The deputy leader of Wandsworth Council has blasted unions for the “devastating” impact on residents of Southern Rail’s series of strikes.

Cllr Jonathan Cook, also the council’s transport spokesman, urged the unions to get back to the negotiating table as “it is only by sitting down with the company and hammering out a deal” that any progress will be made.

He said: “This long running series of strikes has achieved nothing apart from causing unnecessary distress and hardship to ordinary members of the public.

“If these strikes continue then local people who rely on these trains risk losing their jobs and their livelihoods because they simply can’t get into work on time. 

On Monday, November 28 nearly 90 per cent of Southern train drivers voted to strike in a dispute over the operation of train doors.

Aslef, the train driver’s union, believes there should be no introduction of new driver-only operated routes, on which conductors would be given responsibility for doors, as it would pose a safety risk

Southern rail denies this risk. 

Drivers will strike on December 13, 14, and 16, with another strike scheduled from January 9-14. 

Aslef's general secretary Mick Whelan said: "We have genuinely sought to reach a compromise with Southern.

“We have always been prepared to talk to the company and we have always been of the view that it should be possible to do a deal, but it takes two to tango and the company has not been prepared to negotiate.”