DPHN Joint Action
The DPHN Joint Action group comprises fourteen neighbourhood groups from across the Highgate, Dartmouth Park and Kentish Town areas. See https://dphnjointaction.com/supporters/ The group met on 16th November and 25 people attended to share perspectives across these areas. The updated www.dphnjointaction.com website, leafleting, fund raising and building an email list for future communications were all discussed. Further meetings will take place when needed.
DPHN Joint Action is a group of local organisations seeking public transparency and information sharing in relation to the Dartmouth Park Healthy Neighbourhood (DPHN) traffic proposals. Whatever each group’s own views there has been common agreement that the explanations and purpose of the traffic scheme are hard to understand and the consultation period over the summer was badly timed and too short. We launched a petition on behalf of DPHN Joint Action in July calling on Camden and Islington Councils to “Extend the Dartmouth Park LTN consultation deadline” beyond the 18th August deadline. The petition was finally heard on 11 November and the report is here. We also held a public meeting in September at La Sainte Union School attended by 300 people in the hall and on line.
In order to support the Joint Action group, the Highgate Society created the www.dphnjointaction.com website as a platform for sharing contributions from local groups.
Our own Highgate Society response has been driven by our Community objective of “Making Highgate a better place to live and work”. Consultation and communication are key, and we feel it is important that communities are united and not divided, with residents of one road barely speaking to those of another road.
We have received over 300 pages of emails, many expressing bewilderment at the proposals. Many consider the present proposed scheme ignores issues that have been raised in the past, won’t deal with the traffic issues that undoubtedly exist on some roads, and risk making the situation worse. There are some, a minority in our postbox, who have welcomed the scheme. Our concern is the proposals could make quiet roads quieter and busy roads busier, disrupting residents’ lives in numerous ways. So we’ve also engaged a professional transport consultant to review and critique the scheme and through local councillors have sought introductions to officers in both Camden and Haringey with the aim of establishing a constructive way forward.
We recognise the importance of honest and constructive engagement and so have been in discussions with both Camden and Haringey councillors. In particular we believe that the whole Highgate Neighbourhood Plan area needs to be considered together, and so are working together with the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum.
To meet the costs involved, we are fundraising. If you can help, please go to the “Donate” button on www.dphnjointaction.com . Donations made via the Joint Action website will be used only for DPHN Joint Action costs. Donations can also be made by bank transfer to:
The Highgate Society
Barclays Bank
Sort code 20-36-16
Account 30044628
Please include as a reference “DPHN donation”.
29 November 2024