Consultation on Proposal to Close Silverdale/Bishopsthorpe Road to traffic

[Cathy]

Just to clarify - droppable bollards for emergency vehicle use.

[Robin Orton]

I should be OK - my bollards dropped seventy years ago.

[Cathy]

[APCB]

This is the biggest load of nonsense. The only thing this is going to do is congest the high street even more. The only reason councils are coming up with these idiotic schemes is because there is less traffic so less people burning petrol. Its all about money!!! It will do nothing for the environment except pollute it more. HELLO YOU BURN MORE PETROL IDLING IN TRAFFIC!!!

Plus as a personal view point. I am sick and tired of cyclist thinking that they own the roads. NO YOU DONT! YOU DONT PAY ROAD TAX! Granted not all cyclist are evil (ones you are lit up light xmas trees at night and ones who actually stop for REDLIGHTS!), but majority of the ones I see think that they are on an Olympic circuit or doing a Tour De France. These ones are extremely dangerous and have a blatant disregard for pedestrians and vehicular road users alike. Whats annoying is without dashcams, it would be the drivers fault if they are hit, not their recklessness.

[Cathy]

Glad to see the improvement already from my point of view. Only been this morning and I can see there are much less dust/pollution particles on my cooker - god knows what I have been breathing in all this time

Sydenham Road and Mayow Road are MAIN roads and, yes, they do also need traffic calming measures put in place. If you happen to be stuck in a bit of a jam, switch your engine off!

[APCB]

Glad to see the improvement already from my point of view. Only been this morning and I can see there are much less dust/pollution particles on my cooker - god knows what I have been breathing in all this time

Sydenham Road and Mayow Road are MAIN roads and, yes, they do also need traffic calming measures put in place. If you happen to be stuck in a bit of a jam, switch your engine off!

Your cooker outside your house?

[APCB]

I another thing, with these eco warriors! I bet they are all happy inside there house full of electricity and running the heating and stuff in winter periods. Yet they'll probably charge multiple laptops, tablets, phones etc. I just guess that's ok though as its a necessity. Tell you what devils advocate here, lets just shut every single residential road everywhere.

Point is to encourage people to walk, how about charging children again for using buses etc. Maybe then buses will be less packed at peak times and it will encourage parents "little angels" to actually walk more.

[danmarwil]

This is the biggest load of nonsense. The only thing this is going to do is congest the high street even more. The only reason councils are coming up with these idiotic schemes is because there is less traffic so less people burning petrol. Its all about money!!! It will do nothing for the environment except pollute it more. HELLO YOU BURN MORE PETROL IDLING IN TRAFFIC!!!

Plus as a personal view point. I am sick and tired of cyclist thinking that they own the roads. NO YOU DONT! YOU DONT PAY ROAD TAX! Granted not all cyclist are evil (ones you are lit up light xmas trees at night and ones who actually stop for REDLIGHTS!), but majority of the ones I see think that they are on an Olympic circuit or doing a Tour De France. These ones are extremely dangerous and have a blatant disregard for pedestrians and vehicular road users alike. Whats annoying is without dashcams, it would be the drivers fault if they are hit, not their recklessness.

APCB - I don’t believe the local authority make any money from fuel sales & they wouldn’t deliberately increase the time vehicles spend idling because it would make their air pollution stats looks worse.

You seem to have a personal gripe with cyclists but I feel like I should point out that nobody actually pays “road tax” - if you own a motor vehicle then you pay “vehicle excise duty” which is based on CO2 emissions and doesn’t directly contribute to the cost of building and maintains roads as it is paid to the exchequer.

[Cathy]

APCB - I am not an eco warrior - but do try to do my best. Note to self - must try harder.

What I can say is that I have managed 53 years WITHOUT a car though!

[Sydenham]

@APCB welcome to the forum today and your first posts. Looking forward to hearing from you on other Sydenham matters as well.

[alywin]

Point is to encourage people to walk, how about charging children again for using buses etc. Maybe then buses will be less packed at peak times and it will encourage parents "little angels" to actually walk more.

I thought they were already doing that, along with preventing pensioners from travelling for free before 9 AM?

[Parker1970]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-englan ... m-blockade

[mosy]

If the road closure was intended to increase pedestrianism and cycling, I haven't noticed many of either and certainly no increase. It is quieter and noticeably much less fumy (especially while windows are open) without twice daily traffic queues which is good for me on the face of it.

However, if traffic is queueing for longer elsewhere in the locale, I have genuine sympathy for those residents and probably for all of us if the fumes are indeed increased due to longer static waiting times, i.e. it's more fumes not less, unless anyone believes it really is a deterrent that will get people out of cars despite no improvements in train or bus transport at peak times.

[Parker1970]

If the road closure was intended to increase pedestrianism and cycling, I haven't noticed many of either and certainly no increase. It is quieter and noticeably much less fumy (especially while windows are open) without twice daily traffic queues which is good for me on the face of it.

However, if traffic is queueing for longer elsewhere in the locale, I have genuine sympathy for those residents and probably for all of us if the fumes are indeed increased due to longer static waiting times, i.e. it's more fumes not less, unless anyone believes it really is a deterrent that will get people out of cars despite no improvements in train or bus transport at peak times.

Coming back from dropping off my mums shopping around 4.45pm on Thursday, traffic was queueing past cobbs corner up westwood hill almost all the way up to Sydenham High School.... during what it still a partial lockdown..

[owlwise]

What's not to like about this is the extra pollution and traffic this closure is already causing. We only have two roads that allow us access northbound. This is outrageous.

[perryman]

They should double the council tax for those who now find themselves living on a quiet clean private cul-de-sac and halve the tax for those that have to put up with even more noise and pollution.
Perry Vale is just as residential as Silverdale and has a primary school. It was no more designed to take the amount of traffic it has today than other through roads.

No-one wants this traffic in their back yard, especially as it is now linked with bad outcomes with corona as well the 300 odd that traffic pollution kills in Lewisham every year. (A proportion of the 9000 London deaths by my calculations).
Yes, Lewisham should be taking steps to reduce the volume and types of traffic, but this does nothing but move the misery from one place to another.

[simono]

A lot has already been said but this is nonsense. Why are the Council looking after the interests of a privileged few and ensuring that most suffer and make the high street even less attractive.
If the council really want to reduce the volume of traffic, put in a CPZ round all the local stations so the commuters don’t drive here and use the area as a car park. Let them walk or cycle to the station in stead!

[owlwise]

Has anyone got a forklift truck and a few mates? People should take back control from the jobsworths who arranged to put the big plant pots barriers in the road. Let's organise and get these things shifted off the road!

[Sydenham]

Please remember that you can make any comments about this scheme here:

https://lewishamcovidresidentialstreets ... ad/details

Not everyone who is involved in the scheme reads this forum so they might not be aware that there ae some who do not appreciate it. Ensure your opinion is heard and fed into the decision making process.

[mosy]

Sydenham, the decision appears already to have been taken. What majority percentage of adverse or disapproval comments would be needed to effect a U-turn?

I'm sure many would add their comments to the website if they thought it'd make a jot of difference to what seems to be a done deal.