The Dulwich Society

Southwark Council’s emergency traffic measures

The Council has sent the following letter to all residents who will be directly affected by the Phase 2 and 3 emergency traffic measures being introduced into Dulwich Village. it says:

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how many people live, work, travel and use Southwark’s streets and spaces. As a result, the council has introduced experimental transport measures. Across Southwark, we are fast-tracking a variety of measures that support increased walking and cycling, allow social distancing and discourage a rise in motor traffic.

The Dulwich area was prioritised as it has very high volumes of traffic passing through its local streets, with a high number of schools and school pupils exposed to this. Our first intervention in Dulwich was the installation of a ‘permeable filter’ at the junction of Court Lane, Calton Avenue and Dulwich Village. This means the junction is closed to motor traffic but not to pedestrians, cycles, scooters or wheelchairs. The next phase of trial measures in Dulwich has been developed following community engagement and aims to improve the measures already installed by creating a holistic low-traffic neighbourhood that enables safe walking and cycling, and encourages healthier lifestyles for the Dulwich community.

These experimental measures will facilitate a live consultation with local people on how they work. The experimental measures are installed for a maximum of 18 months and within that time the council will carry out several reviews and will consider people’s views to decide whether to make the trial permanent or to remove these measures. We will be monitoring the impact of these changes during the trial period, using counts of motor vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. In addition, we are inviting residents to let us know how they affect the streets they use - whether positively or negatively - using the feedback map at https://dulwichvillagestreetspace.commonplace.is You can also subscribe for regular updates on this project.

Starting on Monday 16th November the following roads will have measures installed to restrict traffic travelling northbound or eastbound only from 8-10am and 3-6pm on Mondays-Fridays. There will be no restrictions at weekends and the measures have been designed so that there is always an alternative route for residents, visitors and deliveries to access every road in the area at all times of the week.

Dulwich Village at the junction with Burbage Road – a northbound camera enforced restriction
Burbage Road (South) at the junction with Dulwich Village – a northbound camera enforced restriction
Burbage Road (North) at the junction with Turney Road – a northbound camera enforced restriction
Turney Road at the junction with Burbage Road – an eastbound camera enforced restriction
Townley Road at the junction with Calton Avenue – a northbound camera enforced restriction

There will also be new double yellow lines installed on the section of Dulwich Village south of the junction with East Dulwich Grove.

Following community request and in response to the Phase 1 measures we have also made changes to the junction of Red Post Hill to introduce a right-turn filter to reduce northbound delays to traffic on Dulwich Village.

To find out more information and the review dates for these measures please subscribe to the Council’s newsfeed at https://dulwichvillagestreetspace.commonplace.is You can also write to the Council at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or use the Freepost address RSCE-TGHU-CUZB Southwark Council, Highways, Rachel Gates, 160 Tooley Street SE1 2TZ.

Planning White Paper

Like many other London amenity societies, the Dulwich Society has considerable concerns over the proposed changes to England’s planning system proposed by the Government in the recent consultation document ‘Planning for the Future’. They are likely to be profoundly unpopular and could cause permanent damage to the built environment. The London Forum of Amenity Societies is asking member societies and individuals to consider writing to their MP, asking them to take note of the concerns and to make their views known to the Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP. Write to our MP Helen Hayes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and to Secretary of State, Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The major points are as follows:

The new Standard Method for setting housing requirements is wholly inappropriate for London. Overall, the Capital will be expected to deliver almost three times as many homes annually as it has averaged over the past 5 years, with much of the increase directed at those boroughs with the least capacity to raise output. The method takes no account of London’s great shortage of homes for social and low-cost rent for key workers and their families.

Councils will be required to produce new Local Plans in 30 months, an impossibly short timescale given the need to map the entire borough into Growth, Renewal and Protected areas, and to create design specifications (known as Design Codes) for all sites earmarked for development. Until this task is completed, it is likely that highly inappropriate and unpopular developments will gain planning consent.

The proposals foresee more intensive public participation in producing Local Plans and Design Codes, but curtailment of the public’s right to comment on specific planning applications. This might be acceptable were there a requirement for all applications to comply with those plans and designs. But there isn’t. It appears that developers may submit non-compliant applications and have them assessed against planning policies that have been determined centrally, but with nationwide application having no regard to local circumstances. This will rightly incense communities whose up-front efforts have been by-passed or over-ridden.

No mention is made of the London Plan (currently awaiting approval by the Secretary of State), nor of Metropolitan Open Land which currently enjoys the same protection as Greenbelt - and should continue to do so.

A new single-rate Infrastructure Levy, not payable until completion of development, is proposed to replace Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy. This will expose Local Authorities to risks they are ill-equipped to bear in borrowing to build the required infrastructure, and the various exemptions proposed will further reduce the delivery of genuinely affordable homes.

The Gilkes, former S G Smith workshop site

It now appears that the previously approved scheme for 13 houses in on this site is not going to happen as it is no longer financially viable. This is now a great opportunity to solve two endemic Dulwich problems, how to provide decent sized apartments in the centre of the Village for downsizers and how to provide up-to-date accommodation for the Dulwich Estate Almshouse Charity.

The situation was confirmed at a meeting on 22 October between the local residents’ monitoring group and the CEO from McCulloch’s (chaired by local MP Helen Hayes). The developer is now having pre-application discussions with Council planners over an apartment scheme which will include a larger element of social or affordable accommodation (up to 35% to be in line with Council policies) and has agreed that it will carry out a further public consultation. Common sense says that the smaller units would be ideal for almshouse accommodation and, hopefully, the Almshouse Charity will seize the opportunity.