It is the opinion I heard expressed on an everyday basis.
Why should we support them (the shops in Sydenham) all they sell is rubbish. You can't buy anything there.
The best thing they could do is drop a bomb on the place
Just a sample of what is being said. Representative? The people of Sydenham vote...
with their feet. Rather than shop in Sydenham Road they jump in the car and drive to Beckenham or Bromley. Thousands of people live within a minute's walk of Sydenham Road. Do they shop there?
No.
Why do shopkeepers want the cars they so revile to stop to shop? Because local people know they only sell overpriced junk. The shops depend, therefore, on passers by who have no knowledge of their worth. It reminds me of a certain Blackpool hotelier who spent nothing on his property. The beds were dirty and damp. The breakfasts were inedible. Rather than invest in his business he found it cheaper to advertise and bring in new customers. 10,000,000 people visit Blackpool each season. Who needs repeat business?
Eventually he would find that the world does not owe him a living and Sydenham Road traders need to learn that same lesson. It is not the buildings so much as the businesses that operate in them (with one or two notable exeptions as has been said before). Use us or lose us they say.
Is that a promise?
As I said before... You have to see the picture as a whole. Quibbling over whether one sentence can be demolished or setting out to undermine the credibility of an opponent are the tools of the politicians and spinmasters. Spinmaster is another word for deceiver or liar.
Which party nasaroc and when did you stop beating your wife?
Meanwhile the money for the maintaining and improving the South Circular is the responsibility of Central Government since this is a trunk route. The lack of promised investment means that Sydenham Road (not funded as a trunk route) carries the burden. How green is that?
Pop over to Catford and note the land set aside for the dual carriageway alongside Lawrence House. Look at the entrance to the underground car park which had to be redesigned to accomodate the promised road. Look across the road and note the triangle set aside for the road. Drive around the one-way system and note the row of houses which were compulsorily purchased to make space for the dual carriagway and which have now been "let".
Pretending the motor car is a hallucination will not remove it and it is criminal irresponsiblity to fail to cater properly for it. Stationary traffic generates far more pollution than moving traffic. It wastes fuel and costs us all a fortune. The savings on this waste, alone, would make the improvements to the South Circular a cost effective project.
As I said before. Sydenham Road is not a trunk road. It is not up to the job of trying to be one at the same time as acting as a shopping precinct.
If you cannot see how blinkered opposition to a road ,which would take the traffic away from this road, is them I am sorry for you. You deserve the rundown ramshackel fume ridden hovel you get.