Councillor Rezina Chowdhury also said an extension to that cycle route across Streatham Common was not being considered, in a response to questions asked by StreathamStuff. But her emailed answers didn’t seek to rule out cycling across the common, unlike comments made by her fellow deputy leader and Labour councillor Danny Adilypour.

“The healthy route is proposed to end at the southern junction of Valley Road,” Cllr Chowdhury, who is the Labour councillor for Streatham Hill East and is in charge of Lambeth’s transport, said of the Peckham-to-Streatham project, signposted as Cycleway 48.

Demand for cycling is sufficient to justify a cycle route as far as the common, she said – and safety measures to protect cyclists from other vehicles would be required.

“There is already demand for cycling in the Streatham Wells area and Valley Road is a dangerous road. It is the council’s duty that we do what we can to keep people safe.”

Valley Road carries too much traffic to qualify as “healthy”, without separating cyclists from other vehicles. Lambeth used to quote a traffic limit of 200 motor vehicles an hour – it has now clarified that it is using TfL’s upper limit for two-way flows of 500 vehicles per hour, in peak hours. But Valley Road can still carry double that volume.

A separate cycle lane could be installed, but would require significant investment. A closure, or partial closure, of Valley Road to through-traffic would be a cheaper option – and would reinstall the central plank of the infamous Streatham Wells low-traffic neighbourhood, which was scrapped five months into its trial period in March 2024.

Liberal Democrat candidates for the Streatham Wells and Streatham Common and Vale wards have said they are opposed to the return of that LTN scheme. Labour candidates in those wards will inevitably face questions about their party’s plans, in the run-up to council elections in May.

Where next?

A map on the Lambeth council website had earlier shown a proposed extension of the Peckham to Streatham “healthy route”, from the southern end of Valley Road, straight across the common and onward to the boundary with the borough of Croydon. But that map has now been edited to show only the approved sections, ending on Sunnyhill Road at its Valley Road junction.

“High level analysis of potential corridors is used to guide our focus, but proposals are only developed after careful investigation. There are no proposals for a cycle lane across the common under consideration,” Cllr Chowdhury said.

Lambeth deputy leader Danny Adilypour, whose ward includes Streatham Common and the southern end of Valley Road, had said earlier that responsibility for the plans lay with Transport for London, writing on social media: “There is no plan to build a cycle lane across the common, TfL would have to consult the council and residents if they did bring forward a plan and the council would not support the path across the common being used for this.” The published map was from a TfL “scoping document”, he said.

In a further response on Tuesday, he said: “There is no proposal for a cycle lane of any description going across the common. The healthy route is proposed to end at Valley Road and there is no plan or proposal to extend it beyond this.

“The council would also not support any future proposal for a cycle lane of any description across the common, were such a proposal to be made. This is the current technical position of council officers, the political position of the lead cabinet member [Cllr Chowdhury] and the local position of all three ward councillors.” Streatham Common and Vale is represented by three Labour councillors.

Neither Cllr Chowdhury nor Cllr Adilypour has made any suggestions for how a “healthy route” might instead continue beyond the end of Valley Road, from its junction with Streatham Common North – which also carries far too much traffic to qualify as healthy, without a dedicated cycle lane.