The 484 and 172 among London's busiest buses

The London Assembly transport committee has identified two Brockley bus routes (the 484 and 172) as being among the top 10 most crowded routes in the capital, according to a passenger survey. In a report issued last month, the committee examined how the system will be able to cope with continued passenger growth - 4% growth in the last ten years, with 7% growth predicted in the next 10):

The committee calls for the Mayor to publish a new strategy to show how London will respond to growing demand and makes a number of recommendations of its own, although they mainly amount to "run a good bus service". You can read the report here. The results of the survey should mean that the 484 and 172 (and South East London bus routes in general) receive particular attention.

With thanks to Laura.

Mayor calls in Convoys Wharf

The Mayor of London has called-in the £1 billion plan to redevelop Convoys Wharf in Deptford after the developer Hutchison Whampoa lost patience with Lewisham Council over the protracted decision-making process. Building Design reports:

Hutchison Whampoa lost patience with the local authority, accusing it of making “unreasonable and unwarranted” demands and of pushing the scheme’s viability “to its limits”.

It wrote to the GLA in October, just a week after its executive director, Edmond Ho, sent a letter to the head of planning at Lewisham expressing his frustration.

“After more than five years, firstly with our previous masterplanners Aedas and then with Farrells, we simply cannot comprehend how you can now choose to prolong the decision process further,” Ho said. “We fail to see any justification for such a major strategic project suffering further unnecessary delay.”

This week Johnson, whose design advisers include Terry Farrell himself, agreed to take over as planning authority for the 3,500-home scheme which will see three towers built on the site of Henry VIII’s naval dockyard and Sayes Court, the home of 17th-century diarist and gardener John Evelyn.

He praised Lewisham’s recent record on housing but said: “In this particular case the planning history over the long term and particularly over the past year or so indicate that the breakdown in relationship between the council and the applicant is such that I am not satisfied that you will be able to reach a timely planning determination in respect of the current planning application for this important site.”

Opponents of the scheme are right to criticise its lack of respect for the site's history and the worryingly poor transport access to the site, but this saga has dragged on for an inordinate amount of time - meanwhile, lack of housing supply in London pushes prices higher and higher.

Boris "seriously looking at the Bakerloo extension"

Mayor Boris Johnson has confirmed that he is giving serious consideration to a Bakerloo Line extension through South East London. In today's #askboris Q&A, he responded to a question about tube provision in south London:

yes, seriously looking at Bakerloo line extension #askboris @opearman
— Boris Johnson (@MayorofLondon) September 23, 2013

This is the second bit of positive noise Boris has made about the idea this year. And while we understand that these utterances need to be taken with a huge dollop of salt, we've argued for a while that although the Bakerloo line is nominally lower down the priority list than the likes of Crossrail 2, it's also a relatively cheap and easy way of expanding London's transport capacity, in a way that might become appealing to our opportunistic Mayor.

While mega-projects like Crossrail and Thameslink take decades, everyone has taken note of what the relatively cheap and easy ELL upgrade achieved. The Northern Line extension to Battersea is set to do something similar. A Mayor in search of a quick win could do worse than extend the Bakerloo through Southwark to Lewisham.

With thanks to Monkeyboy.

Sink the South Circular!

The Evening Standard reports that the Mayor of London's transport advisers are recommending that the South Circular should be driven underground, to free up more space on the surface and make the areas it travels through more pleasant to live and breathe in.

The plan is part of a series of recommendations, budgeted at £30bn, to improve road transport while tackling problems like air pollution and making better use of London's limited space. The Standard says:

The bold proposal is greater in ambition than the current £15 billion Crossrail project under the capital and is the most eye-catching plan from the influential Roads Taskforce.

It is the first strategic review for decades of London’s roads which Boris Johnson believes have been overlooked even though they account for 80 per cent of passenger trips. Sources stress the tunnelling is not designed to make way for more cars but to improve the space at ground level for pedestrians, cyclists and parks while improving the environment by cutting vehicle emissions.

They insist a radical solution is needed. Central London has lost 30 per cent of its capacity for motor vehicles in a decade to schemes such as cycle lanes and pedestrianisation. The task is made urgent because London’s population is forecast to grow by 1.25 million by 2031, adding 14 per cent to road congestion.

Much though the good folk of Forest Hill bridle at any suggestion that the South Circular spoils their home, the leaden scar it carves through this part of London is a big problem and the respiratory problems caused by car pollution alone demand a radical approach. The £30bn cost of the project could be significantly offset by using the reclaimed land for residential and commercial purposes.

TfL is now due to look at the proposals.

Catford Dogs Homes get go ahead

The Mayor of London's office announces:

More than a thousand jobs and 500 new homes will be created in Lewisham through the redevelopment of the former Catford Greyhound Stadium, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced today.

The £117m redevelopment will bring 589 new homes to the 4.7 hectare site in the heart of Lewisham under a deal reached between the Mayor and developer Barratt London [the developers of "Renaissance Lewisham" and a client of BC's employers]. When finished, this will include 113 affordable rent properties which will be managed by Gallions Housing Association, 60 shared ownership properties and 416 properties for private ownership.

