Serendipity – Kettering St trial

Last night I returned home to find that a trial, of sorts, was taking place on Kettering Street. It has taken place without public consultation, and by all appearances seems to be a low cost solution.

Early morning view

Early evening with contractors present

Fallsbrook Road end of the street

Of course this is to allow the contractors to make good the water leak that has followed from the burst main the other week at the end of Southcroft Road. But it highlights just how quickly action can be taken if there is the will. 

What must residents do to get improvements?

I’m left asking the question, just what is it that councillors on the committee need to hear from local residents in order to act? The reason given for recommending no action on Kettering Street was that no-one had been hurt in the previous 3 years. Does that mean that we need people to be hurt for action to be taken? When the Fishponds proposals went to consultation, the outcome (if you dug into the detail) confirmed that residents agree there is a problem, but not how to fix it. That was reason enough for the committee to agree to do nothing. 

People getting hurt on Upper Tooting Road as a result of collisions from drivers using the back roads as short cuts as yet are not deemed to be the council’s problem as Upper Tooting Road is managed by Transport for London. 

I’ve written to Cllr Cook and Cllr Kaddy as the relevant cabinet member and chair of the committee asking them to clarify what residents can do to improve their streets. I'll keep you posted with the responses I get. 

Inertia over the decades in Wandsworth

Whilst I really feel like progress is being made to create safer streets in Wandsworth, a spate of tweets the other evening highlights how it is the politics that really is the sticking point to taking action.

@Jon_events The 1987 Tooting Commons Management Plan discussing the 1978 plan to close Dr Johnson Ave @craigthomas1 pic.twitter.com/SP4CvlSQte

— Tooting Common (@TootingCommon) July 2, 2015

Yet, the councillors on the relevant committee feel like they are taking action asking for another strategy document to be drawn up instead of trialling temporary changes.

Plus ca change eh?

With problems such as:

Air pollution
Obesity
Diabetes
Climate Change
Cost of living (associated with fuel costs)

Doing nothing really isn't an option. But it seems to fit perfectly well with our local councillors.

With a bit of luck, hopefully in the coming months we'll see TfL publish their proposals for both Balham High Road, and Tooting Town Centre. Both are listed on their Roads Modernisation Programme, and given the quality of work that is starting to appear, I'm optimistic that we could have equally high quality proposals for the local area.

If that is the case, then, I hope perhaps a few more people may be inclined to listen to the proposals that I, and others, have been advocating for over several decades now.

Trinity Road re-designed (temporarily for Gas Works)

The recently commenced road works to do essential gas works on Trinity road have galvanised TfL and Wandsworth Councils’ highway engineers into action.

In pushing through these temporary measures, the engineers are highlighting how quickly our streets can be reconfigured if the desire/need is deemed important enough. Gas works essential to re-design the streets, people getting hurt less so.

Sadly, as is all too common, little or no consideration for walking or cycling has been given. The pictures below ‘closing’ the pedestrian crossings give sight to a culture that puts walking as a non-essential means of transport.

Nice work @TfL and @wandbc guess people with prams etc can dodge the cars. Temporary layout designs out ppl on foot. pic.twitter.com/AO7PXRFaCu

— Jon Irwin (@Jon_events) June 28, 2015

Perhaps I should campaign for gas works as @TfL and @wandbc seem perfectly capable of temporary street redesign pic.twitter.com/aU26zzT9kU

— Jon Irwin (@Jon_events) June 28, 2015

With the gyratory type system which has been implemented for motor traffic, cycling contraflows could easily be permitted. The ‘filtering’ of some of the residential streets with no entry signs could be just for motor vehicles, allowing people on bikes to still use the streets in both directions.

You may think you missed the ‘consultation’ on these changes, but you didn’t, because the works are deemed to be essential.

When people ask through petitions, as I have done, councillors have rejected them. Either using difference of opinion from resident responses as to what will happen to prevent a trial taking place, or citing a lack of people getting hurt to justify inaction. The screen grab below is from Crashmap.co.uk, self evidently there is an issue at the junction of St James's Drive and Trinity Road.

I have asked in the past for traffic counts to be carried out when works such as these take place. I am confident that none are being done or were planned. The closing of the pedestrian crossings highlights that no real thought has been given to people walking through the area whilst the works are on-going. With so little thought given to even that, a traffic count to see the actual effects of the re-design would be a step too far.

The re-routing of the 319 has also resulted in 4 stops being suspended, with no temporary or request stops in place.

