I don’t suppose it defines "well connected by public transport ". That could be a whole new topic.
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It’s all to do with the PTAL rating, which, from the propsals being put forward by the developer, is probably high - especially with bus stops at the bottom of the road and a National Rail and London Underground station only a little bit further on.
By the standards of most areas outside and indeed inside London Forest Hill is well connected. We have a mainline rail station, the Overground and a number of decent bus routes, one of them being 24 hour.
We have lived here 5 years and never needed a car. The idea that people MUST have a car here is a source of great hilarity to this country girl who grew up in an area with two buses a day and a two mile walk from a train station that had one train an hour.
Taymount Rise is a short walk from the station and main bus routes. One of the issues is though it is a very steep climb to the top and the surface is poor, so I suspect cars, taxis and delivery vans are used a lot more by Taymount Rise residents.
I beg to differ about this area being well connected via public transport.
Compared to the countryside perhaps yes.
I daresay much depends on where you need to travel to but as someone who works in W1 I find the bus routes pretty poor round here and there is an over dependence on 1 rail line.
I find Peckham is much better served by busses as is Camberwell ,Brixton,Crystal Palace
All areas not a million miles away.
More than once I’ve had to get an Uber home from work because of problems with the trains.
If we didn’t have a car so I could get a lift to Canada Water on the weekends we have no trains I’d face 2 busses at least and a 20 min walk to get to my job near Marble Arch.
Whilst FH is a bit of a mixed bag of PTAL ratings the majority of it is either 3 or 4 which I wouldn’t consider high on a 9 point scale; and that presumes all is running as intended - which it frequently isn’t for many previously discussed reasons.
There are some 2.65 million “registered” cars in London making 3.7 million journeys plus another 2 million journeys into or out of London per day (all TFL figures).
So, what possible difference is a few car free developments going to make to these numbers? Especially if you believe, as I do, that the residents of those developments will still own cars its only achievements will be to make the developers lots of money and seriously inconvenience the existing nearby residents.
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The PTAL scale only goes up to 6 and, in my opinion, it’s more about technicalities than reality - so, whilst it may well fit the criteria for car-free development, I agree that the likelihood is that it will be far from it, which will exacerbate the already considerable access and parking problems up there.
Indeed. It is not just about residents not owning cars, Taymount Rise, for obvious reasons has a lot of deliveries and service vehicles as well as tight turning for cars. Bin day is already an interesting exercise up here.
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In Madeira they push people down the hill in baskets. That would be an eco friendly way to deal with it. Also owning a car is a privilege, so you know first world problems and all that.
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Ha ha! I’ve love a basket slide down the hill!
Might be fun with a competent carreiro to stop before the South Circular. Are there any in FH?
Never mind parking, who will be overseeing the rubbish and re-cycling collections? As it stands, Lewisham does not collect recycling from Shackleton Close SE23 (backing onto at least one new homes building “project” that is currently underway and not complete and the new proposed Taymount Rise site) currently for at least 6 weeks at a time! This 3 block, 90 home estate (not only council tenants but leaseholders too) has become a totally neglected eyesore due to their non-action and I, personally, have had to give up on my over 15 year policy of trying to recycle all I can, because of this! When you amass more than 6 bags of recycling inside your own flat, it becomes ridiculous. I have a space outside, on top of the old coal bunker - but we were told not to store stuff on top of it, due to being a fire hazard! So, as I do not drive and because supermarkets continue with lots of packaging, what can I do? I work, do not have a car and my landlord will not collect recyclables weekly. Will more flats and their refuse make my situation, and that of everyone else, better or worse? Err, suprise! The answer will be, worse!
YES, new homes (especially social housing) ARE needed but do current council tenants AND leaseholders have to suffer? OK so, the recycling WAS taken on Monday gone but, that was after approx. 6 weeks since the last pick-up. Through mine (and other residents) month’s of monitoring, it will NOT be removed again for at least a few weeks! NOT ON! I am totally depressed living here, though still grateful at being a tenant with lower rent. Should my council duty expectations be lower too though?I
MORE homes mean more drains on resources. But hey, feck the locals, they do not matter! 
PS a proud Forest Hill full rent-paying Council tenant, a non car driver, non car owner and proud recycler who has had to give up on that.
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That sounds like a nightmare, what are their excuses for neglecting your recycling colletions for so long? As a 90 flat development you must pay over £100k in council tax a year.
Whislt nothing like as bad as your situation we have perpetual issues with missed recycling and rubbish collections, often becuase poor parking at the top of Taymount Rise prevents the refuse lorry from accessing our property.
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Mine is rarely collected, but I put it down to idiots I have to share my bins with dumping all sorts in there. I usually have to report it on the Love clean streets app (they should change the name) for it to be picked up and added to general waste pile… so yeah I’ve stopped recycling to because It’s sadly pointless. But as mentioned it should be on the supermarkets to reduce plastic use as much as possible in the first place.
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Maybe we should have a “most annoying and unnecessary packaging” thread? I nominate cucumbers. Why oh why do suppliers encase them in almost impossible to remove plastic?
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I have no problem with cucumbers being wrapped in a protective film if is keeps them firm and juicy (supermarkets don’t seem capable of keep veg well).
The problem is the material used for the wrapping.
If the government just demanded that all shrink wrap and trays in UK supermarkets were biodegradable then there would not be a problem. I’ll admit it might add a bit to the food prices, but it is nothing compared to the cost of Brexit and Covid.
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Down isn’t the problem I’d love a funicular railway to pull me up!
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Haha yes! And crisp packets being oversized to make them look like there’s a lot in them.
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It’s not being as widely talked about as it should be, but the supermarkets are all introducing soft plastics/wrapping collection points within the stores.
As with most things supermarket, the Co-op are ahead of the game - https://www.coop.co.uk/environment/soft-plastics - and there’s a collection point at the inside entrance to the Stanstead Rd store.
Sainsburys collects soft plastics in a sad little “plastic bags” bin, but they’re not shouting about it.
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And not always immediately helpful for those of us without cars (electric or otherwise) but the Recycle Now recycling locator is a brilliant tool for working out where locally you can recycle almost everything.
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