed to get some cheap Eurostar tickets. I’d been to Brussels before, but Luxembourg was new territory, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Luxembourg City doesn’t have a tram or metro system (though there are plans for a new tram line) so to get around, we used their excellent Vel’Oh! scheme.
The concept’s the same as the more famous Paris Velib scheme. You pick up a bike from one of several locations in the City, and can use it for half an hour or so to get to your destination, where you drop it at another one of their bike stands. Getting around by Vel’oh cost us about two Euros for our whole trip (you only get charged if you have the bike for longer than half an hour at a time). They took a deposit from my credit card, but that gets refunded at the end of my seven day subscription to the scheme (if you live in Luxembourg, there’s a yearly subscription)
Despite being hilly in parts, Luxembourg’s pretty well set-up for cycling. There are lots of wide cycle lanes, both on and off road. The exercise also had the useful side-effect of making me feel slightly less guily about tucking into the local cusine..!
We’re going to have to wait another year until London’s scheme is operational, though I’m disappointed to see that it looks like major rail stations won’t have stands, because of the huge demand there’d be for bikes at peak times. I’d certainly use a bike to cycle from Waterloo East or Charing Cross to my office in Holborn, given the chance.
We’re delighted to welcome two new ‘Streetcar’ cars to the ward. Car clubs, like Streetcar, allow people to hire cars for as little as half an hour whenever you need them. They reduce the need to own your own car (or for a second car!)
The move to put more car club cars on the street follows a report published by the Sustainable Development Select Committee, which I vice-chair.
We’ve been campaigning for more car club cars in Lee Green since we were elected. It’s great there are now three cars in the ward, and we’re sure residents will take advantage of this alternative to car ownership which saves residents cash and will hopefully reduce the number of cars on our congested local roads.
They’re obviously proving popular, as when Sven and Pete visited the Holme Lacey car, it was already on hire!