Seems that when you don't drive in Wandsworth your views and needs don't count. For all the warm words in terms of draft cycling strategy, or the walking strategy from years ago, the current consultation for a new strategy on air quality, without the political will to re-think how our streets are managed and run, little is likely to happen soon.

If you'd like to see real action, there are a bunch of petitions available to sign here.

Update

I cycled past on Tuesday evening (30th June) to play touch, didn't have time to take pictures. The pedestrian crossings at St James Drive are no longer blocked. There is also a temporary bus stop on the route. Cycling against the flow of traffic is currently banned, although I don't understand why it should be.

I've also put in an FOI request to see if any consideration had been given to doing traffic counts as part of this work. 

Strategy means nothing if no action is taken

Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately I missed out on last night's Wandsworth Council committee meeting.

The good news is that I've heard quite a bit of progress has been made on 20mph roll-out, and whilst we aren't yet at the stage of seeking a borough-wide consultation with exceptions made for key routes, there definitely is political will for this to be advanced.

There was another paper tucked away, relating to another petition that I've done for the street I live on. The petition was asking the council to trial changes to the street similar to what has already been done extensively in Merton and blogged about already here.

The recommendation to the committee was to take no further action as there have been no reported accidents in the 3 previous years, and for the 1 week in January when they did traffic counts the volume was low and speeds were low.

The Labour team managed to make the case that the network of residential streets that I live in, should be considered for a Home Zone. Officers have been tasked with coming up with a strategy for 'Home Zones' in Wandsworth. This is all well and good, however, strategy is one thing, physical change on the ground is another. Very easy to ask for a strategy and another report. Much harder to actually make meaningful change happen.

If Wandsworth council isn't even prepared to try changes on the ground, then short of serious political change at the council or multiple deaths on residential streets as a result of 'traffic collisions' I have real difficulty in seeing how the major changes that are needed for many streets in the borough will occur. This is the 2nd time that the council have refused this trial approach, the first one being with the Fishponds Road area.

The only consolation is the growing amount of support that together with the local Lib Dems we are getting for petitions calling for real changes. Do check out the petitions here, and lend your support.

Another victim of our broken roads - we will not forget

In the early hours of Saturday morning this bank holiday weekend, a 33 year old person was killed. All we know is that it occurred somewhere around the junction of Dr Johnson Avenue and Tooting Bec Road. The police are appealing for witnesses and anyone who recognises the vehicle to contact them.

No marks visible to the eye, another victim of our broken roads. We will not forget. RIP pic.twitter.com/7U6NmlfTkc

— Jon Irwin (@Jon_events) May 4, 2015

I took the picture last night. There are no visible marks that highlight the violence which occurred so recently.

What is so sad, is that this is the logical outcome of the approach taken by our council endorsed by both Labour and the Conservatives with regards to road safety. Our highway engineers are only empowered to look into road safety improvements if the following conditions have been met:

3 people killed or seriously injured in 3 years at the same location

or

25% of local residents sign a petition

The personnel working for our emergency services, literally have to pick up the pieces of broken bodies that result from this policy. The engineers are blocked by our local politicians from being able to put forward proposals to make the roads safer by the current policy position.

With the general elections fast approaching it is worthwhile reflecting on this, and the parties that support it. Locally my party, the Liberal Democrats are campaigning to change this position. I hope, if you live locally and are active with one of the two parties that do represent us at the council, you can ask your party if perhaps it is time to review the position.

If you choose to vote for Labour or the Conservatives locally, in part you are endorsing this policy position. Sometimes voting can seem futile, and that things won't change. I disagree.

Our votes do count. 

Policies do matter. 

Lives of people who live in our communities depend upon them.

Sadly, one member of our community is no longer with us this week. Let us make sure that their life wasn't lost in vain.

You can also lend your support to this petition which I'm running specifically for Tooting Bec Road. It is tragic that before substantive action will be taken to make this road safer, it is very likely that more people will be hurt.

Easter: 'he will rise again'

Whilst I don't hold a religious faith, the story associated with Easter and Christ rising from the dead is one that I've grown up with.

I think it's also worth remembering the many that don't rise again, the fallen on our roads.

This image is from the constituency dashboard. Tooting has 55% higher level of pedestrian casualties than the national average. Worth noting that the data source for the figures are STATS19 (reported road collisions). With minor injuries the National Office for Statistics estimates that these could be under reported by a factor of 4.

At the same time that PACTS went live with the dashboard, they also released this report with a lot of very practical ideas that will hopefully be implemented by the next government (whatever form it takes - minority/coalition or unlikely but possible majority government).

