Local Liberal Democrats held discussions with Transport for London at City Hall last week to ask for action to tackle what they describe as “daily gridlock” on Jamaica Road and the Rotherhithe peninsula.

Lib Dem councillors and representatives from Simon Hughes MP’s office attended the talks last week, hosted by Leader of the City Hall Liberal Democrats Caroline Pidgeon AM.

TfL used the meeting to discuss early ideas for changes at the roundabout after on-going complaints about queues going into Rotherhithe tunnel blocking access.

Local councillors have said they are pleased that action is finally being taken to look at this junction but expressed concern that work would not be done until 2015. As well as pushing TfL to do the work faster, they suggested ideas to ease the situation in the meantime.

Liberal Democrat councillors from Rotherhithe argued that right turns should be allowed from Lower Road into Surrey Quays Road as this would reduce the volume of traffic needed to come up and go around the roundabout.

And the Bermondsey councillors say that they pushed TfL to look at the junctions on Jamaica Road, such as St James Road and Abbey Street, where there are currently no yellow boxes to stop cars entering when the road is blocked. They also asked TfL to look at allowing right hand turns into West Lane as this may help with some of the congestion.

“It’s good news that TfL have started looking at new designs for the Rotherhithe roundabout,” said Cllr David Hubber.

“Local Liberal Democrats will continue to push them to take action sooner rather than later to get this problem dealt with. We are on the side of local residents and commuters who want to see this sorted out as soon as possible.”