The publicly owned stadium has been released by the Mayor as part of his drive to unlock development on public sector owned land in order to increase housing supply for hard working Londoners and boost jobs and growth. It is amongst the first tranche of sites released by the Greater London Authority since it became one of the capital’s largest public land owners last year.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “London’s unbeatable allure means unprecedented demand for housing, and making public land available for development has a big part to play in meeting this. The transformation of Catford Dogs, which for the last decade has been left empty and unused, will not only bring hundreds of new homes to the heart of London, but will feed into the wider regeneration of Catford Town Centre making it an even better place to live and injecting a healthy new dose of jobs and growth into one of the capital’s key opportunity areas.”

The former dog track sits between two key transport hubs, Catford Bridge and Catford railway station, and when complete will also boast 508 sq m of retail space, 298 sq m of community space as well as landscaped links through the site to Ladywell Fields and Catford Town Centre. Work is expected to begin by early 2014 and the project is expected to be complete by 2017.

Alastair Baird, Barratt London Regional Managing Director, added: “'We are delighted to be working with the Mayor on this exciting project.  This is the fifth site we have secured in the capital in the last six months, bringing a total of 1,800 new homes to London.  The site at Catford will add to our already significant presence in the Borough of Lewisham, with our redevelopment of the town centre – Renaissance – which will provide a total of 788 new homes together with a new leisure centre due to open shortly.”

The transformation of Catford Stadium, which has been unused for the last ten years and sits within one of London’s key opportunity areas  and will provide  a major catalyst for future regeneration potential in Catford Town Centre. Lewisham Council have outlined a number of redevelopment opportunities including the redevelopment of Catford Shopping Centre and plans to work with TfL to improve the transport network in the town centre.

Deputy Mayor of Lewisham and Cabinet Member for Regeneration Cllr Alan Smith says: “It is very good news for Catford that this site is finally to be developed. The additional homes and jobs will be very welcome in this part of Lewisham, and the development will sit well alongside our own plans for the rebuilding and improvement of Catford Town Centre.”

Barratt London is among the 25 developers announced last week to sit on the Mayor’s brand new land procurement group, the London Development Panel, which has been set up to accelerate the delivery of housing in London by making it faster, easier and cheaper for public land owners to bring forward land for development.

The former Catford Greyhound Stadium site was transferred to the GLA from the HCA as part of the devolution of power to the Mayor under the Localism Act 2011. The land was acquired by English Partnerships, a predecessor body of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), in March 2004 from Network Rail and the National Greyhound Association.

Boris: Bakerloo line extension's time has come

The Standard reports:

Boris Johnson today raised hopes of extending the Bakerloo line further into south-east London by describing it as a £2 billion project whose “time has come”. 

The Mayor confirmed his wish to take the line from Elephant and Castle to Camberwell and Peckham and probably overground to Bromley after pressure from Labour-run Southwark council. 

Precise routes have yet to be confirmed and it could take more than a decade to secure funding. [Southwark Council leader] Mr John, who was told by the Mayor that “it’s a deal” when he lobbied him at a property conference in Cannes, said it was important to get the scheme included in Transport for London’s masterplan for 2020. TfL is working with Southwark and Lewisham to examine the potential for the extension “unlocking” other developments. 

Mr Johnson said: “It is the new extension of the Northern line that is making possible the development of Battersea. We can do the same for south-east London.”

There are several possible routes that have been touted, including one that would stop at Brockley Station, as this image posted on South East Central illustrates:

Other possible routes could take the line through Honor Oak or New Cross (to see more discussion about possible routes on the Nunhead forum, click here).

A Bakerloo Line extension is low-hanging fruit for the Mayor and this is a welcome change of rhetoric. Relatively cheap and easy to deliver (by the standards of mass-transit projects), serving an area of enormous economic potential, extending a line that stops short at Elephant & Castle and is therefore unbalanced in terms of passenger volumes. The Bakerloo would fill the gap between Crossrails 1 and 2 and address one of the biggest holes on the London transport map. It will happen.

Two new Lewisham pocket parks created

A press release from the Mayor of London's office says:

From fruit and veg patches to water features, work is beginning on the first of the Mayor’s 100 ‘pocket parks’ – transforming underused urban spaces into mini oases across the capital in a £2m scheme.

‘Pocket Parks’, which are around the size of a tennis court, are set to reinvent some of London’s forgotten nooks and crannies and make the capital an even better place to live and work.

In Lewisham, thanks to £67,000 from the Mayor, new planting, trails, seating and lighting, will create two ‘pocket parks’. Blackheath Elliot Pits will feature sensory equipment, a Trim Trail adventure, and a play space to educate children about the pits’ ecological importance. Sydenham Literary Piazza will be a space to sit, read and reflect and link Sydenham road with Home Park, encouraging cycling and improving safety.

All 100 ‘pocket parks’ are due to be delivered by March 2015. A further funding round for community based projects will open in May.

This is also part of the Mayor’s Team London programme which is seeking to build a volunteering legacy following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by encouraging Londoners to do something great for their city.