Several residents and council officers assembled outside Oliver Goldsmith’s School on Southampton Way at 3pm Thursday 14 June for the walk along the route of the tram as it might enter Peckham town centre. We traced the route along Peckham Road in front of St James’s school and along Jocelyn St to the town square, Peckham Pulse and Peckham Library, across Peckham Hill St and Peckham High St through Morrison’s car park, along Cerise Rd to the multi-storey car park area, which is TfL’s terminus option 2.
We walked under the railway bridge past 133 Rye Lane the entrance to the Peckham Business Park which would be decimated by the depot, along Bournemouth Rd, to Copeland Rd, past the bus garage depot, around the back of BuildBase along Brayard’s Rd, past St Mary Magdalene primary school, and back along Consort Rd to the railway bridge, where one tram would enter or exit the depot every two minutes, stopping the main flow of north/south road traffic. From 133 Rye Lane to the railway bridge we had walked the boundary of site 63P/71P, designated for the tram depot. Most there were surprised at how very large the area is that would be closed off for the depot, even though they had seen the maps.
Afterwards we adjourned to the Peckham Programme office to review our findings. We put together a very useful detailed list of all the issues and questions raised by the options we had explored on the ground, including several not mentioned by TfL. We compiled a good list of points to take to the next Tram Working Group meeting on Monday 16th July 6.30pm. For further information on this meeting contact Liza on liza.morshead@southwark.gov.uk.