The Herne Hill Society blog

Milkwood Road again

What do you think of the state of the junction end of Milkwood Road?

In our view it is an absolute mess, from the entrance doors of Sainsbury's down to Pizza Express. For example:

• Rubbish bins often blocking or significantly narrowing the pavement
• Torn open, dumped rubbish sacks leaking rotting goods over the pavement
• Not enough room for wheelchairs to travel along the pavement
• Too narrow for mothers with buggies and / or children to pass
• Empty street-tree plots getting muddier by the week

All in all: dangerous, insanitary and unpleasant to look at - let alone walk past - as the smell is often bad too. This is in stark contrast to the other side of the road, which has been attractively redeveloped and is generally problem-free.

Whereas the Sainsbury's side is so revolting and difficult to navigate that many commuters are crossing over and the pavements are too narrow at busy times!

Surely this is currently the worst "grot spot" in Herne Hill? We need an approach that takes into account the needs of residents, shops, restaurants, commuters and all pedestrians.

Village Way railway bridge

At Village Way, the road traffic closure was scheduled for 8 to 23 February. But work was called off on Friday due to gale-force winds. Because of the way the train service disruption is calculated, this means that the replacement works have to be rescheduled from scratch over a future weekend, as the train services can’t be disrupted during the week.

The Network Rail manager of the project has said that they will clear the road along Village Way completely by Sun 23 February, then schedule a new slot to come back and do the full replacement works over a weekend, whereupon all the equipment will be brought back in as before.

At the moment there are rail repair works scheduled for a weekend ‘some time’ in March so they are going to try to move the bridge replacement into that slot when the trains are already due to be cancelled.

In the meantime, National Rail are going to leave the temporary Britelights in place until Southwark can book EDF to reinstate the streetlights. Network Rail are going to leave the scaffolding up along the tracks where the balustrades have been removed, but they will take away the access towers and alert the British Transport Police to the exposed location. If anyone sees any suspicious activity phone 101 or 999, depending on the urgency.

Thanks to Cllr Robin Crookshank-Hilton for the information.

Apparently this is a very rare situation…

(Un-)controlled Parking Zones

Fawnbrake Avenue resident Patrick Roberts explains why the new CPZ is a shambles and is damaging lives

Herne Hill covers a largish area, and its human and economic geography is varied: one of the reasons we love it. On top of that, our community is divided between two large London boroughs – Southwark and Lambeth. In practice this doesn’t normally make a great deal of difference to our lives.

But there is one exception: parking - an issue that can cause fervent dissent between neighbours, let alone between streets.

For the last two years or more, residents in that part of Herne Hill bounded approximately by Herne Hill itself, Milkwood Road and Poplar Walk have been bogged down in a conversation with Lambeth Council, and with each other, on the proposed extension of a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) into these residential streets, with the supposed aim of “discouraging commuter and long stay parking by people from outside the area”. And note the word “area”…

“Street” vs “Area”

There have been several rounds of consultation, with streets voting on whether they wanted to be included in or excluded from a wider CPZ. Many residents believe that these consultations were flawed from the start, because they did not make it clear that the Council was prepared to introduce a CPZ on a street-by-street basis (according to the voting sentiment of each street rather than as a coherent area.

The Council would challenge this view; there was a sneaky hint of this policy in one of the questions on the voting paper – but it was only a hint. It may also have been spelled out at one of those Council-chaired public meetings, but most residents didn’t attend that, as only ‘stakeholders’ were invited.

The upshot: we are now, in mid-October, in an extraordinary - in fact a crisis - situation which would be comical if it were not so stressful for many residents.

The creeping Zone

Residents of streets such as Rollscourt Avenue and Kestrel Avenue, fed-up with their streets being colonised by commuters, voted to have a CPZ. Behold, they have now got one. Parking there has become blissfully easy, since the out-of-area parkers have shifted to neighbouring streets outside the new Zone.

So what with the commuters, plus some of the residents of these streets now inside the Zone who don’t want to buy a permit, parking has migrated to Gubyon Avenue and Fawnbrake Avenue. On top of that, casual visitors to the neighbourhood, and no doubt people who work in or visit the doctors’and dentists’ surgeries and schools nearby, are also fighting for parking spaces in the “free” streets (let us call it the ‘non-Zone’).

