Devonshire Road is closed at the junction with the south circular

It's beautiful; very quiet. No rat-runners because Devonshire Rd is closed, and no trains coming through because of the 'sinkhole' at Forest Hill station.

This post was last modified: 19-07-2016 10:14 PM by Devonish Forester.

Especially as no lorries are going through there and using it as a rat run from Forest hill to Honor oak park station.

Yes I expect all the lorries are now travelling along Honor Oak road - see below.

It appears to be open for the weekend at least- they don't seem to have finished yet though.

This post was last modified: 22-07-2016 09:50 PM by annsquire66.

What were they doing, just re-surfacing the road, or making the junction smaller to prevent two cars lining up at the edge of the junction to turn left or right?

If that is the case it will be even more difficult getting out of Devonshire road. Have they seen the queue of traffic lining up Devonshire road the rush hour and the school run. Queuing goes as far back as Drakes court, near Ewelme road.

This post was last modified: 23-07-2016 06:46 AM by Poppet2.

If I recall correctly, the original consultation mentioned improving visibility for drivers leaving Devonshire Road after several collisions with cyclists. They are creating a raised table which should also help pedestrians crossing there.

I did raise your point about the impact of the changes, potentially only allowing one vehicle out at a time, but was assured it would not be the case. It will be interesting to see the reality once it's finished as I live very close to the junction.

It was nice living in a cul de sac for a few days

Devonshire road is totally unsuitable for large lorries, even more so now that parked cars either side are not allowed to park on the pavement. I wish it wasn't used as a rat run.

annsquire66 wrote:

Ann, was there a consultation? Please could you give more detail: who, when, where?

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Why shouldn't the closure be permanent? You live in a conservation area on a narrow unclassified residential road. I think of a conservation area as being a double-sided obligation: householders are obliged to maintain property according to particular rules: the Council is supposed to maintain an appropriate sympathetic environment. The section of Devonshire that is in the FH conservation area is absolutely unsuitable for the volume of traffic that comes through.

Based on my email exchange which I have largely copied below, consultation was done by Andrew Cassidy of Tfl surface transport department in June 2015. Letter with diagrams through the door I think.

Some of my comments were...

And his reply was...

Thank you Ann, for the detailed info.

With regard to your suggestion:

There seems to be a lack of trials and impact assessments generally. I have asked Lewisham for surveys and studies relating to earlier decisions in Forest Hill, but they tell me they haven't got anything at all.

I hope Lewisham is taking advantage of the Devonshire Road closures to assess closing the junction permanently, or introducing other measures to reduce the traffic.