Background
In January 2023, Project Centre launched their first consultation for the London Borough of Lewisham’s Sustainable Streets programme.
The programme reimagined roads and streets across the borough to reduce congestion as well as improve road safety, to create an attractive space for people to walk, cycle and socialise.
Lewisham has registered 75 per cent of roads across the borough as having unrestricted parking, the highest of any inner London borough. Therefore, the Council knew that improving parking management and introducing more sustainable transport measures were crucial for reducing the number of unnecessary car journeys and supporting a shift towards active travel.
The Sustainable Streets programme
Controlled parking zones (CPZs) are a powerful tool to discourage commuter traffic and short car journeys. CPZs are more beneficial when combined with the delivery of other measures to enable and encourage sustainable travel.  
The Sustainable Streets programme proposed:
- Better uses of road space and pavements
- On-street parking management, including the introduction of CPZs
- Introduction of more trees, secure cycle stands and electric vehicle charging points
- Road safety measures
The consultation process
The first consultation phase included briefings with local stakeholders, sharing the programme’s overview and objectives. Over 22 organisations joined the virtual briefings, including active travel campaigners, emergency services, local schools and community organisations.
This consultation phase focused on Catford Park and Deptford, where Project Centre delivered:
- Feasibility studies, including using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to identify priority areas
- On-street inventory surveys to identify suitable locations for sustainable streets measures
- Preliminary AutoCAD concept designs, which addressed local concerns and could be used for public consultation
Our engagement team delivered the designs to all properties in scope, alongside a before and after visualisation of what the streets could look like as well as the programme’s aims and objectives. The leaflets were translated in multiple languages and formats, to ensure accessibility. Animated before and after visuals were also shared across the Council’s social media platforms.
During the consultation:  
- The team spoke with over 500 people at ten pop-up sessions, enabling members of the community to ask questions about the proposed designs.  
- We conducted 50 visits to speak directly with businesses about the proposals.   
- We door-knocked over 350 properties in areas with low response rates to ensure they had the information required to participate in the consultation.  
- We used traditional and digital channels to share information about the consultation – we received over 3,800 responses to the online survey, with 240 people completing hard copies.
The consultation closed in March 2023, with over 2,691 responses received from the Catford/Crofton Park area and 663 received across Deptford. Using PowerBI, our team developed a real-time spatial analysis of the Sustainable Streets’ support levels. We also used this information to identify low response rate areas to target door-knocking and communications activities.   
The consultation outcomes
After collecting and reviewing the data, in July 2023, we prepared and submitted recommendations to the Mayor and Cabinet. These included:
- The introduction of double yellow lines at junctions on all roads across Catford, Crofton Park and Deptford.  
- Full roll out of Sustainable Streets proposals across the Deptford area, with additional car club bays near car-free developments and a high-density business hub, along with some additional visitor parking and loading bays. 
- Full roll out of Sustainable Streets proposals in two smaller areas of Catford and Crofton Park.  
- An update to the Lewisham parking policy to allow disabled parking permit holders to park in any borough CPZ free of charge, minimising the impact of new CPZs on disabled people who use a vehicle to travel around the borough.  
- Consultation on Sustainable Streets to begin in four further neighbourhoods (now underway).
Project Centre will now support the Council to deliver the Sustainable Streets programme in Deptford, Catford and Crofton Park. This includes preparing detailed designs, with implementation started in September 2023.  
With strong leadership at officer and political level, Lewisham has set ambitious delivery targets for the Sustainable Streets programme. The Council now aims to consult the entire borough over the coming years.   
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