Lambeth LibDems: TfL exposed for sham consultation on ‘ridiculous’ Streatham traffic scheme

TfL plans to spend at least £650,000 on closing a residential street at its junction with the A23, Streatham High Road, removing trees and taking out disabled parking bays, in order to move a pedestrian crossing 50 yards south of its existing location.

Transport Commissioner Andy Lord conceded a short delay to the works on Friday, following an intervention by LIberal Democrat London Assembly Leader, Hina Bokhari AM.

In an email to Bokhari, posted to Twitter/X, Lord’s office confirmed, “we are now planning to start work on 18 December to allow us more time to respond to the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) objections… All objections will be fully responded to before the start of any construction works.”

The scheme – branded ‘ridiculous’ by local campaigners – will see Gracefield Gardens, SW16, shut to motor traffic, displacing vehicles on to neighbouring streets and impeding access to a multi-million pound, four storey health centre built there in 2007.

The Exchange Surgery, a GP practice based in the centre, told Transport for London as part of a previous consultation in 2022 that disabled patients would be disadvantaged by the scheme. In the same consultation round, some 80% of local comments were opposed.

TfL argues that their proposed changes are necessary to stop people crossing the road to catch buses without using either of the two nearby lighted pedestrian crossings.

But local Lib Dem councillors say townscape works carried out TfL back in 2010 were designed precisely to enable shoppers and bus users to cross without waiting for pedestrian lights, because ‘Streatham is a town centre not a motorway’.

“This really is ridiculous. There are so many local problems on which £650,000 could be better spent, but Transport for London just don’t take any notice of people, as they have proved with this latest sham of a consultation.

“The idea that delaying works by just a few days represents ‘listening’ is obviously absurd and an insult to everyone’s intelligence. People are becoming exhausted with consultations that seem to be worthless because the results are ignored.

“Transport for London say too many people are crossing ‘informally’ but it was they who – with local support – removed the central barrier from Streatham High Road a decade or more ago.

The whole idea then was to enable people to cross where they wanted, not just at the lights, because Streatham is a town centre not a motorway.”