This campaign wants to make Elephant and Castle safer for all who travel there: pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. The busy roads around the Elephant and Castle are dangerous. The subways are not where these deaths and accidents take place because they are 100% for pedestrians, 100% free of motor vehicles. We believe some of the collisions between pedestrians and road users could be avoided if the subways were improved and made more welcoming. Community Wardens have in 2014 confirmed to this campaign that the subways are seldom crime scenes which are instead more likely at surface level in the vicinity of the roundabout

The death in October 2012 of a five year old boy on St George's Road at a surface level crossing a hundred metres beyond the roundabout triggered local campaigners to come together and make the case for a Safer and More Liveable Elephant across a wide area - from the Walworth Road up to Lambeth North and St George's Circus, beyond the roundabout and the area served by these subways. The campaign is lead by Jeremy Leach, Chair of Southwark Living Streets. The recommendations can be downloaded here. The accident took place where there was no subterranean option for crossing.

We were invited to contribute to the Southwark Living Streets' document and all our inclusions were added. These ranged from repairing roadside lighting at St George's Circus to correcting the way the document presented accident data as well as a section on the subways: better lighting, better signage, fresh paint and a clean. Read the full campaign document here. The campaign has gathered over 2000 signatures, most from Jeremy's day long street side vigil by the LCC on 16 November.

The Safer Elephant campaign does however unfortunately seriously threaten the subways' survival despite their inclusion within the recommendations because the Safer Elephant's headline proposals - which were used to gather support online and to gain publicity (such as the children's posters) - focus on requesting traffic speed reduction and more surface level crossings without reference to the subways - a plan inline with TfL's new design. Mr Leach campaigns vigorously for the destruction of subways from his home in Walworth. His Safer Elephant campaign even got children to paint traffic lights to emotively press for Southwark Living Street's pet passion for more of them at the Elephant despite a traffic light crossing being the location of the carnage that had triggered the campaign! Please do not rely on the Safer Elephant petition to save our subways. Please sign our petition to have your voice heard.

© Save Our Subways 2012 - 2014