Fury of Londoners shedding livelihoods to hated low visitors zones

Stewart Harmer’s household has been serving the folks of Dulwich Village in south London since 1878. First, his great-great-grandfather arrange Bartleys fruit and veg store. Then, a era later, got here a florist’s, which 60-year-old Stewart nonetheless runs with pleasure.

‘We must have provided flowers for thousands of small weddings and funerals over the decades,’ says Stewart. ‘We have regulars who come in every week and we have passers-by who pop in to buy something to make that special occasion very special.’

But Stewart’s enterprise – certainly, many of the 30 or so within the upmarket village – say they’re dealing with an existential risk that has already value jobs, pushed two enterprises to closure and minimize the incomes of most others.

It isn’t the value of dwelling disaster, however moderately a controversial visitors scheme that’s raking in tens of millions of kilos for Labour-run Southwark council.

‘They’ve closed some roads fully and launched intervals when visitors isn’t allowed on the excessive road,’ Stewart continues. ‘Thousands of people have been caught on camera and fined, and they don’t wish to be fined anymore, so that they’re simply staying away or buying elsewhere.

‘My business is 20 to 25 per cent down on where it was before they brought in the changes. It’s like a tax on motorists which is popping right into a stealth tax on companies.’

The Dulwich scheme is considered one of round 200 ‘Low Traffic Neighbourhood’ (LTN) tasks launched nationally after the federal government arrange a £250million ‘Emergency Active Travel Fund’ through the Covid-19 pandemic. This initiative was supposed to encourage extra strolling and biking, and to allow pedestrians to maintain their distance to keep away from spreading the virus.

Instead, opponents argue that it has led to the institution of LTNs and different traffic-restricting measures which have divided communities, crippled companies and served as money cows producing eye-watering sums of cash for native authorities.

On March 7, Lambeth council, which can also be Labour-controlled and borders Southwark, introduced it might be scrapping an LTN in Streatham Wells after it precipitated visitors chaos on and across the A23, leading to motorists taking as much as two hours to journey three miles.

Campaigners in Dulwich are hoping the demise of the Streatham Wells LTN may herald the top of the traffic-restricting measures crippling native companies – however the council is making a lot cash out of them that this appears extremely unlikely.

The Dulwich Village LTN scheme, often known as ‘Dulwich Streetspace’, is monitored by 5 units of cameras centered on stretches of roads and junctions the place motorists are both not purported to drive all the time, or a few of the time.

Statistics obtained by anti-LTN campaigners and handed to the Mail reveal the astronomical sums being earned by the council from penalty cost notices issued to motorists caught on digicam driving intentionally or, in lots of instances by accident, by way of these areas.

Until the top of 2023, the council had issued nearly 193,000 PCNs – raking in simply shy of £11million.

One digicam alone – fastened on a complicated stretch of Dulwich Village heading north the place visitors is banned throughout restricted intervals – has introduced in £6million over three years.

LTNs all around the nation are proving to be money-spinners for cash-strapped councils. Last yr, Freedom of Information requests discovered that 18 native authorities had single streets incomes greater than £1million a yr in penalties.

The largest penalty-notice bonanza in a single yr was at Birmingham’s Bull Ring two years in the past, the place nearly 66,000 fines had been issued to motorists caught on digicam driving in a bus lane on Moor Street – costing almost £4million.

Another, in Oxford Street, Manchester, introduced in £1.7million. Other councils with visitors restrictions making them greater than £1million a yr included Brighton and Hove (York Place), Salford (Chapel Street) and Bristol (High Street). In the capital, they included Islington, Ealing, Tower Hamlets, Croydon, Lewisham and the City of London.

These extraordinary figures got here after Labour’s London Mayor Mayor Sadiq Khan expanded his much-maligned Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) from central London to cowl all 29 of the capital’s boroughs, a transfer anticipated to herald as much as £300million yearly from motorists driving non-compliant autos.

Typically, penalty prices are £130 in London and £80 outdoors the capital, with 50 per cent reductions if fines are paid inside 14 days. It may very well be argued that the Dulwich scheme is a microcosm for the remainder of the nation.

