Lambeth Council refused to meet pensioners concerned that a nearby road closure had turned their quiet back street into a rat run, telling them it feared staff would be “at risk of intimidation and abuse.”
Councillor Rezina Chowdhury, deputy leader of Labour-led Lambeth Council, told Waterloo resident Mike Tuppen that the council didn’t attend public meetings because they were “unrepresentative and hostile” in an email last month.
Cllr Chowdhury, cabinet member for clean air, also scolded 78-year-old Mr Tuppen for contacting council officers by social media to raise his concerns about traffic on the street. She branded the method of communication “not acceptable” in an email seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Lambeth Council said it had received hundreds of public comments and survey responses about the restrictions and that these had been used to tweak the final scheme.
The council added that at times public discussion had become abusive and it had to “draw a line for the wellbeing of both councillors and staff.”
Mr Tuppen, chair of Octavia Hill Residents Association, is one of a number of residents living on Ufford Street concerned about a surge in traffic since Lambeth Council closed a section of The Cut to drivers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vehicles that would have once used The Cut to move between Waterloo Road and Blackfriars Road now turn right on Short Street and get onto Blackfriars Road via Ufford Street and Boundary Row.
As a result, residents of Ufford Street say their once sleepy road now regularly has lorries and tour buses hurtling down it, causing nuisance noise and posing a risk to children who play in a park on the street.
Videos taken by local residents show giant lorries struggling to squeeze down Ufford Street between parked cars. Other clips show vans and coaches accelerating along the street and other nearby side roads.
Lambeth Council has now said it will restrict vehicles from accessing Ufford Street and nearby Webber Street in response to residents’ concerns. But for some locals, it’s too little too late.
Mr Tuppen said: “It’s just ridiculous. We’re getting lorries, tour buses and taxis come down here. We never saw a coach down this street before they closed The Cut. They just won’t listen. They made the decision and that’s it.”
Mr Tuppen added that he was frustrated the council were using an online platform which allows anyone to comment on proposals for consultation but were refusing to attend a meeting with people who actually lived in the area.
In an email to Mr Tuppen on July 19, Cllr Chowdhury wrote: “It is not our standard practice to organise or attend ‘public meetings’ as you describe. Our experience with such meetings in previous projects is that they are unrepresentative and hostile because people content with a scheme’s progression do not generally feel the need to give up their time to meet us.
“Therefore we find these meetings do not give genuine qualitative feedback and can put officers at risk of intimidation and abuse. As a democratic organisation and a responsible employer, I hope you understand why we do not use this method.”
Terry Blissett, 85, who also lives on Ufford street, said he couldn’t understand why the council had made the traffic restrictions permanent. He said: “I can’t believe Lambeth are doing it. The traffic is a nightmare down here. There’s a kids’ park and kids run out into the road all the time.
“It’s absolutely crazy. It’s a rat run. Everybody is fighting it. No one from the council has been around at all to ask how we feel. It’s unbelievable. This is to no benefit to anyone down here.”
Since traffic restrictions were introduced on the Cut during Covid-19, the number of people cycling on the street has more than doubled and the number of vehicles using the road has been slashed. But traffic on Boundary Row, the street that drivers use to get onto Blackfriars Road via Ufford Street, has increased by more than 100 per cent.
A Lambeth Council spokesperson said: “We thoroughly engage with residents on all our projects. For this scheme we have held site visits, ran two online surveys and delivered several letters to local people and businesses. In addition to this our councillors and officers have had numerous direct correspondence exchanges with local residents, businesses and stakeholders.
“In response to public engagement and traffic counts, we are proposing additional traffic filters on Ufford Street and Webber Street. These will reduce traffic on local streets by keeping through-traffic on larger main roads.
“Also, following local feedback the council is looking at how loading and deliveries on The Cut work, and having listened to local input we are aiming to provide a wider exemption for delivery vehicles that use any of the loading bays on The Cut, and allowing them to exit via the traffic filter rather than them using local streets.”
Pensioners , the disabled , social housing tenants …all suffer as traffic is diverted from middle class enclaves to the poor and vulnerable . Just present them with some fake photoshoped pictures like the people in Fentiman Road did …thats the road with 3 cars for every house and not a front garden that has not been paved over .