They Live: Cllrs campaign to save Lewisham Way crossing [UPDATED]
Local Cllrs Vincent Davis and Vicky Foxcroft have come here to chew bubblegum and petition the public... And they're all out of bubblegum.
They have launched a petition to 'save' the pedestrian crossing on Lewisham Way that has been identified by Mayor Boris as one that could be removed in the interest of traffic flow smoothing.
As we argued on this thread, the idea to remove it is a terrible one, so we of course support the petition, although it is our understanding that the Mayor's team is only consulting on these sites at this stage and a decision has not yet been made.
The petition says:
We, the undersigned, call upon Mayor of London, Boris Johnson to reverse his decision to remove the pedestrian crossing on Lewisham Way, the effect of which would be to make crossing to St. John's Train Station and St. John's Medical Centre more hazardous for pedestrians.
It's good to hear something from our newly-elected Councillors, who have been relatively low profile thus far. We've asked Brockley's new ones for an interview but none has been forthcoming yet and a quick straw poll among BC's Twitter community suggested their record hasn't been much better in the physical world.
It's interesting to note that the first campaign we've seen from them relates to an initiative being led by the Conservative Mayor of London and we hope the next thing we hear from them relates to Lewisham borough politics. Too much of the current political debate in Lewisham, whether in party literature or in Council meetings seems to consist of point-scoring over national politics, rather than the local matters that our Councillors are elected to deal with.
We hope to bring you interviews with Cllr Foxcroft and Cllr Adefiranye (and indeed any of the other newly-elected officials in the local area) soon.
UPDATE: We're happy to say that we've now managed to get in touch with Cllr Foxcroft via Twitter and she has kindly agreed to an interview - coming soon.
32 comments:
well the petition has two signatories - none of them from the councillors. Sigh.
Sorry. I think battles need to be chosen carefully at the expense of looking like a bunch of always complainers. This crossing is one of a few in close proximity. It does not directly serve the health centre. Safety fears are in my view overplayed. This is a real distraction from real issues that i would prefer my councillors to focus on, such as cuts in LG spending.
well they dont do that either anon.
And if you are worried about spending cuts - think of the expense that can be saved by NOT ripping out something a lot of people want to stay.
Why is a Ladywell councillor (Vincent Davis) bothering with stuff in a neighboring ward?
not enough to do in his own ward?
Surely that stretch of road can do without one of those crossings anyway, there's another one just a few hundred (or less) yards away
The crossing in question replaced an uncontrolled type with a central refuge but no lights.
Guess what has just been installed at the bottom of Loampit Hill near the new Barrett development?
Left Hand Right Hand?
Do they know what each other is doing?
or rather......
Ladywell Ward stretches all the way to Tressillian Road, so there will be children in Cllr Davis's ward using that crossing to go to Ashmead School and commuters crossign to go to St John's station. Seems reasonable to me.
I was pleased to hear that our new ward councillors (Ladywell ward) had been out and about last weekend knocking on doors to introduce themselves and ask about concerns. Sadly, I was out, so they left our dwelling after a very brief chat. Probably a great relief to them!
I don't think the BC crowd are big John Carpenter fans, but I liked the They Live reference.
Speak for yourself...
Cant they put one outside the entrance to St Johns Church, so the parishioners can get straight across.
I'd like one outside my front door that I can control by remote from my living room - that would stop the sods racing down Tressillian at 40 mph plus.
I can imagine it now - hear their engines roaring up the road - time for 'red'.
There are three crossings in quite close proximity to each other along that stretch of road. Two of these are almost adjacent to each other - why not abolish one of these? Is it because they're both outside Lewisham College (road safety for the kids etc)? Bit puzzling.
Looks like our councillors are going to ignore local issues that are due to local decisions.
Lewisham Central councillors have sent round a flyer complaining about government cuts but not one word about £60m cuts the Mayor of Lewisham is proposing.
Bizarre.
Happily, Cllr Foxcroft has now agreed to an interview, so hopefully we'll here her views on local issues, at least.
It looks like the democratic structure is not working for people here... or is it the individuals involved.
Some cynics read this as a sign of a by-election in the area, maybe Nick can ask if this is the case in the coming interview with the Councillor.
Hi Max, I must have missed that speculation, what are you referring to please?
PS - should have been "hear" in the earlier post, not "here" :(
It's a rumour I heard, that one of the new Labour Councillors didn't expect to win and had other plans about where to live for the future so there may be a by-election soon.
I'd love a by-election in the area - and then we would probably get one of our green councillors back.
Would suggest Max runs for it - but if he sticks with Lib Dems I'm not sure there is a chance. The collition is a bit of a nail in the coffin.
Thanks TJ, fortunately I'm busy with work right now so no need to speculate which party would be best for me, maybe in a few years' time.
That's a shame for us - but glad to hear you are busy.
Good move. Now how about a similar effort to rectify TfL's changes at Deal's Gateway which I mentioned earlier and here by Deptford Dame. This is another TfL disaster in the name of helping "traffic flow", AKA helping people in cars to drive as fast as possible at the expense of other road users
Two people collecting signatures this morning, one a coucillor I think, for the petition.
Good job as only 13 have signed on the web.
Not everyone has access to the Web,but 13 is rather a poor show.
From the pictures on the Lewisham web site it would seem that Vicky Foxcroft(Brockley) and Vincent Davis(Ladywell) were the autograph hunters.
I would have thought doing it in the evening would be better when people aren't rushing to catch a train.
Being one of the 13 web signatories I declined their invite.
The rumour was correct, there's a Ladywell Ward by-election.
Hi Max, do you have the details or a link please - I'd like to run the story. Thanks.
I got a letter through my door today. Tim is resigning as he has an opportunity to go to South Africa to work with an NGO, dealing with HIV and violence prevention.
Yes, Cllr Tim Shand.
er, Ladywell by-election? Really? Max, is this definite? I thought it would take a bit longer than that . . .
OK, just seen Nick's post. All systems go I guess. All offers of help from BC readers with Green by-election campaign will be most welcome!
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