LORDSHIP LANE, NOT MEMORY LANE

Everyone is agreed that we want to get London moving but what's the point of making traffic flow faster if we can't stop anywhere once we have got where we want to go. People have destinations in mind ­ they don't simply get in their cars and drive round and round in circles, non-stop, before returning home.

Movement for London is not just about getting people smoothly into and out of the City and the West End. We also need access to our own local communities.

London is as much a collection of villages as it is a metropolis yet across the capital once thriving secondary shopping streets have been killed stone dead by red routes and bus routes.

Just look at the sea of shops to let signs in once prosperous places like Forest Hill. And it isn't just motorists who suffer as a result of undue restrictions: shop closures deprive the entire community and especially affect the elderly and less mobile. They kill small business off ­ with resultant bankruptcies and job losses -­ while putting even more money in the pockets of such big business interests as Sainsburys, Tesco and the other superstores, with their on-site parking but lack of personalised service and genuine community involvement.

Residents and traders alike in East Dulwich's Lordship Lane ­ an eclectic mix of restaurants, cafés, small shops and specialist stores ­ are determined that they will not let plans for a Route 185 bus lane wreck the two decades of dedication and hard work which have brought this street back from the brink of dereliction into being a much-loved, much used shopping street.

The proposal would mean no parking from 7am to 7pm. While this would improved traffic flow and thus assist the bus service, the benefit would largely be for outsiders passing through rather than for those who live and work locally.

Ashwin Tanna, a Lordship Lane trader for 28 years and a man who polled more than 51,000 votes through his entirely self-funded campaign in the London mayoral elections, puts its succinctly:

"Of course, something must be done to help traffic flow to improve along the street and a rush hours only bus lane would have its merits but the proposal for a 12 hours a day operation would create a red route in all but name and is way over the top. It would very soon turn Lordship Lane into a ghost town."

"What we need is a far more sensible and balanced approach which takes into account the needs of locals as well as those using the street as a through route.

There are alternatives, like introducing the filter in turn system which works so well in the Channel Islands and stops the creation of bottle neckswhere everyone is trying to fight their way onto a roundabout like the oneat Goose Green which creates most of Lordship Lane's congestion.

"People are both selfish and shortsighted when it comes to solving our traffic problems. Mayor Ken Livingstone's road charge proposal for instance is simply a way of taxing poorer people off the roads, making them even more disadvantaged. It implies that rich people's pollution is ok while that of less well-off people is not. Surely a simpler, fairer answer would be an access rationing scheme?

"Then there's the thorny question of resident only parking, which has been mooted in the past for the streets off Lordship Lane. This would be a disaster all round. Having a permit doesn't guarantee you a parking space -as, to raise money in an easy way, the council will be tempted to issue more permits than there is parking availability. And what about your visitors? Where are they to park?

"Those who think they are well served by having a residents parking permit should think of this: every time they go on a journey they end up parked outside someone else's front door (unless they are fortunate enough to find some off-street parking). If everyone ends up with a permit for their own street where will everyone park when they go on a journey?

"People must realise that things like bus lanes and residents only parking have to be maintained and monitored and both these are expensive. So who is going to foot the bill?"

Ashwin is right. Somehow, the powers that be are missing the point. The private car is here to stay. Yes, we want to get more people onto public transport but this worthy aim is not best served by persecuting motorists.

Instead, provide them with affordable parking at feeder tube and railway stations and they'll use the car just for the first, difficult part of the journey. Keep local shopping streets alive, with sensible parking arrangements and you will avoid shoppers having to make far longer journeys to reach some faceless shopping mall or superstore.