‘Many of these LTNs claim to be solving problems that weren’t there within the first place simply to allow them to positive motorists for going about their lawful enterprise,’ says Brian Gregory, coverage director for the impartial Association of British Drivers. ‘They should have signs with a picture of Dick Turpin on them because this is highway robbery, pure and simple.’

In Dulwich Village, the Covid visitors restrictions had been run as a trial, after which made everlasting in January 2022 following a session course of which locals say didn’t contain native companies.

The restrictions ban motorists from heading south to north alongside the High Street between 8am and 9am, and 3pm to 4.30pm, and – on the different finish of the village – the everlasting closure of the Calton Avenue, Court Lane and Dulwich Village junction to visitors heading east to west, a measure meaning drivers should now take longer routes alongside extra congested roads on the outskirts.

Before blocking streets and organising cameras, the council carried out a ‘residents’ survey’ and located that 67 per cent objected to the LTN. A separate survey carried out by a bunch of ten native residents’ associations discovered that 82 per cent of households objected to it – however the council imposed it regardless.

Richard Aldwinckle, co-founder of One Dulwich, a residents’ group opposing the scheme, says: ‘Destination shops and businesses have suffered considerably as a consequence of the road closures and restrictions. Although there is an association of independent businesses in Dulwich, they were neither notified nor consulted on the road closures before they were put in.

‘A meeting was held at the shopkeepers’ request in September 2021, at which a majority of them outlined the destructive impression the LTNs had had on their companies. Over 90 per cent of them had been towards the LTNs.

‘Footfall and sales reduced by between 20 per cent and 80 per cent as a direct consequence of the closures. At least two shops have closed and several have had to lay off staff. The problem is, the council doesn’t appear to care whereas it’s raking in tens of millions.’

The outlets that closed had been Jigsaw and Biff youngsters’s sneakers. Local residents say Jigsaw employees informed them the shutters had been coming down due to decreased footfall. Jigsaw didn’t reply to requests for affirmation.

When Biff co-owner Julie Lowe introduced in December 2022 that her store was to shut down after 30 years, she cited the visitors restrictions as one of many causes.

‘This decision is mainly around my family and retirement plans but made easier by the impact of the difficult trading environment, online and the LTNs in Dulwich Village,’ she stated. ‘During this incredibly tricky time, Southwark introduced their controversial road closures. The LTN time restrictions hit our after-school trade dramatically, causing more lost sales.’

Ironically, locals right here declare they now spend extra time of their vehicles to journey what had been as soon as brief distances, however which now require longer and extra sophisticated journeys. They say the restrictions merely ship motorists to peripheral, arguably poorer, areas reminiscent of East Dulwich, Lordship Lane and Herne Hill, the place they declare visitors jams have elevated and air high quality has suffered.

Harry Niazi, 61, has been promoting fish and chips at Olley’s Fish Experience in Herne Hill, on the fringe of Dulwich Village, since 1987. He says: ‘The traffic on the outskirts of the village is so much worse since the LTN was introduced. Sometimes it’s like one big automobile park.

‘I live in Catford in southeast London and it used to take me an hour and 15 minutes to drive to work. It now takes an hour and 50 minutes. It’s loopy as a result of all these vehicles idling and caught in visitors jams merely create extra exhaust fumes than vehicles that hold transferring.

‘People have been put off coming into the area. I’d say enterprise is down a minimum of 15 per cent, and we simply can’t take any extra. We’ve had Covid, the price of dwelling disaster and now this. It’s simply not honest. Small companies want somebody to be on our aspect for as soon as, however the council doesn’t care whereas it’s making all this cash in fines.’

Businesses that used to supply supply providers – reminiscent of butchers, dry cleaners and the florist – have now stopped making an attempt to make deliveries after 2.30pm as a result of the 3pm to 4.30pm closure of the excessive road causes ‘chaotic’ visitors jams, making journeys uneconomical.

‘We used to have two delivery drivers, but we now only have one,’ says Mustafa Zihni, 67, whose household has run Scobies dry cleaners for 42 years. ‘There’s no level making an attempt to get anyplace after 3pm. And we now have needed to minimize our opening hours due to the highway closures.’

