Has anyone got a PCN for going down Thorpewood Avenue during the restricted times (or know of anyone who has)?
I got one from there but when I tried to make the payments it had already been cancelled
Cancelled? Living in the area for so long, and rarely coming home on weekdays at the restricted hours, I have inadvertently driven through once at 15:43. I thought that was too near the cut off time so had got away with it. Then I turned left at 15:00 and, when I saw the time, then reversed straight back and U turned out. I’ve received nothing. Strange. Or not enforceable for some reason?
I was also close to the cut off time so its possible that they subsequently gave me a few mins grace. I called Lewisham to confirm that the PCN has been cancelled but I wasn’t able to speak with anyone.
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I think there are other safety issues that haven’t been put forward here. The closure of Thorpewood Ave as a through road isn’t all bad. Children from many schools walk up & down the lower end of Thorpewood Ave, this includes Holy Trinity, Kelvin Grove, Eliot Bank & Sydenham Girls schools. Thorpewood Ave has always been used as a cut through, often with speeding cars. Less traffic means less pollution to breath in & more safety for pedestrians. I have seen so many near misses with cars & pedestrians at the lower end of Thorpewood Ave. I have had two cars righten off parked outside my house by speeding cars. Thank goodness no nobody was injured as the cars ended up on the pavement. Much of the problems with school parking is the appalling driving of parents dropping off their children. I have witnessed some really dangerous driving on Kirkdale, recently a parent just drove her parked car straight into passing traffic with cars having to take emergency action to avoid collision. She then calmly set about doing a three point turn, she only needed to go a short distance to the roundabout to turn around safely. Policing Kirkdale would be more helpful & a few tickets & fines would hopefully deter this dangerous driving. Surely the main emphasis should be safety & reducing pollution for pedestrians. The change to making Thorpewood Ave a no through road has nothing to do with parking over driveways
Parking at the bottom and surrounding streets seems to have returned to the bad old days. Covid reduced traffic and parking but now it seems to be busier than normal perhaps due to the extra pressure of the the road closure at the top which most people allege rightly or wrongly was mainly to protect the driveways of those in the party and Covid/Schools was used to push it through after the schools concerned had taken their own measures to significantly improve social distancing.
@LeoGibbons before you leave as our local councillor are you going to clear up this up and do something for the majority not just the 50 residents you have chosen. Why do we deserve more pollution and a £100 yearly tax? Do the kids at Holy Trinity not deserve cleaner air? Do the residents of Kirkdale not deserve some consideration not just displacing the issue and making it worse?
I did see an interesting quote from you.
How come you set up a working group and then never consulted them about the solution you came up with or subsequently about how well the solution worked?
@SophieDavis , why would anybody have any future faith in getting involved in councillor led working groups if the members are dumped when the councillor has come to a decision without taking into the account the view of the majority?
I notice that most of the local wards have been able to hold local assembly meetings whereas Forest Hill seems to be unique in that they have been off air for more than 2 years. Even our neighbours in Sydenham managed to hold a few remote assemblies and have the mayor present (virtually). Why have our local councillors stopped these assemblies which have been used in the past for locals to question councillors on local issues?
Sorry to butt-in on a side issue but, although I’m not aware of the situation regarding local assembly meetings, as such, the councillors have been making themselves available to us every 2 weeks at 11am at the library, which I found very helpful and insightful when I managed to meet Leo and Peter on separate occasions. I didn’t know if you were aware of their open surgeries.
I have also noted that both Sophie and Leo often give their email out on this forum and other social media for people to contact them with specific issues.
The local assemblies are restarting with the next one for Forest Hill on January 29th.
The Perry Vale one is on January 24th.
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@Anotherjohn I am sure you understand the difference between private meetings and public meetings or private communication and public communication. This shouldn’t be seen as a private issue to be decided in private.
I think one of the issues here was that there was a feeling this was decided/influenced by private meetings/communication rather than public ones such as the Assembly or Working group.
@starman It is good that you know the Assembly is restarting after 2 years, most of the public don’t, perhaps you could share the time and location.
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Patronising!!!
We should meet face to face
Happy to meet face to face as long as we are socially distanced!
Sorry, if it came across that way, it wasn’t meant to be patronising. The sentence that followed was the point I was making.
I do think most locals see as Patronising that this decision was made in private without proper consultation, without engaging with locals especially those residents and schools adversely affected before or after the School Street which turned into a Road Closure was introduced.
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Fair enough.
Thank you.
I know that I’m not the best at getting my meaning across in writing.
Unfortunately, I’m one of those who communicates best when I’m face to face with someone; and not even on Zoom.
Parking at lower end of Thorpewood Ave has increased, I don’t accept this is due to the no through road. From what I see everyday, most parking is from people living in other roads, these cars are often left for many days. Occupants leave their cars & disperse along Dartmouth Road. There has been a lot of housing built in the last few years with no provision for car parking. Parking has also increased from Forest Hill Pools since reopening, I think people are not using public transport as much due to covid.
I still fail to see that the closure of Thorpewood Ave has anything to do parking over driveways around Eliot Bank school at the top end of Thorpewood Ave. That is to do with the school street closure. Less speeding traffic up & down Thorpewood Ave can only be safer & less polluting for the residents & all pedestrians using this road. I will support a no through road on Thorpewood Ave for a safer & quieter road as we have now.
I knew by looking at the website earlier. I suggest you bookmark the link I gave you. I don’t live in Forest Hill ward so won’t be tracking it myself.
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I think we can agree to disagree about the causes of the parking and whether the road closure confines it beneath those barriers/reduces it or makes no difference.
I do think school traffic now is more confined and concentrated. Most of the school/swimming pool traffic must now turn around at the junction of Derby Hill Crescent and Thorpewood. You just have to look at the right side going into DHC to see that the pavement is now level with the road in most places having been worn away by people using it as a roundabout, it only gets a rest during school pickup/dropoff when parents park on the junction.
I would be supportive of a no through road if it was in the other direction and at a pinch both directions but not as it is. We still get a lot of traffic coming down, a lot it is cabs/ubers and I have always believed most through traffic was down from Kirkdale and people rarely go up except local residents or the road being congested outside Holy Trinity.
I don’t believe the school street has worked, the oneway no-through road has been mixed but ask people their views in some form of consultation, come up with a list of options including the status quo, perhaps separate the school street and road closure options and let local residents vote and decide.
I am sure we will find out in the new year what kind of consultation we will have and I am going to leave the discussion till then.
We sometimes get three or four vehicles a day using our drive as a parking place for Eliot Bank school.
We might start playing pranks on the offending vehicles soon.
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I should think this was how life used to be for the 50 or houses now inside the school street.
Can you block them in?
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We might start videoing their responses. “I’m just picking my daughter up”, “I’ll only be five minutes”, “do you see anywhere else to park”, “if you need to use it (your private property) just say and I’ll move now (presumably to someone else’s property)”, “it’s raining”…
Eliot Bank could look into some sort system that eases pressure as unlike JK banquets there isn’t a massive car park nearby:
Surnames A-F drop off 8:00 -8:15
Surnames F-P drop off 8:15-8:30… ??