No to Roehampton no-right-turns
Over two and a half years ago, in March 2006, Roehampton's Labour Council candidates and I were raising serious questions about plans by local Conservatives to prevent right-turns from Roehampton Lane into Ponsonby Road and Medfield Street. Here's what we wrote at the time, posing the questions the Tories had no answer to - then or now:
We were concerned that the 460 cars an hour that would be displaced - figures the Tories were bandying about at the time - would only serve to send this traffic up Roehampton High Street and Rodway Road; hardly a good idea in itself nor one that would help deal with the genuine problem of rat-running through Roehampton Village.
Two years later and those plans are back again. Nothing has changed, except of course that the now opening of the 400+ home Queen Mary's Place will add hundreds of extra car movements to Roehampton Lane which cannot cope with them, thus increasing further the number of rat-runners through Roehampton and onto the Dover House estate. And the Tories' supermarket plans for Danebury Avenue will add hundreds more.
There is a strong case for banning right turns into Ponsonby Road: it's very narrow; it contains a school and a church.
Tackling non-residential traffic through the Dover House estate was the origin of the plans to deter rat-running and I agree with the Dover House Residents Association (DHERA) that this is a problem that needs addressing. But it should only be addressed by action that will work. This scheme is not that: it's bureacratic tinkering brought about by political pressure from the Conservative Party.
Unless cars cannot get from Roehampton Lane to Dover House Road they will continue to rat-run, putting unacceptable strain on the roads that have not been closed off. Just transferring the problem from one street to another is not effective action: it is just another example of the "let's be seen to do something...anything" gimmick we have come to expect from Putney Conservatives.
Both Roehampton Village and the Dover House Estate deserve better.
We were concerned that the 460 cars an hour that would be displaced - figures the Tories were bandying about at the time - would only serve to send this traffic up Roehampton High Street and Rodway Road; hardly a good idea in itself nor one that would help deal with the genuine problem of rat-running through Roehampton Village.
Two years later and those plans are back again. Nothing has changed, except of course that the now opening of the 400+ home Queen Mary's Place will add hundreds of extra car movements to Roehampton Lane which cannot cope with them, thus increasing further the number of rat-runners through Roehampton and onto the Dover House estate. And the Tories' supermarket plans for Danebury Avenue will add hundreds more.
There is a strong case for banning right turns into Ponsonby Road: it's very narrow; it contains a school and a church.
Tackling non-residential traffic through the Dover House estate was the origin of the plans to deter rat-running and I agree with the Dover House Residents Association (DHERA) that this is a problem that needs addressing. But it should only be addressed by action that will work. This scheme is not that: it's bureacratic tinkering brought about by political pressure from the Conservative Party.
Unless cars cannot get from Roehampton Lane to Dover House Road they will continue to rat-run, putting unacceptable strain on the roads that have not been closed off. Just transferring the problem from one street to another is not effective action: it is just another example of the "let's be seen to do something...anything" gimmick we have come to expect from Putney Conservatives.
Both Roehampton Village and the Dover House Estate deserve better.
Labels: councillors, Roehampton, Roehampton Village, transport
posted by Stuart King at
00:15
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