We have become numb to the regular reporting of carnage on our streets. This 21 year old lady in Kingston crossing the road on foot next to her university was killed this week. The occupants of the car have survived with minor injuries.

The PACTS report linked above highlights the different approaches taken to reducing danger using different transport modes (road/rail/air) in the UK. Without serious change, more people and families will continue to lose loved ones needlessly.

At present, in Wandsworth, 3 people need to be killed or seriously injured on council managed roads, or a major petition has to be presented to allow our highway engineers to look into road safety improvements.

I don't think that's right. If you live, work or study in the borough, from Tooting in the south to Battersea in the north or Putney in the west, and agree with me, please lend your support to this petition calling for change borough-wide.

Reminders why our local streets need to be fixed

With my latest petition for Tooting Bec Road continuing to tick up a few more supporters, I thought it was worthwhile highlighting a few comments and recent tweets which highlight why improvements to this road and others need to be made.

I asked our local Wandsworth Guardian journalist her thoughts, and from speaking with other local residents in the local elections last year, I know she's not alone:

@Jon_events no. I've lived in London for 6 years and only once got on a Boris bike. It's too dangerous-I've written about so many fatalities
— Sophia Sleigh (@SophiaSleigh) January 19, 2015

Here are a selection of the comments left under the petition to date:

I cycle along the road several times a week from the athletics track to the lido & feel very vulnerable and exposed so a separate cycle path would be the safest option. The piece of road at the entrance to Tooting Lido car park is also a risky spot and hard to cycle safely out of the Lido, a Keep Clear marking on the road would make that a much safer spot. - Lucinda

Please can we have cycle paths on either side of the road? Two-way tracks on one side don’t work. Also, there’s a lot of anti-social behaviour from a small number of people who currently choose to cycle on the pavement along this stretch of the road. Please make the police arrest them; at present the police aren’t interested in tackling this problem. - Will

We've got 134 signatures so far, but will need more to ensure that TfL and the council act. With the Mitcham Lane petition we've got officers looking into new proposals following a petition which gained 553 signatures.

The creation of segregated cycle routes will encourage many more people to cycle and access the open spaces of Tooting Bec, including older people and families who currently are too intimidated by the proximity of fast moving traffic. - Steve

Myself and my dog nearly run over each day we cross the lights near franciscan rd with drivers going 40 mph in a 30 and they go through the red lights – the quicker this happens the better. Have called TFL to introduce speeding cameras and told there needs to be a fatal accident before they do that! Madness - Niall

If you agree with Sophia, Lucinda, Will, Steve or Niall please add your name if you haven't signed it already. 

It would be great if we didn't have to do all these petitions and if our elected politicians not only recognised the problem, but were prepared to take action to deal with it. 

Our council, our Transport for London, is accountable ultimately to us through our imperfect democratic institutions. 

Petitioning is a small way in which we can illustrate the need for change. 

Add your support here:

http://www.wandsworthlibdems.org.uk/let_s_make_tooting_bec_road_safe_for_all

PS: don't forget you can now register to vote online. Do that now if you aren't sure you are registered to vote.

As year end approaches a new petition commences

It's been a while since the last petition went live, but in my defence I've been a little busy. The arrival of a first baby into the family does tend to necessitate a slight shift in normal patterns.

Tooting Bec Road has long been on my list of streets to try to fix, if you could lend your support as you may have done with other petitions in the past that would be awesome.

Please add your name via this link: Let's make Tooting Bec Road safe for all!

Thanks to Northern Ireland Greenways for the inspiration for the image (@nigreenways twitter feed). With progress being made as a result of several other local petitions to improve our streets, I'm confident that with enough support this ask is achievable.

Hoping for progress in the new year on:

• Bikehangars for Wandsworth
• Mitcham Lane redesign (with cycle lanes)
• Balham Boulevard consultation
• Contraflow cycling permitted on some one-way streets

If you haven't seen the presents Santa gave us via TfL this Xmas, and are interested, do have a gander at the following documents:

• International Cycling Infrastructure Best Practise Study
• International Cycling Infrastructure Best Practise Study appendix
• London Cycle Design Standards

All available to download off this page: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/cycling

Labour's 'greenwash' in Tooting

It is with no little irony that as a constituent of Sadiq Khan I can't help but feel there is quite a bit of 'green wash' from Labour going on of late.

Waste your vote on the Green party - or choose a green Labour government
Sadiq Khan writes in the Independent

We're like you: Labour pitch for Green vote in bid to quell revolt on the left
The Guardian

Sadiq Khan appointed to lead Labour unit on Green party threat
New Statesman

My view is that actions speak louder than words. Given that in Sadiq Khan's own constituency there have been quite a few Labour councillors for a while now, a little bit of scrutiny of how they've acted is warranted.

