Rerouting the South Circular in Catford takes a small step forward
TfL responded to concerns including the impact on bus journey times and flooding risk, before plans were approved. But funding remains as far away as ever.
Lewisham council has granted planning permission to Transport for London (TfL) for the realignment of the A205 South Circular within Catford Town Centre. The road will be moved to the rear of Laurence House office and use the current Canadian Avenue car park, along with removing the existing one-way gyratory and replacing it with a two-way system.
Lewisham's Strategic Planning Committee came to a unanimous decision to approve the plans on 9 September, when after just over 40 minutes of discussion it was pushed to a vote.
However, the report presented to the committee revealed some interesting details about why it has taken so long for the planning application to come before the council. The meeting also heard from local residents who have strong concerns about the proposed road scheme.
The planning application by TfL was presented to the committee meeting by Thomas Holmes, a senior TfL officer who works on TfL’s Healthy Streets Programme. In his opening comments, he highlighted that TfL were first contacted by Lewisham council over this latest proposal to move the South Circular, as long ago as 2016.
Holmes claimed in his presentation that the scheme would make Catford the ‘greenest town centre in London’, with a net increase of at least 89 trees, alongside sustainable urban drainage schemes and the creation of new public space.
Other measures in the planning application include segregated cycle lanes and improvements to pedestrian crossings.
Speaking against the application were two representatives of “Catford Against Social Cleansing”. They expressed a number of concerns including fears that there would be a negative impact on bus flows in Catford.
They also thought the scheme failed to address congestion and the bottleneck around the junction at Ravensbourne Road. However, their primary concern was risk of flooding, and in highlighting this issue they drew attention to the opposition expressed by the Environment Agency to the application.
As the meeting progressed and after questioning by councillors, a few issues were clarified. On the issue of bus journey times for passengers travelling through Catford there were in fact no bold predictions made by TfL of any significant benefits. Holmes merely stated that according to their modelling, the overall impact of the road changes would be no more than “largely neutral” on bus times.
In relation to the issue of water drainage and the risk of flooding, it was clarified at the meeting that the Environment Agency had initially expressed their opposition to the planning application, but following re-consultation the Environment Agency withdrew their objection, although only as recently as the 31st July.
It was further explained that the primary reason for the long delay in the planning application coming to the planning committee was due to the ongoing dialogue between TfL and the Environment Agency, to address the issue of flood risks in the scheme.
"Funding remains a challenge"
Although funding of the development was ultimately not a matter for consideration in terms of granting or rejecting planning permission, the committee did nonetheless use the meeting to pose questions to TfL.
When questioned by Green councillor Hau-Yu Tam, TfL conceded that “funding still remains a challenge”. The TfL officer explained that TfL was now no longer eligible to receive funding for the Catford scheme (or other road schemes) from the Department of Transport Main Roads Network fund.
This significant change in policy has been set out in paragraph five of a letter about long term funding for TfL that the transport minister Heidi Alexander (former Lewisham East MP from 2010 to 2018) sent in June to London mayor Sadiq Khan.
While one step forward has been taken with the road changes finally getting planning permission, it seems that two steps backwards have been taken over whether the scheme is ever funded.
Sign-up for our free weekly newsletter - Salamander News in your inbox
Read Next
Mark Morris
