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Hi David, thanks for this you raise some interesting points and i'll try to answer them as best i can. Apologies for the length of this!Regarding XR being a political movement, it really isnt. XR wil challenge the government on its environmental record, no matter who is in power. Obviously most of us naturally lean towards the green party but i can assure you our tactics would be the same if Labour were in power.In regards to civil disobedience, we will of course have to disagree on this. The reason it is used as a tactic is because after decades of marches, protests etc we are still facing a climate emergency and a 6th mass extinction.The 'priviliged people' aspect is absolutely an issue and something that XR is attempting to address. Certainly everyone who has manned a barrier this week in Putney is white and we would love to have more PoC people join us. XR has a perception issue though that we need to change before that can happen. I can tell you that i have a full time job as does one other person, another XR person is retired, another works at a school and one works part time. The people who have helped us this week (not XR) are either retired, parents or working from home so they can nip out and help.You are right, pretty much every school in Putney has traffic issues, we are helping out at Hotham and OLOV because they asked the council for help and that help has been slow in coming. I'm not directly critisizing the council here, its a big beast and can take time to get moving, we just saw something that we could help with quickly. Their are 4 other schools in Wandsworth that are receiving help from XR with their traffic issues incidentally.

Matt Palmer ● 1838d

I'm one of the XR people blocking the roads. We have blocked the junction with Charlwood road and Hotham and the junction with Clarendon drive and Gamlen road during school drop off and pick up times.I'm sure everyone would agree that its impossible to practice social distancing on these streets with their narrow pavements once an car drives down the road.The council agreed some weeks ago that the streets should be blocked during those times but have so far failed to implement anything. We spent two weeks recording the traffic levels and then offered to the heads of OLOV and Hotham schools that we could block the roads for them, they were really keen so we stared blocking the roads yesterday.Before taking any action we spoke to every resident we could on the streets and also warned the very few parents who drop off their kids by car. We had no complaints at all.We are of course allowing residents through along with customers of the EL clinic and the RSPCA. In addition if there is a need for a vehicle to get through then we allow it. This afternoon an Uber driver was allowed through to pick up an elderly resident.So far the response from parents has been 100% positive. The police we called this morning by a resident just outside the zone, when the police arrived a number of parents came over and told the police that what we were doing was a really good thing.Although this started off as an XR action we have since had a number of parents and local residents join us. We are hopeful that the council will take note and shortly make this an official school street.Until then the plan is the roads will continue to be blocked during pick up and drop off times.If anyone has any specific concerns about this please feel free to email xrhoneybees@protonmail.com so we can discuss.

Matt Palmer ● 1841d