We've also recently had the local elections, again, another opportunity to see how the party positions itself when elections are approaching, and how they act after the elections.

20s Plenty

As a policy, this is something that I'd like to see the council consult borough-wide on. The Labour group in the Furzedown ward campaigned on this some 7 years ago, and recently the consultation took place and will be implemented.

From multiple perspectives this policy is a no-brainer, and particularly from a green perspective. Safer streets make walking and cycling more attractive, increase physical activity, reduce air pollution as well as wear and tear on the roads. What's not to like?

If the Labour party locally felt so passionately about this measure, why if their team in Furzedown (including a co-chair of SERA, Labour's environmental group) were campaigning for 20mph, wasn't the rest of the local party on-board?

Before the local elections, Sadiq's position, and therefore the position of the local party was that they would support requests for 20mph where people asked for it, in effect the same position as the Conservative party locally.

Fortunately (local elections now out of the way) the Labour team are now happy to petition on 20mph (in Tooting ward at least). 7 years for ward by ward progress on a no-brainer type issue isn't exactly electric.

Space for Cycling

If you are a regular reader you'll be aware of this campaign. If you aren't, it was a call from London Cycling Campaign for a specific action in every ward. Only two parties in Wandsworth were signed up borough-wide before the local election, the Green party and the Lib Dems.

As things stand of the elected councillors only 18% of Wandsworth's councillors are currently supportive. If Sadiq's local Labour party and councillors can't sign up to 'Space for Cycling', I'm afraid I have difficulty seeing how they actually plan on delivering on green issues. Let's face it, cycling is a part of the solution to congestion, obesity, air pollution, boosting the local economy etc.

Local action - talk comes cheap

Few mainstream politicians will disagree that we need to take action to deal with climate change. However, that requires politicians of all levels to listen to the evidence and act accordingly.

There are 3 Mini Holland projects taking place in London at the moment, looking to implement new ways (for the UK) of street management, and make it safer and easier for people of all ages and abilities to be able to choose to cycle in their area. Examples of this mean dealing with rat-running, Waltham Forest ran a trial recently stopping through access for motor vehicles, except public transport, through certain streets.

In Tooting several years ago, following the 3rd consultation to deal with rat-running in and around Fishponds road, I felt a different approach was needed. I campaigned to gain support to run a trial along the same lines that Waltham Forest as part of their Mini-Holland have done. The consultation took place just before the local elections.

In light of the consultation, Labour, like the Tories, both have decided to do nothing (see more on this story here). The engineers believe that the proposed trial solution would work.

I'm sorry, but if we know there is a problem, how is doing nothing going to fix it? If the engineers believe that a proposed solution will work, why aren't we listening to them? Evidence based policy/decision making needs to come from national and local politicians.

Oh, and another point that Labour activists frequently point out to me at a local level, Labour doesn't run the council, therefore they can't do anything. We've almost had 5 years of a coalition government. Can't say that I've liked everything, I'm a Liberal and my party is the smaller part of a coalition.

If after the general election next year Labour happen to be the largest party, but don't have a majority in parliament, does that mean that they won't do anything? There are some real challenges that need politicians of all colours to work together and find real solutions.

I'm afraid given what I've seen of Labour in Tooting I have little confidence that they have the ideas or principles to deliver nationally.

Wandsworth Town Centre - Gyratory removal consultation

Right, this is more of a local post than recent ones about the proposed new Cycle Superhighways, but not quite Tooting (yet)!

TfL are now consulting on proposed new traffic flows in Wandsworth Town Centre, with removal of the gyratory system that local groups have been calling to be taken out for decades. In fact, probably from as soon as it went in, but that is speculation.

The proposed traffic flows look good to me, and I would urge you to respond to support TfL in this phase of the consultation.

I have, however, flagged concerns that the artists impressions omit high quality cycle routes.

This is all the more galling given the great proposals that we've now seen that TfL are capable of with the North South, East West Cycle Superhighway proposals.

The detailed design work will be done following the hopefully positive outcome of this consultation, in a secondary consultation phase.

I think this is a significant step forward in TfL evolving how they engage with local stakeholders, rather than, as has been done in the past presenting a fait-a-complis which for all intensive purposes can't be amended however valid the comments and critiques may be from the consultation process.

Please add your views here.

If we don't engage with the bodies that are re-designing our streets, then we can't be surprised when our views aren't taken into account.

Deadline for responses is the 5th December.

