So sadly, but not too surprisingly, the proposed trial to see if Dr Johnson Avenue could be converted into a path and unite two sections of Tooting Commons has been blocked.
At this point in time, I think it's too soon to see a report on the views. What seems clear to me, is that the consultation has been morphed into a 'referendum'. This poses significant questions with regards to local governance. When listening to the views of local residents, where those views may conflict with evidence based views of engineers a balanced judgement needs to be made.
Both parties representing us at Wandsworth Council approved the paper giving the go-ahead for the trial to be consulted upon. Yet, once that was done, the local Labour group ramped up fears about traffic gridlock.
The discussion locally became one about traffic and almost completely ignored the purpose which was to see if we could unite the two sections of Tooting Common. Those opposed seemed to have the benefit of 20/20 vision of the future as to how the proposed trial would work out. Suddenly everyone seemed to be a traffic engineer and had the ability to do the work for which the council employs staff.
With the by-election now taking place in Tooting, some have suggested that the wider political climate has made this all too contentious to challenge the strongly held beliefs through a trial.
The local Labour group have stated their alleged commitment to the principle of trials. Yet, not in this place. Without them specifying where, when or how they would support a trial happening creating safer streets in and around Tooting will take a while longer yet.
If you'd like to get involved, do drop me a line, or join the Lib Dems. It's only by working together that we can really make a difference in our community. The local team is growing. If you join us, we can make a real difference, together.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIf the decision had gone the other way you would have accepted it as a sign of good sense.
Delete70% of the people who live in the area do not want any changes to DJA or Elmbourne Road, no matter how miss-guided you think they are. We live in a democracy, look it up.
Thanks for your comment Colin. The committee at the council which has our elected representatives on it, all passed the paper asking for the consultation to take place. My view is that they have a democratic mandate. If a trial had been allowed to go ahead, we would have had the opportunity to see if your views panned out in reality or not. As it is, we are none the wiser.
DeleteThey were not elected to close DJA or change Elmbourne.
ReplyDeleteIt was never part of anyone's manifesto.
Once every four years we get to vote for two main parties and an also ran, on a broad range of issues.
This issue effected local people and 70% of those people expressed the opinion that they did not want the closures.
What part of that didn't you understand?
Interesting point from Colin. I would DEFINITELY vote for a party that proposed to try things out, and if they didn't work, to roll them back. I think this attitude would be much more sensible than the usual "we know what's right" attitude.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, neither Labour nor Conservatives proposed that in their literature before the council elections (Jon - do you know if the Lib Dems did?). I wonder if we could get one or other (ideally both) to offer that.
One other thing - the modelled traffic data was very focussed on, and I thought it was really implausible. Should there be backtesting data available as well as modelled traffic data to give an idea of how much credence to attach to it? Speaking as a data geek here.
Hi Charlie,
DeleteThanks for your comments. I know that with the local Lib Dem team we gathered several thousand signatures for a range of very local trials to take place in 2014. The signatures on petitions didn't transpire into votes, but as Colin points out that's democracy.
I've also been informed that the Lambeth Highways Authority opposed the trial, and this was a major factor in the decision to not proceed. Given Lambeth's road user hierarchy I find this very interesting. It would certainly be enlightening to find out what underpinned the Lambeth position.
As stated in my post, the local Labour position on trials seems a little untenable.