Honor Oak Road lorry ban petition

1,200 children go to primary school on, or within 150 metres of, Honor Oak Road. This residential road is used as a cut through from the South Circular by large, highly polluting lorries. The pavements are very narrow and the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution breach EU regulations. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to pollution. To sign a petition asking Lewisham’s deputy mayor to ban lorries from Honor Oak Road in order to increase road safety and reduce pollution visit:

We’ve been told we have a good chance of success if we get enough signatures - thank you

Question - where do you think the lorries should go? There are also schools on Brockley Rise. Or perhaps down Devonshire Road which they use as a cut through at the moment and get stuck?

Just to clarify i do think the air quality of the area needs to be addressed. I just think we need to be more thoughtful than just moving the problem to another road. Being so close to the south circular we will always struggle with traffic. Also i was wondering where you got 1200 pupils from assuming you are talking about Fairlawn and Cabrini which have together 900 pupils at most.

I think Brockley Rise is far better suited to Lorries than Honor Oak Road, also the traffic lights and intersection with the A205 means that its much easier to navigate for any kind of vehicle. Also, the pedestrian crossings are well marked. Clearly Devonshire Road is not suited to this purpose either but that’s not part of this petition. Barry Road would be an earlier option.

1,200 children includes Fairlawn, Francesca Cabrini and Horniman School (many Horniman children use Honor Oak Road to get to school). The aim is for the lorries to stay on the South Circular and use a B road (ie. the B218) where necessary instead of a residential road

Can you please explain how you’re defining residential?

The South Circular has a fair amount of housing on it, as well as schools, nurseries and children walking along it.

The B218 is Brockley Rise / Brockley Road / Stondon Park and it’s both already congested and no better equipped than HOR to take more traffic. This road has a lot of buildings much closer to the traffic - so arguably is even less qualified to take more throughput since the impact of the omissions on schools like Dalmain would be even greater than the relatively set-back Fairlawn.

The obvious solution to relieve the burden of your road is Wood Vale. It’s wide enough. Good luck petitioning the councils, TfL and the Mayor of London’s office to open that one up.

Surely with its tiny catchment only children who live on the hill go to horniman only joking. But routing more traffic along Brockley rise/road may not be the answer either, more schools on that road and already very heavy traffic.

And I say this as someone whose child will be at cabrini in September. I just believe that shifting the problem is not solving it.

Lorries should be on the South Circular…yes it’s residential as well, yes there are schools on it, although not in the section that would replace the use of Honor Oak Rd, let’s be honest, but it is better equipped to deal with such traffic than Honor Oak Rd which is narrow, barely wide enough for two vehicles and in its short length has very large numbers of children using it. Brockley Rise does have schools along it, but it’s wider and also better equipped to deal with such traffic too. I live just off Brockley Rise, so I’m not keen on more lorries, but know it’s safer to have them there than on Honor Oak Rd. We do have a problem with the increased volume of traffic and traffic speeds in our area, but the solution cannot be to indefinitely “share it out” so that more and more roads which were never meant to carry such traffic are forced to do so, year after year, until SE London becomes one large polluted car park. The solution is not easy, but involves finding ways to reduce motor traffic overall so that absolutely necessary traffic has the space to move more freely on roads like the South Circular, (which would the environment even alongside this busy road a little) and at the same time reducing through traffic in areas like Honor Oak Rd.

Though I agree that Honor Oak Road is not suitable for lorries am also concerned about how this will divert HGVs along Devonshire Road which is probably even less suitable. I approve wholeheartedly in measures to reduce local pollution but this is probably the wrong approach to do this. It would be better IMHO to identify the roads (and times?) where goods vehicles are allowed and a petition for that which excludes all others (except for access) would get my signature.

Can I just point out that vans and busses contribute a large amount of pollution to the mix and yet no one seems to be banning them. Dont forget, in order to use a lorry in London you have to be up to date with EU exhaust emission standards, most busses are not.

Its not just the pollution that is the issue - the pavement is incredibly narrow in parts and if you’ve ever walked along with children between Tyson Road and Fairlawn school - or the bottom of Canonbie and the school then you’ll know what I mean. There are narrow sections towards the horniman school too and the Cabrini - and I’ve seen Trucks literally skimming past by the busy P4 bus stops …

As I think someone mentioned - people have been hit by wing mirrors - and there is a very small margin for error on those pavements. I luckily don’t walk to school from that direction - ie the narrow sections - but it fills me with dread when I do, especially when the larger trucks rumble past (normally at quite a speed).

Welcome to London, a city built for horse and cart.

to be fair - I walk and cycle around quite a lot and I this road has pretty narrow dangerous parts (narrow strip of pavement at the bottom of Westwood Park?) given the amount of oversized vehicles that come through - and given the amount of kids on the pavement … Honor Oak Park is similar (as they turn right out of Honor Oak Road in the cut through from the south circular) - narrow tilted pavement on the Southwark side and speeding trucks. Am quite aware that it built with horse and cart in mind though…

When I was a lad - the west side of the road wasn’t even paved between the petrol station and Westwood Park. There were no zebra crossings, no pedestrian refuges, no speed bumps, and no bus stops.

A agree that the pavement close to Fairlawn is not really wide enough for the level of use by children and HGVs, but then I would say the same about the south circular (opposite Sainsburys) which is not a lot wider and has considerably more HGV.

The section of pavement on Honor Oak Road outside Hill House (bottom of Westwood Park) is completely unsuitable for children and should be used with extreme caution by adults. But I doubt there is any solution unless somebody fancies demolishing this listing house.