PS If you live in/around Tooting, consultations are in the pipeline for us too (Balham High Road, Tooting High Street/A24).

Reasons why Labour are failing Tooting residents

Nothing is possible without total control

When I'm being critical of Labour whose councillors have been elected in Tooting (Graveney and Tooting wards since 2010), some people object and suggest that in order for the Labour team to effect change they need total control of the council.

The underlying premise is that without total control nothing can happen.

It's an absolutist approach, and one that resonates with the Tory/Labour members that hark back to a time (which never really existed) when there were only two parties in town. It fails to acknowledge that coalition has worked nationally, and that coalitions have been working for years in town halls up and down the country. To be clear by 'coalition working', from a Lib Dem perspective, the party has delivered a lot of our 2010 manifesto pledges. Granted not all, but we are the smaller party in the coalition, and there is an illiberal coalition of sorts between many in Labour and the Tories who would prefer to go back to the days when it was just a fight between the Red & Blue teams. Interesting to hear today that Labour are now claiming to support reform for the House of Lords whilst they abstained or voted against a bill that would have delivered substantial reform when they had the opportunity only a couple of years ago.

Back to Tooting

Flytipping, abandoned bikes, the pedestrian crossing next to Fircroft School (safer streets), and preventing 'shop stall creep' on Upper Tooting Road are the examples of why I think that Labour are failing local residents that I'll use in this post. I'm pretty sure that similar examples could be used against parties of other political colours, but in Tooting, of late we have Labour politicians.

Flytipping:

Back in 2008 our Graveney ward councillor and our MP were 'campaigning' on the issue. To give credit where credit is due, the approach covered in the story by the Wandsworth Guardian is laudable.

Fast forward to 2014, and thanks to local resident Tom Quaye badgering our council the Wandsworth Guardian has run a new story flagging the issue again. Labour use the fact that they don't run the whole council as a reason for why this is still a problem.

Tooting again this morning cheers @TootingLabour as the opposition we'd expect a proposed solution for #Tooting pic.twitter.com/tGOh8HJ2QU
— Tomma (@HMSKilham) October 30, 2014

As Tomma (maybe Tom Quaye) from the article highlights in the tweet above, where can the local Labour team point to proposals they have put forward to improve things? We have the same council officers managing the street cleaning contract for us in Tooting as in Putney. Officers will prioritise their efforts where issues have been flagged. If our councillors don't raise it then it is less of a priority.

Abandoned bikes:

Vandalised bikes & parts stolen locked to stand at #TootingBec another visual clue that cycling isn't a priority here pic.twitter.com/agE2X98UYK
— Jon Irwin (@Jon_events) November 1, 2014

Around Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway tube there are a bunch of bikes that are locked to the stands that have been vandalised and parts stolen from them. For whatever reason their owners have left the rest of their bike attached to the stands.

Concerted action by local councillors could ensure that these are dealt with.

Can you imagine an abandoned, burnt out car being left in the town centre?

On an aside, cars/vans are being left to rust away on our residential streets as you can see in this post.

Pedestrian crossing next to Fircroft School:

Labour's failure to understand the process is the underlying reason why this call for action was rejected at the committee. You can view the decision on the committee papers (14 - 492) here.

If Labour were running the council they would need to change all the policies in place in order for their approach to be adopted. Instead of engaging with officers at the outset, or having a good understanding of process from their years of having elected councillors, the petition was drawn up, they gathered support and end result no action.

Compare and contrast what I did for the Fishponds campaign.

I checked in advance with officers what number of signatures would be needed, then went and gathered them all, and finally the consultation happened. Leaving aside the detailed points of the Fishponds scheme, if I, without being elected, can campaign and get a consultation to happen for street change it begs the question why are the Labour team unable to do so?

However, what is clear from Fishponds, is that neither Labour or the Conservatives are even prepared to try to fix an acknowledged problem. Little wonder problems last for years in Tooting as the consensus between the Red & Blue teams is to do nothing.

'Shop stall creep' on Upper Tooting Road:

In the local elections this was flagged as an issue, and I checked with the Town Centre Manager to see what had been done. She told me that a few years ago the issue had been raised. As the road is a TfL managed road the council had come to an agreement with TfL to pass over responsibility for a trial period to the council. Monitoring and enforcement was then carried out by the council contracted enforcement officers that work in the rest of the town centre.

Lo and behold this approach worked, result you may think. However, as our councillors didn't keep on top of it, when the trial period lapsed it wasn't renewed.

