Addiscombe residents have noticed an increase in illegal and dangerous driving manoeuvres around the Lebanon Road tram stop since the council’s road changes were introduced in January
A form of road rage has broken out along the usually polite residential streets of Addiscombe, in a simmering dispute between neighbours over the council’s traffic management.
Residents along Lebanon Road and Addiscombe Court Road have been the recipients of leaflets and counter-leaflets in the past fortnight, and for once this was not, at least openly, about any election.
Council leader Tony Newman, left, and Lebanon Road resident Mark Watson
The first pamphlet appeared in the letter boxes of homes along a couple of streets around May 16, with accusations of “Nimby-ism” being fired in the direction of local Labour powerbroker Mark Watson after the road he lives on – Lebanon Road – had been made into a quieter, calmer, one-way route for traffic. Councillor Watson is a member of the Croydon Council cabinet and is known to be part of council leader Tony Newman’s clique of closest colleagues.
The Lebanon Road traffic change has made neighbours on Addiscombe Court Road disgruntled, at the very least, as they claim that their road has had an unfair increase in the volume of vehicles as a result, and that the council’s latest streets scheme has prompted more dangerous driving manoeuvres around the tram tracks as traffic emerges on to Addiscombe Road.
The initial leaflet was anonymous – which is never a terrific way to begin any sort of local campaign – and was not circulated with an obvious Conservative agenda. Nor has it been delivered by any of the usually very active residents associations in the area. “It’s a shame they didn’t sign it as it would be nice to know who else thinks it is a problem,” Inside Croydon‘s loyal reader said after they’d received the leaflet.
The leaflet appeared in the key final few days of the Labour council’s own consultation on introducing 20mph zones in the area.
Headed “Thousands of cars a day cutting through Addiscombe Court Rd”, the leaflet referred to the decision of the council’s traffic management advisory committee last July to make Lebanon Road southbound one-way only, noting, “Our own ward councillor – Mark Watson – who lives on Lebanon Road played a key role in lobbying and agitating for the change. Lebanon Road was closed in January 2016,” it stated, inaccurately: the road was not closed, but made one-way.
The leaflet claimed that as a consequence of the change, more than 1,400 vehicles a day had now been diverted on to Addiscombe Court Road, “a tripling of northbound traffic”. The leaflet suggests that the council’s impact assessment report was flawed and that Addiscombe Court Road residents were not consulted, as is a requirement of law.
“The council decided to simply route a huge traffic problem from one street to an even narrower street – our street – without consulting you!” the anonymous pamphleteer wrote.
They also highlight what could have been selective information being reported to the traffic management committee (made up of elected councillors) by the council’s full-time staff, to support their report’s recommendations. “Whether this was simply incompetence or for other reasons is unknown,” they wrote, with a nudge and a wink.
You can read the leaflet in full in pdf format by clicking here.
Drivers emerging from Lebanon Road often cross the double white lines, an illegal manoeuvre, to pass stopped trams
Residents who have contacted Inside Croydon state that another consequence of the one-way street changes has been that impatient drivers on Addiscombe Road have been more inclined to make dangerously risky and illegal manoeuvres to bypass the Lebanon Road tram stop.
“Cars and vans overtake parked trams where there are no overtaking white lines on the road. Some of them come out of Lebanon Road, pass the trams and then turn in front of them down Addiscombe Court Road,” our loyal reader says.
“A number of times I have nearly been knocked over by these vehicles when crossing in front of a parked tram. It can only be a matter of time before someone is killed or seriously injured.”
And traffic rules enforcement – or the lack of it – is yet again an issue. “There are no cameras covering this. The only cameras cover the tram platforms, not the road.”
Within a week of the anonymous leaflet, and Watson and his ward colleagues, barely recovered after weeks of diligent canvassing for the London elections, were out posting more leaflets through their residents’ letter boxes. This leaflet took the form of a rebuttal over the traffic management changes.
The somewhat personal leaflet from “Addiscombe councillors”, only signed by Mark Watson
And although carrying an Addiscombe ward councillors header, this leaflet is a curiously personal defence of the road changes by Watson – it carries his signature alone, and is issued as if from his own home address.
In his leaflet, Watson tries to claim that only half of the northbound traffic from Lebanon Road has been displaced on to Addiscombe Court Road. This is hardly designed to win over the disabused Addiscombe Court Road residents, as Watson admits that they now have more than one thousand additional vehicle movements down their street every day.
“We are in total agreement that rat-running on our residential roads is unacceptable and we will work with residents to reduced this,” according to a Labour councillor who now has cabinet responsibility for, among other things, delivering a vast new supermall nearby in central Croydon which wants to build a 3,000-bay car park for people to drive to… Go figure.
Back to matters impacting his own street, Watson states, “The changes were not motivated by reducing traffic on Lebanon Road – but because head-to-head traffic was the problem.”
Watson refers to the 12-year campaign by residents of the parallel streets off Addiscombe Road, and the work that he and his ward colleagues have done since 2010. Watson seeks to pin some of the blame on a residents petition delivered to the council “via the MP”, meaning Tory petition enthusiast Gavin Barwell, which called for one-way traffic on Lebanon Road.
Perhaps unwittingly, Watson makes the anonymous Addiscombe Court Road leafleter’s point for them when he admits that “an informal consultation” was delivered to “residents of Lebanon Road and those who might have to use Lebanon Road to access their homes”. This reads very much like an admission that Addiscombe Court Road residents were not canvassed for their opinions.
