We demand immediate removal of the road blockages in Southwark and for Southwark Council to carry out a full public consultation before implementing road blockages should there be overwhelming support for this.

Without prior consultation or any notification whatsoever Southwark Council has implemented substantial road closures throughout the borough which they claim they have done to help child obesity and to reduce pollution in the borough. This is not working as traffic has increased substantially in the remaining roads, making car journeys much longer, with standstill traffic increasing air pollution substantially for residents and kids attending school on those roads for example John Ruskin Street especially as many of the kids who go to the school also live close to the school, whilst providing very little benefit to people on the roads which have been blocked as the reduction in pollution for them is insignificant where those roads did not have much traffic in the first place. These road closures are also affecting emergency services who now have to go the long way round and get caught up in traffic which is putting people's lives at risk. It is also affecting residents and businesses who have been boxed in their roads potentially affecting deliveries and house prices, (who wants to move to a road where their sofa will be offloaded 5 minutes down the road).

Apart from the increased pollution on roads such as Walworth Road and John Ruskin Street, the longer car (and bus) journeys caused by people having to go the long way round and Southwark's lack of consultation and now their refusal to listen to our concerns raised at meetings with them is causing frustration and stress which will no doubt have a negative impact on people's health. The only party benefiting from the road closures is Southwark Council who are probably raking in fines from the cameras installed to police their road closures.

Will you please sign this petition to get
Southwark Council to listen to our concerns and remove these unfair and unnecessary road blocks immediately and to carry out a full public consultation before implementing road closures where residents vote overwhelmingly for this and after it has evaluated and planned out how the traffic driven from those roads can be better redirected without causing substantial pollution for residents in the surrounding areas.  If they truly care about child obesity they should also open community and youth centres where they can educate people about child obesity and provide structured exercises and activities to help kids (and parents) become healthier. Thank you.