Transport for London have been in touch to let us know that they’ll be doing some work on Eltham Road.  The stretch affected is just outside Lee Green ward, running from the junction with Cambridge Drive up to Weigall Road.

The plan is to introduce two new pedestrian refuges on this stretch of the A20.  The work will involve road widening and making improvements for cyclists and other road users.

The work’s due to start on Thursday and the first stage will last two weeks, with work taking place between 10am and 3.30pm to try and reduce disruption.   The next phase will run from 15th June until 30th September.  These are apparently advance works, and TfL have promised to provide more details of the main works nearer the time.

If you experience any problems or need more info, you can call TfL customer services on 0845 305 1234.

Lewisham Council’s transport liaison committee is next meeting on June 9th.  Entertainingly chaired by Labour’s John Muldoon, the meeting gives us a chance to put questions to TfL, Network Rail and bus/rail operators.

If anyone has any suggestions for public transport-related questions, do let me have them (either using the comments section or via email) by Monday 18th May.

As part of the Lee Green locality fund, we’ve funded a Dr.Bike session that’s taking place this Saturday in Manor House Gardens.

Free bike checks and advice, and a chance to discuss anything cycling-related with someone from Lewisham Cyclists.

10am until 2pm this Saturday in Manor House Gardens.

Regular users of Hither Green Station will no doubt have noticed that as well as the ramp we use every day that emerges between platforms 4 & 5, there are also blocked up ramps leading directly to platforms 1, 2/3 and 6.    Before Christmas, I was asked why these ramps couldn’t be reopened to allow for easier access to the station for those with pushchairs, bikes, etc.  

I asked this question at the transport liasion meeting we had with Southeastern just before Christmas, and was told they’d look into it.   Then the same issue came up at the Sustainable Development Select Committee (which I’m vice chair of) – turns out other councillors felt the same.   So we referred the issue to Mayor and Cabinet, recommending that they take it up with Southeastern (the thought being that an official approach from the Mayor on behalf of the whole council would have more weight than me asking questions at a liasion meeting!)

I’m really pleased the Mayor’s accepted our recommendation - now we’ve just got to wait to hear what Southeastern think.

The referral’s been picked up over at the (excellent) Hither Green Forum.   As I’ve said over there, we’d need to make sure the ramps were safe and properly lit etc, but it’d make access much easier.  Even for those on foot, there are times at the evening peak when there’s a real crush to get over from platform 6 to the current exit.  Now seems like a good time to take this up – before Oyster Pay as You Go comes to Southeastern (latest date I have is ‘early next year’).

Would be interested to hear others’ views…

I thought last week’s local assembly went really well.  We had a good turnout (over 100 people once again) and good discussions on Leegate, youth issues, the environment and parking.

I’ve already posted about the youth survey we’re planning and I’ll post more about Leegate and the environment in due course, but I thought it would be useful to explain what happened on parking.

We discussed the thorny issue of parking back in September, and given how strongly people feel about the issue, I thought a surprising amount of consensus emerged.   Most people there recognised that the current CPZ model Lewisham impose on us causes a lot of problems, and that while individual streets vote for it – sometimes out of sheer desperation - even people in those streets recognise it’s not an ideal solution and causes knock-on problems for others (and then the whole cycle starts again in the next street over).

So with the agreement of the assembly co-ordinating group, I prepared a ‘statement of views’ which we as a ward can use as a statement of community views on parking.   The statement was agreed by the vast majority of people present (I think I’m right in saying we only had a handful of absentions).  I’ll discuss with my colleagues and the coordinating group the best way of making sure the Mayor and his cabinet are aware of this…

The Lee Green Assembly notes:

The update we received from Lewisham Council’s Head of Transport at our meeting in September 2008
The consultation which has taken place on extension of the Hither Green East CPZ and the Old Road/Bankwell CPZ
The on-going parking problems in our community, which spread to a new area each time a CPZ is implemented

The Lee Green Assembly believes:

That we need a ward-wide approach to parking, not piecemeal CPZ extensions each time a problem arises
That there are alternatives to Lewisham Council’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ CPZ model, including CPZs with reduced and different hours of operation, homezones, and increased provision of car clubs, amongst other options
That our community facilities such as shops, schools and businesses have parking needs that must be taken into account

The Lee Green Assembly therefore calls for:

A review of parking across the ward, working with residents to reach acceptable solutions for each area of the ward
The parking needs of the whole community, including the facilities mentioned above, to be taken into account in this review

Okay, so it’s hardly SALT, but in an area where parking’s caused a fair amount of problems and differences of opinion, I think it’s a pretty good start!

The results of the consultation held back in November/December on extending the Old/Road Bankwell Road CPZ are now in.  You may remember that it was proposed to extend the existing Old Road and Bankwell Road CPZ so it covered an area of roads off Lee High Road roughly from Murillo Road up to Brightfield Road.

Residents were asked what they thought of the proposal and 208 surveys were returned (22.2% response rate).  Of the 208 respondents 125 (60%) were in favour of the proposal to extend the CPZ and 79 (38%) were against.  Apparently 4 (2%) of respondents didn’t express a preference or didn’t state which road they lived in.

This CPZ will therefore be going ahead, subject to the results of the statutory consultation (that’s when the official notice appears in the paper and on lamposts etc)