Scobies used to open its doorways at 7.30am for pick-ups and drop-offs however, because the highway is closed between 8am and 9am, it now doesn’t begin buying and selling till 9am. It can also be closing earlier. Instead of shutting up store at 6pm, Mustafa locks up at 5pm.

‘We keep a close eye on our takings, and since the LTN was introduced, they’re down by 27 per cent,’ he says. ‘I would hope the council would talk to us and perhaps we can find some common ground. The problem is that now they’re used to incomes tens of millions from these schemes, I can’t see them wanting to present them up.’

I used to be given a tour of the Dulwich Village LTN by Bridget Furst, 74, who chairs one of many many residents’ associations combating the restrictions. She lives reverse essentially the most profitable camera-array and says that through the timed highway closures, confused and unwary motorists are often photographed going into the restricted space.

I discovered the signage unclear and the restrictions complicated. For instance, approaching Dulwich Village from the south, motorists should negotiate a small roundabout. If they’re to pay due consideration to visitors coming from their proper, they are going to both miss indicators warning them that Dulwich Village is closed to them from 8am to 9am and 3pm to 4.30pm, or see the indicators solely as they cross by – they’re on the entrance to the highway, not upfront of it.

‘Even locals, who are aware of the restrictions, sometimes forget about the timings or are a minute or two too late – we’ve all had penalty notices,’ says Bridget. ‘But motorists just passing through have very little chance to see what they’re driving into till it’s too late.

‘I’m pro-walking and pro-cycling, and we’d all wish to have cleaner air. The restrictions right here may profit schoolchildren within the village however visitors is being pushed out to arguably much less prosperous areas the place air high quality is getting worse.

‘What about the schoolchildren there? There has to be a better way than this. It’s bringing a few of the native companies to their knees, and when you’ve misplaced your outlets, you’ve misplaced the guts of your group.’

Bridget says one man within the space – who doesn’t wish to be named – estimates he has stopped greater than 1,000 grateful motorists from unwittingly driving into the Dulwich Village lure.

Another, Linda Bird, 81, who has lived within the village for 48 years, has stood along side the highway with a warning signal on a number of events.

‘I have stopped hundreds of motorists from going on to the high street during restricted times,’ she says. ‘They were very grateful indeed because they hadn’t observed the indicators – which is proof optimistic that they aren’t match for function.’

But not everybody opposes the LTN. Two companies, a cheesemonger and a café, have been capable of increase their variety of tables by taking over house on the closed half of Calton Avenue, resulting in an upturn in commerce.

‘Customers like enjoying their food and drink without cars whizzing past, and with cleaner air,’ says Dominique Wilkinson, proprietor of Au Ciel espresso store. ‘I think it’s a superb factor. People come right here with their youngsters and really feel safer. The visitors measures listed here are simply bringing the village into line with the remainder of the capital. You may say folks right here have had it too good for too lengthy.’

I put residents’ considerations and complaints to the council. A spokesman stated the council understood there have been considerations concerning the Dulwich Village LTN scheme and so had launched a session course of final yr to assist inform a redesign.

However, campaigners level out that the redesign is of the locations freed up by the LTN closures and restrictions. ‘Not a single restriction or road closure will be reversed, nor will any penalty charge cameras be removed as a result of this,’ says Bridget Furst.

Asked whether or not the LTN scheme wasn’t primarily a money-making operation, one other Southwark spokesperson replied: ‘All local authorities are not-for-profit. The public purse is for spending on further services for residents.’

But there have been no phrases of apology, concern, conciliation or understanding for the distressed folks whom the council is meant to serve.

Back at Bartleys flower store, Stewart Harmer says companies on the excessive road are persevering with to battle.

‘The council just doesn’t appear to care,’ he says. ‘I had a Zoom meeting with some council officials when they first considered bringing in the LTN, and I warned that the road closures would mean we’d have to surrender attempting to make deliveries to occasions reminiscent of funerals timed through the morning and afternoon due to the visitors jams they’d trigger.

‘I couldn’t consider their response. They emailed me a hyperlink to a web site that sells bikes with baskets on the entrance. What use would that be for a 5ft spray to go on high of a coffin?’

If that weren’t so unhappy – and if comparable obstacles weren’t costing jobs and companies all around the nation – it might be humorous.