A combined scheme chosen by Greenwich Council will cause unacceptable congestion all around the area, delaying buses and putting emergency services at risk
A formal Council decision taken on 8 March will introduce an amended version of a low traffic neighbourhood (dubbed 'Neighbourhood Management Project') stretching for at least two miles from Greenwich South Street to the A102 (west to east) and the A206 to the A2 north to south. This scheme received the most negative responses to last year’s Council consultation.
Those suffering the greatest impacts weren’t even asked.
The 8 March decision, taken by a sole executive member Cllr Averil Lekau, (responsible for Climate Change, Environment and Transport), was made following a surge of public objection to the scheme.
The chosen option (the ‘A’ scheme on both sides of the park) was rejected by 70 to 80 per cent of the community (according to area). Local councils are no longer entitled to ignore this level of failure in local support, according to new Statutory guidance. Many of those affected, particularly Charlton and Lewisham residents, continue to be unaware of the amount of traffic funnelled into Charlton.
The scheme deliberately shifts traffic to busy boundary roads carrying tens of thousands of vehicles each day – including vital bus routes.
Traffic entering and exiting the 'yellow' area will be confined to Charlton Road and Old Dover Road. The 'yellow' area will otherwise be completely blocked to vehicles from streets north of the Greenwich to Woolwich railway line by barriers permitting buses only during operating hours. There will be no direct access to the A2 (except potentially via Stratheden Road).
Greenwich council has fudged the true extent of the scheme with the pretence that schemes in each area are unconnected. Greenwich Park and heath land north of the A2 link the areas but are barriers to traffic flow, with serious transport impacts.
Under threat of punitive fining, the result will be long journeys around polluted boundaries
How the scheme works
Option A on each side of the park will divide the streets into mini-LTNs, preventing movement within each main area or across the area as a whole.
Those suffering the greatest impacts weren’t even asked.
The 8 March decision, taken by a sole executive member Cllr Averil Lekau, (responsible for Climate Change, Environment and Transport), was made following a surge of public objection to the scheme.
The chosen option (the ‘A’ scheme on both sides of the park) was rejected by 70 to 80 per cent of the community (according to area). Local councils are no longer entitled to ignore this level of failure in local support, according to new Statutory guidance. Many of those affected, particularly Charlton and Lewisham residents, continue to be unaware of the amount of traffic funnelled into Charlton.
The scheme deliberately shifts traffic to busy boundary roads carrying tens of thousands of vehicles each day – including vital bus routes.
Traffic entering and exiting the 'yellow' area will be confined to Charlton Road and Old Dover Road. The 'yellow' area will otherwise be completely blocked to vehicles from streets north of the Greenwich to Woolwich railway line by barriers permitting buses only during operating hours. There will be no direct access to the A2 (except potentially via Stratheden Road).
Greenwich council has fudged the true extent of the scheme with the pretence that schemes in each area are unconnected. Greenwich Park and heath land north of the A2 link the areas but are barriers to traffic flow, with serious transport impacts.
Under threat of punitive fining, the result will be long journeys around polluted boundaries
How the scheme works
Option A on each side of the park will divide the streets into mini-LTNs, preventing movement within each main area or across the area as a whole.

Royal Hill will be divided by up to four barriers, each controlled by ANPR. This means that large delivery vehicles will make dangerous turns on this narrow street to avoid fining on a daily basis. Most deliveries are made during the peak morning rush and will endanger children walking to James Wolfe Primary School on Royal Hill.
East of the Park four Trafalgar Road areas are divided from the giant ‘yellow’ area from the railway to south of Westcombe Park Road. Traffic entering or leaving this huge area will be confined to Old Dover Road and Charlton Road, both of which lead to/from The Royal Standard gyratory. This pivotal area is already a junction point for bus routes, and a busy local shopping centre, containing complex routes for pedestrians and cyclists around a vital transport interchange. It is not designed for the new load of traffic and will become a congested and dangerous log-jam of vehicles including the entire area’s bus routes. Children changing buses before and after school are just one serious additional risk created by the scheme.
Cllr Lekau’s 8 March decision has modified the original 24-hour scheme by imposing the road blocking on the six busiest ‘peak’ hours each day during the working week. While additional ‘exceptions’ have been created, they are thought to be unworkable.
Among the host of vital journeys that continue to be ignored by Greenwich are: school staff journeys to work, transport of special needs children by parents and carers to school, vital trade visits to householders and businesses (such as plumbers), family carers without blue badged vehicles, deliveries not only to households, but also to local shops – such as the Royal Hill parades, and simply families getting on with busy lives and balancing multiple commitments.