Fast forward a few years on and the same problem has returned. Another opportunity for another politician to be seeing to do something. Dan Watkins the conservative PPC to his credit has been out with officers. Again, if either the Red/Blue political representatives in Wandsworth were keen on really fixing problems then this one should have been in the bag years ago when the trial solution worked!

Empowerment & plurality of views

Being a Lib Dem my approach is one of empowerment, looking to fix problems so that where possible we don't need to re-visit the same ground time and time again.

I welcome plurality of views, and recognise that often in complex issues there is more than one solution and that within my party we don't always have the solution. But, as a party we are open to listening to experts, looking at the evidence, and want to fix issues so that we can move onto the next ones. We want to genuinely engage with people from across the community, not just 'our supporters'.

Engaging with people 'whatever your politics' is a hollow claim from our Labour councillors.

Regular followers of my blog will know that I petitioned for changes to Mitcham Lane last year. This has gone before the committee and officers are now working on proposals which is a real result that I'm immensely proud of.

At around the same time that I was petitioning, local Labour councillor Mark Thomas did a survey with businesses on the parade at the Thrale Road end of Mitcham Lane. At the notes from the last committee meeting Cllr Cooper passed comments from the people that her team had been in touch with to the committee. None of the councillors contacted me in advance of the committee meeting to seek my views, or represent me and the 550 people that had supported my petition.

The first time the paper went before the committee, the Labour councillors, whilst having invited a deputation from the people they had surveyed, instead of welcoming my views voted for me not to speak. Cllr Jones has informed me that it was because I didn't turn up with 3-4 other people and it was because of process.

@Jon_events Council rules, perhaps annoying, require a deputation 2 B 3 people+ (not 1). But you spoke, at length, so no need 2 grumble
— candidaj (@candidaj) October 22, 2014

Fortunately the Conservative majority on the committee didn't take that view.

I celebrate diversity in all guises, and try to understand differing points of view whilst not always agreeing with them. I think we should support people holding varying political affiliations working to better the community. It is sad that the local Labour team seem so partisan in their approach.

Any party unchallenged is at risk of complacency and 'listening to their own'. Labour dominate in terms of elected representatives in Tooting, and in my view our community is the poorer for it.

Why Tooting should support TfL's proposals for new Cycle Superhighways

You may have heard the news this week that Transport for London have launched two new consultations for a North-South and East-West cycle superhighways that will run through the centre of London.

Blackfriars Road visualisation - North-South

Victoria Embankment visualisation - East-West

You can, and should respond supporting these consultations on these links:

North-South proposals

East-West

For sure there are some details which could be improved as with any major project, but the core thrust of what could be will be a game changer.

Local impact?

You may be thinking if you live in and around Tooting / Balham, this is all quite nice, but actually I don't really go into the centre of town so this doesn't really affect me.

It does for the following reasons. A few years ago I proposed radical changes to Balham High Road. The Mayor announced funding for TfL to work on it this spring. Looking at some of the details in the Blackfriars Road visualisation gives me a lot of hope that the consultation for Balham High Road next year will be of similar quality.

Tooting High Street and Upper Tooting Road are gridlocked almost every weekend. Earlier this year, with the local Lib Dem team as part of the local elections, we got over 700 signatures on a petition (including paper signatures) calling on the Mayor to make Tooting High Street safe for all.

The proposals for the centre of town show everyone that not only is TfL is capable of doing high quality street design. It also shows that campaigning does work. These proposals wouldn't exist without the efforts of campaigners across London and the London Cycling Campaign.

Will it slow down traffic?

Experience from New York suggests that it won't.

New York: bike tracks are actually speeding up average travel times http://t.co/r1wUvZBqe0 pic.twitter.com/Joofjxc8vm
— cyclistsinthecity (@citycyclists) September 5, 2014

Next steps

Please support the consultations. There are organisations and individuals who don't think that what has been proposed will work, or that it is needed or that people deserve it.

I'd like my children to be able to grow up in a London where as a family we can all ride into the centre of town and the only worries we might have would be if it's going to rain.

PS - I'd also add that the proposals to deal with rat-running on/around the Fishponds Road area, in my view are part of the wider solution to improving our streets. Current views from our elected representatives is that doing nothing is acceptable.

Back to school - the school run - a little plea

Francis Hirzel cycles to school daily (Gabriel Szabo/Guzelian)
from Independent article linked below

As the start of the school year is only just around the corner, a little plea. 

A growing number of children would like to cycle to school and indeed are. For some it will be their first time cycling regularly on our roads. Please give our young people who are starting to cycle some space, and be considerate if they wobble or make what may seem to be an erratic decision. 