Displacement pain

We have a classic displacement effect, which will only get worse when the extended Zone is actually enforced. Now residents of the excluded streets are scared to use their cars, lest, when they return, their spaces have been snapped up by prowling visitors. There are many stories of commuters driving round and round in the hope of seeing a resident pull away. There are many stories of elderly people who can’t visit their families because they can’t park; residents who can’t now visit their health clubs, fetch children from school or go to the supermarket; mothers with toddlers, and families with loads of shopping or elderly parents, suffering stress, rage and of course enormous time wasted, trying to find a parking spot within reach of their home.

A policy which was supposedly intended to manage parking has in practice created anarchy.

What happens next?

Under pressure from residents, Lambeth Council is now willing to re-consult the excluded streets. Consultation documents are to be sent to residents by 7 November, and questionnaires will have to be returned by 21 November. If, on that basis, the Council detect a move in favour of inclusion, they could possibly extend the Zone to the excluded streets next May. They do not seem able to move much faster than that.

But this in turn invites another question: what if one or two streets (Gubyon Avenue, for example) voted to be included, but a third (e.g. Fawnbrake Avenue) still voted to stay outside? Obviously if that happens all the incoming visitor/commuters/tradespeople/Peabody traffic, along with our neighbours who don’t want to buy the annual permit if they can park for free somewhere nearby, would try to displace their cars onto the one remaining “free” street and the parking there would turn into a brutal fight for lebensraum.

Un-joined-up government

This emphasises the folly of the Council’s policy of proceeding on a street-by-street basis, and shifting blame on to residents with a ‘local democracy’ excuse. A CPZ only really works when an orderly, coherent Zone (or ‘area’, to use Lambeth’s own term) is created, so that the opportunities and financial incentives for displacement parking disappear. Even better would be a system of local government that encouraged neighbouring Councils to coordinate their parking policies in adjacent areas so the current distortion is avoided. Too much t oexpect, alas.

Farcical interlude

Meanwhile, the introduction of the CPZ, even in those streets where lines been painted and signs erected, has been farcical. There are no ticket machines. Lambeth haven’t got any.

In consequence the Council has had to admit that the CPZ will not be inaugurated until 4 November and that those people who bought permits can have their validity extended by a month - though not everyone has been told this yet. So confusion and chaos reign.

Local rage

The level of distress felt by residents whose lives have been damaged by this fiasco is difficult to describe.

What makes it worse is that the bureaucratic procedures of the Council (introduced on the basis of a deeply flawed and unrealistic principle, but no doubt from the best of motives) stand in the way of any early remedy to the chaos that the Council’s own procedures have created - when they had so many warnings that this would be precisely the consequence of their processes.

Oh fortunate Southwark!

Across the Hill, Southwark residents have lived with a workable CPZ for some years now. Southwark explains that it enforces CPZs "predominantly to give priority of parking to local residents and to short-stay visitors to shops and businesses”(cue bitter laughter on Gubyon Avenue). Southwark also extorts less than Lambeth: on the south side of Herne Hill an annual permit costs £125; in Lambeth it all depends on the CO₂ rating of your car, but a typical Band 3 car costs £136 per annum.

Southwark residents will no doubt be amazed to learn of the farce that is Lambeth, our “Cooperative Council”. Some of us may want to congratulate them on their choice of borough.

The full version of this article can be seen at http://fawnbrake.wordpress.com/

Herne Hill's Great Flood

Listening to BBC 5 Live this morning I hear that Dulwich Road is closed. That's the first I know about it. Then Twitter comes into its own. The tweets start 'flooding' in. But then we see the pictures and videos and it's exciting in a way, like when it snows overnight, but not at all funny. Intending to get a bus down Herne Hill to the station I soon realise that's not going to be possible: there are no buses running on Herne Hill.

A Thames Water van overtakes me. Further down Herne Hill the main road is taped off and there's a police officer to explain why.

