Old Kent Road: 'no room' for continuous cycle lanes
Southwark Council is to ask Transport for London to reconsider plans for segregated cycle lanes on the Old Kent Road amid concerns that they would not run continuously along the full length of the road.
At Tuesday's meeting Southwark Council's cabinet formally resolved to have further talks with Transport for London about cycle routes along – and parallel to – the Old Kent Road.
The discussion came during consideration of the latest iteration of the council's Old Kent Road Area Action Plan (OKRAAP) document.
Southwark Council leader Cllr Kieron Williams said: "One of the things I saw in the early documents was the proposals around Old Kent Road itself and attempting to squeeze in better bus services and wider pavements and segregated cycle lanes. That all seemed a stretch too far in many ways."
Cllr Williams added: "I really encourage us to go back to TfL and look again at making sure we're doing things right along the Old Kent Road.
"One of the things I see as I travel, not just around London but around the country, is bits of cycle lane that begin and end not connected to anything.
"We need to avoid that kind of infrastructure, making sure we're investing in the infrastructure that's really going to create that fantastic network, and I know this plan has lots of that in.
"Personally I'm not convinced the bits on Old Kent Road are the exciting bits of that; the other bits seem to be the bits that are really doing the job well."
Colin Wilson, Southwark's head of strategic development and Old Kent Road regeneration, told the cabinet meeting:" For the past six years, TfL have been developing options for creating a healthy high street along the Old Kent Road.
"They don't have capital funding and covid knocked that whole process, so it was put on hold for two years.
"Their options look at that balance of buses, pedestrians and cyclists, and they also look at the practicalities of delivering that along the Old Kent Road, because sections of it, for instance the northern section, are still very much the old Victorian high street, where you can't physically fit in both the bus and segregated cycle lanes, but other in bits of it you can achieve that.
"So the options that TfL have been looking at are a mix of those things along the length of the Old Kent Road."
Mr Wilson added: "Cllr Williams, as you point out, the plan is to create quieter routes parallel to the Old Kent Road, and a good example of that is the current Tustin Estate redevelopment, which contributes a part of that quiet route...
"We are collecting monies both through section 106 and section 278 agreements, which will enable sections of bus and segregated cycle lanes to be delivered on parts of the Old Kent Road.
"I think they will probably come a bit later, and they will probably come in phases, but both we and TfL recognise that you can't do the whole of the Old Kent Road and keep the conservation areas and heritage buildings that we would like to see."