We all make mistakes, particularly when doing something new for the first time. It makes it even more important for those who have to drive their children to school that you take extra care over the next couple of weeks. 

The same goes incidentally for taking care around adults on bikes too. 

Thanks for reading, and hope that it's a good start to the new school year for everyone!

Fishponds - a different take on the consultation responses

The whole Fishponds saga for me is a microcosm of the political challenges that we face as a community if we genuinely wish to see progress. Taken at face value the responses from the consultation seemed to give an overwhelming rejection of the trial approach which my Lib Dem colleagues and I were advocating.

There is cross party consensus that there is a problem, the challenge is doing anything to actually fix it. The pie chart shown above is from the data provided from the consultation (I put in an FOI request to get the breakdown - view pdf here) . I've added an extra layer, which broadly categorises the comments into people who agree there is a problem, those who think there isn't one, those who are undecided, and people using the consultation to flag other issues.

It is worth, in my view, re-visiting part of the conclusion made by the highway engineers/officers who wrote report 13-741:

There is a possibility that there will be a increase in traffic flows in some residential roads due to transfer of traffic on account of the point closures, but this will be offset by the forecasted reduction in traffic over the larger area.

In my view, the officers are stating that resident concerns of an increase in traffic are unlikely to be realised because of the forecasted reduction in traffic over the larger area.

Labour and Conservative councillors on the committee were unanimous in their view that nothing more should be done here in supporting the recommendations in paper 14-371. I should also add, that in my view officers made exactly the right recommendation. Officers work in a political environment where they need to respond to the councillors who are elected to represent us.

It does beg the question, can local people really be too surprised if long standing problems aren't fixed when neither of the two elected parties are prepared to call for any real action? This was the 4th consultation for the same problem in 12 years. No action has been suggested to date (that I'm aware of) by either of the elected parties to resolve this.

With my Lib Dem colleagues we will continue to work hard to get action to fix long standing local problems. That frustration was what led me to stand in the local elections. Officers frequently know how to fix local issues, but all too often our politicians get in the way.

If you are tired and frustrated by the lack of any real action do get in touch. There is a group of people locally who really do want to make a difference. I hope that in future elections people will be able to scrutinise the record of action, or lack thereof, to sort out local problems by those political groups who currently represent us. Maybe in the future we'll have a few more people supporting the Lib Dems locally, and we can really start to fix some of these issues.

Labour tried to silence me!

This week has been a busy one. I hope that what took place on Tuesday evening won't prevent progress on what I believe to be a widely shared aspiration to create safer streets.

The local Labour party (their representatives on the committee) voted to silence me, and by extension the hundreds of people who have supported my petitions. They singled me out, as they didn't choose to try to stop the other deputations who wanted to speak.

You can view the decisions made by the committee here.

I went along to speak on papers 14-371 and 14-379. The local elections have come and gone. However, it seems clear from the actions of the Labour team, that I will really need more help from local people to get further progress on our streets.

The Fishponds scheme was discussed, and whilst I fully accept that local people responded negatively to the consultation (not too surprising given the wording of it), the recommendations from the council is to do nothing. Neither Labour, nor the Conservatives (as far as I'm aware) have been prepared to put forward any proposals to try to fix what is a widely acknowledged problem with traffic in the local area.

I live in hope that the wide spread goal of creating safer streets will mean that people of differing political persuasions can work together. However, if the Labour team are not prepared to listen to differing points of view, it is difficult to see exactly how positive consensual progress can be made.

Sticking our heads in the sand and hoping that long standing problems will go away doesn't work. It isn't easy to put solutions in place, but the longer we leave them, the greater the cost to our community.

If you would like to join me and help campaign do get in touch.

Frustration, dismay, but more motivated than ever

Yesterday saw the publication of paper 14-371 which refers to the outcome of the consultation for the proposed trial on the Fishponds road area. Download the paper here

The headlines are:
399 responses were received (17% of households canvassed) with 29% supporting (115) and 64% opposed (257)
Officers recommend that no further action be taken.

Looking into the details what can we learn?

Executive asked for a 40% minimum response rate to deem the consultation effective.
Only Tooting and Furzedown wards had a turnout in the recent local elections which were the same day as the European elections of over 40%. Does this mean that the local elections weren't effective in most of the borough? Is it realistic for the executive to set a target response rate for a consultation higher than the average turnout for local elections? See ward by ward turnout here

Concerns from local residents, 91 people thought that they would increase congestion and delays, 38 people thought that there must be a better way, 9 people suggested a one-way system for Broadwater road, and 6 flagged a 20mph limit.
If we total these comments up as people who opposed the scheme, but agree that there is a problem, we have 144 people. If we can view those people as wanting the problem fixed the numbers would look like this: 259 wanting problem fixed - 113 wanting nothing to be done.

