Low Traffic Neighbourhoods Proposals in East and West Greenwich – DEADLINE EXTENDED to 6 OCTOBER

I am appalled by both the new proposals which prevent local cars from going north up Maze Hill over the railway bridge. I am 82 years old and live in Annandale Road and I currently make daily trips in my car which involve turning left out of Annandale Road and up Vanbrugh Hill for a variety of reasons. These trips involve going to my vet in Humber Road, collecting my grandson from school in Stratheden Road, shopping at the Standard shopping centre, visiting my disabled sister and various friends in the Westcombe Park area, buying plants at various garden centres etc, etc,. The list is far too long to continue.For most of these activities a car is essential. I am still reasonably mobile but cannot use the bus for any activity which involves carrying heavy loads and it would clearly be impossible to take my cat to the Humber Road vet except by car. I would like to stress that I am an essential cog in my family’s childcare and am regularly involved in collecting grandsons from Blackheath, Lee and Eltham and all these trips involve using my car.
Both new proposals,as far as I can see, would prevent me from quick and easy access to a route out of Annandale Road by turning north and would require me instead to go down onto the Woolwich Road and use the A2,exiting at the Sun in the Sands roundabout. This is a route which I try to avoid at all costs because I find the traffic terrifying.The route involves huge lorries and cars travelling at crazy speeds which i am not used to as all local traffic on my normal roads is travelling between 20-30mph. I used this route recently as a trial before commenting on the proposals and it was just as terrifying as I had imagined and I found that I was driving for about £ times as long to reach the shops at the Standard as if I had taken my normal route. Does this make sense from a pollution point of view? Cars forced to spend three times longer in traffic? Mad.
Apart from fearing the traffic on the A2 slip road, I also find the Sun in the Sands Roundabout a terrible hazard and something which I normally avoid. I can cope with it when turning left towards the Old Dover Road turn-off, but if I am trying to turn right in order to collect any of my grandsons from school or go towards Blackheath then obviously I am forced to circumnavigate the whole roundabout and this is likely to be a daily necessity.
Apart from all the above constraints on my freedom, I strongly object to the whole principle of forcing residents of roads below the railway line APART from the Westcombe Park Community!! I have lived in roads around the Heath for the last 50 years(mainly in Eliot Hill and Hardy Road) and all my activities and friends are north of the railway line but now I feel that….for no good reason…the council is proposing to severely limit my liberty and force me to change the habits of a lifetime.
Overal, I strongly object to any proposals which restrict traffic from going up Vanbrugh Hill, particularly as the main problem in the area is the volume of traffic going DOWN the hill.