Approaching the new student flats I can see the problem for myself: a great big lake makes it impossible to get into Half Moon Lane. It's just before 9am, about 4 hours after the break in the mains pipe occurred, I am told. The level must have gone down, but it's still pretty bad.

Oddly enough, the trains are running fine, because normally it doesn't take a lot to stop them.

As the day goes on it, develops into a top news story. At least 36 homes and businesses are badly affected. As the water is pumped out, the mud and mess is left behind.

By noon, there are hundreds of photos starting to appear over the web, like this one on the Herne Hill Forum site:

I remember Herne Hill being very badly flooded, worse than this if anything, in 2004. But whereas that was due to rainwater and blocked drains, this is all because of a broken three-foot-diameter pipe.

Getting off the train at about 18:30, the clear-up is well underway and Half Moon Lane is still taped off. The 68 is running as normal but the 37 is diverted.

Time to think about the poor people whose lives and livelihood have been affected. Buy local, when you can.

Wildflower Bank in Brockwell Park near the Lido

The Friends of Brockwell Park, with financial and gardening support from the Herne Hill Society and others, cleared the stony bank to the rear of the Lido in the winter and a wildflower mix was sown in the spring.

This looked very unpromising, but now the summer is here the result is stunning: a bright and colourful mix of annuals. Do go and have a look!

Herne Hill Planning and Licensing Report

• 4, 20 and 22 Dorchester Drive: The Society has objected to three recent applications, each one for substantial extensions which seem to us to clearly contravene specific policies in the UDP relating to side extensions and the impact on the street scene. We have given particular support to residents at No. 18 (long-standing members), concerned about the scale of the proposal to enlarge No.20.

• 77 Herne Hill (Dee-Dee’s): In spite of strong opposition from locals, ward councillors and the Society, the change of use from restaurant use to joint use, including bar and entertainment use, has been approved. We made last minute efforts with residents to propose new grounds for refusal and suggested a new condition to ensure continuing restaurant use: this was apparently agreed but the decision notice has not yet been seen.

• 84 Railton Road: Works to alter the appearance of this block of flats, originally built not in accordance with approved plans, is currently underway. However the permission dated May 2012 stated that works had to be completed within 9 months or the building has to be removed in its entirety. 11 months on, We have advised local residents about this and in view of our strong previous opposition we will be contacting Lambeth to see if they are going to enforce this condition.

• S106 issues for the new development: The non-response from Lambeth officers continues. Two emails have been sent to nine officers, and in total two responses rather than the 18 required have been received; the issue has now been referred to the leader’s office. The Society’s transport correspondent has meanwhile contacted Lambeth and Southwark about expected traffic issues arising from the new Tesco Express and has suggested re-allocating some of the S106 funds.

• Abbey Mansions: There is a recent application to demolish these semi-derelict buildings and the adjoining garages to build five new contemporary-style houses.

• Half Moon Pub: We attended the public consultation event about this proposal by Dulwich Estates to refurbish this Grade 2* listed building. The intention is to provide five flats above the pub, and convert the former stable/garage block into a house with garden. Improvements to the interior are also proposed. There is concern about the possible loss of the live music room, the intention is to fully soundproof it.

• Lambeth local plan: A submission has been made in relation to the draft Lambeth local plan, supporting a number of policies which require more attention to be paid to quality of design and local distinctiveness, and asking for stronger polices in relation to school provision and local employment opportunities.

• Dulwich Supplementary Planning Document: The Society has asked that a proposed policy seeking higher development in Herne Hill be clarified and altered to state that new development should be appropriate in scale. We also pointed out that no reference was made to the site of the James Black building in Half Moon Lane. This has been suggested as a possible new school site.

• Hypnotik: We have been following the ongoing court case about its alleged use as a night club.

• Railway bridges: The Society has been liaising with the Dulwich Society and others about exactly what Network Rail’s plans are to replace the three 1860s railway bridges (Rosendale Road, Croxted Road and Village Way) that take the line between Tulse Hill and North Dulwich. We recently met Councillor Clare Whelan on site. She was sympathetic, but there has been no other response to concerns expressed on behalf of our Society and the Dulwich Society. It is clear that Network Rail intend to remove the six distinctive cast iron columns for each bridge and not replace them.