If the committee chooses to take no action, then this doesn't bode well for progress in Wandsworth for the next four years. This consultation was the fourth in 12 years as a result of other groups, and me petitioning calling on our council to act. Our council has monitored traffic levels in the area and found them to be over and above levels which are fit for residential streets.

I'm quite happy for a different approach to be advocated by the council to fix what is a recognised problem.

The important questions in terms of putting in place solutions are:

Who do we ask to come up with solutions?
If the local community doesn't like the look of the solutions, (because they don't believe they will work, even if they are evidence-based), do we just shrug our shoulders and do nothing?

The other week I wrote a fairy tale about this - The Prince and his toothache - well worth a gander if you haven't looked at it already.

I'm due be a father in September. I want my child to be able to grow up in a community where they are able to safely cycle to school. Where as a family we don't need to share horror stories about how someone's 'need' to not 'wait' behind me or my wife on our bikes has resulted in them almost killing us.

Other parts of London have successfully made huge changes to their street environment to the wider benefit of all members of their local communities. I'm more determined than ever to ensure that our community can benefit too, but I really will need your help.

Do get in touch if you live locally, and share my desire to see a better neighbourhood.

The Prince and his toothache

Having read the last edition of the Transition Free Press, it reminded me of the importance of story telling in the context of Transitioning, and how we discuss change.

With this in mind, and my recent safer streets campaigns in Tooting the following story came to mind.

As with many fairy tales, it starts in a familiar fashion:

Once upon a time in a magical kingdom lived a prince who reigned over all he saw. He was blessed with a kingdom of abundant food, the people lived in peace, and life was full of happiness for his subjects.

However, the prince had one weakness, he had a very sweet tooth. Living in this land of plenty and such a wonderful choice of food always on offer, including pastries, cakes, tarts and sweet drinks.

Before long the prince's sweet tooth was causing him problems. Fortunately he had access to wonderful dentists, and along he went for a visit.

The dentist welcomed the prince into his practise, and went about inspecting the prince's teeth.

"Oh dear," exclaimed the dentist, "this really doesn't look too good!"

The dentist went on to treat the prince's teeth as best he could. However, knowing that the real cause of the problems was the sweet tooth that the prince has, he recommended that the prince reduce the amount of sweet foods and drinks he was consuming.

The Prince having had his teeth seen to and 'fixed' for the time-being, soon forgot about his toothache and the advice given to him by the dentist.

Before long the toothache returned, and another visit to the dentist followed. This cycle repeated, until the prince grew tired of listening to the dentist. The toothache had become permanent, and the prince could no longer remember what life was like beforehand.

The toothache made for a grumpy prince who could no longer see the beauty in and around him. However, the prince did have a council of wise men who all had teeth. So, as the advice of the dentist wasn't to the prince's liking, he asked his wise men what would they recommend. The wise men knew that the real solution was that proposed by the dentist, they also knew that the prince didn't want to hear that solution.

Years passed with different ideas being tried. The wise men, after all, had a lot of teeth between them, surely they would know an answer. There was trouble now brewing in the kingdom. As people looked up to the prince, they too had chosen to ignore the advice of the dentist, and many more people were suffering with toothache.

One day a traveller was visiting from a similar kingdom, and saw the terrible suffering that these people were living with. The traveller was puzzled, as in almost every respect this kingdom was identical to the one he had come from. The difference was that his prince had listened to the dentist. The traveller had heard the tales of how all the different ideas had been tried (except that recommended by the dentist), and he came up with an idea.

He sought an audience with the Prince, claiming to be able to solve the toothache once and for all. To do so, the Prince would need to trust him, and do something that had never been done before.

The Prince after years of having suffered, and having seen his people suffered, acquiesced to the traveller's demands. The traveller asked the Prince to give the Dentist's solution a chance, to try it for a short period of time. After all, every other 'solution' had already been tried, so what did the Prince have to lose?

The trial was a fantastic success, and the Prince and his subjects were able to rejoice and enjoy the fruits of their kingdom once more and they lived happily ever after.

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The Prince represents us, our communities, his toothache the problems that motor traffic dominance presents us, the Dentist our highways engineers with evidence based solutions, and the wise men our politicians listening to the demands of the Prince whilst often ignoring the advice of the Dentist.

Hope you enjoyed the story. If anyone fancies doing a little picture to go along with it do drop me a line.