Watson then states that a formal consultation was held before the matter arrived at the traffic management committee last July, and that he “declared my own interest throughout the process and have taken care not to be involved in the council procedures, decision-making or consultation on this issue”.
Watson wrote: “I will support all residents in my ward if they want to improve their area… I think all our residential roads have too much traffic.”
Watson suggests that the 20mph zones on residential streets will encourage drivers to stick to the main roads, though any measures to reduce volumes of traffic outright are left unmentioned. But then, how could he? As cabinet member for Croydon’s economic regeneration, Watson is backing a £1.4 billion Tory-inspired scheme to attract even more road traffic into our borough on a vast scale.
Read Mark Watson’s Addiscombe Court Road leaflet here.
Addiscombe residents who have seen Watson’s leaflet have been dismissive of his arguments. “It’s all bullshit,” said one.
“It’s firefighting from Mark,” was another comment, from someone who happens to be a Labour Party supporter.
“Who were the people consulted on the road? How were they selected?” asked another.
No one on the council put forward any measures to reduce car use, nor to enforce the law. Dangerous driving on Addiscombe Road could put lives at risk
The most damning thing for Watson’s defence, however, is contained within a response to a Freedom of Information request sent to Croydon Council at the end of March. This revealed that since January, traffic on part of Lebanon Road had been reduced by two-thirds, while the equivalent figures for part of Addiscombe Court Road had increased four-fold, from 449 vehicles per day to 1,643.
The council’s official figures used weekday averages, and not Watson’s somewhat selective statistics which compared traffic on one Saturday to traffic volumes on a Sunday.
And the official council response also underlines how the statutory consultation barely qualified as lip-service to the legal requirements.
The FoI shows that the consultation failed to consult those residents whose homes were likely to be most affected by the changes. Any reasonable reading of the council response suggests that this was done quite deliberately.
The council states: “It is normal practise [sic] for officers [meaning council staff] to consult with residents of the road itself in terms of an opinion survey to support the request for one way working.
“In this particular case all residents of Lebanon road received documents asking them to respond saying if they supported the measure or not. There are other roads where residents must travel along Lebanon road to access their property and those side roads were also consulted. This consultation was delivered around 10 March 2015.”
The notice of the statutory consultation was, according to Croydon Council, “attached to lamp columns in Lebanon Road…” so anyone who doesn’t happen to use Lebanon Road – such as Addiscombe Court Road residents, for instance – might never have seen them, “…and appeared in the local press (Croydon Guardian).” So if your local freebie paper was not shoved through your letter box that week, tough luck.
“So they asked the people on Lebanon Road whether they wanted less traffic outside their front doors. You don’t need to be Stephen Hawking to work out the self-fulfilling answer to that one, do you?” said one resident.
“No one I’ve spoken to in Addiscombe Court Road was aware of any consultation on making Lebanon Road one-way,” our loyal reader says.
“Also it should have been obvious that just changing one road would just move the problem, not solve it. The whole area needs to be looked at not just the Nimbyism of one councillor.”
Addiscombe ward has been a key battleground in elections at every level for a decade. The only wonder is that local Tories – desperate to win back Addiscombe from Labour – haven’t yet launched one of their virtue-signalling petitions. It can only be a matter of time.
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Has no one in this stumbling, mistake-prone, short-sighted council ever heard of the law of unintended consequences? ( Merton, Robert K. “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action” (PDF). American Sociological Review 1 1936)
Merton listed five possible causes of unanticipated consequences:
1 Ignorance, making it impossible to anticipate everything, thereby leading to incomplete analysis
2 Errors in analysis of the problem or following habits that worked in the past but may not apply to the current situation
3 Immediate interests overriding long-term interests
4 Basic values which may require or prohibit certain actions even if the long-term result might be unfavorable (these long-term consequences may eventually cause changes in basic values)
5 Self-defeating prophecy, or, the fear of some consequence which drives people to find solutions before the problem occurs, thus the non-occurrence of the problem is not anticipated.
While all of these apply to the Lebanon Road and Dump Queue problems….and will apply to Hammersfield and the unlimited growth in the number of town centre flats….numbers 1-3 are specially relevant.
Does anyone in the vicinity of Fisher’s Folly, whether elected or council staff, actually ever think?
The evidence is negative.
Until autumn last year, Lebanon Rd was the only North / South 2-Way road in the area. As a consequence traffic flowed in heading north from Addiscombe & Cedar Rd’s and heading south from Leslie Park Rd (fed by Lwr Addiscombe Rd / Cherry Orchard Rd). Lebanon Rd, which is no wider in real terms than the other terraced streets, experienced almost endless two way traffic day & night.
As a well-known rat-run, it was the route of choice for individuals unwilling to patiently work their way along the main roads. These same people were frequently unwilling to compromise and give way. The result was violence between drivers; obscene tirades between drivers of both genders and all ages; damage to parked cars; pedestrians being knocked down or subject to near misses; cars speeding between the limited passing points.
To my mind the worst incident was when an ambulance was stopped in the street on a hot summer night, there was nowhere to park, and the paramedics were trying to treat an infant who had stopped breathing. Drivers, both directions, subjected the paramedics and parents to appalling obscenities because the paramedics wouldn’t stop treating the child and drive up the road to get out of the way.
I, with others, repeatedly asked for this issue to be addressed and suggested an area review of traffic management. Prior to the current administration being elected, we were largely ignored or fobbed off with the excuse that nothing could be done until Tfl carried out a survey (which never happened and is unlikely to happen) The former Conservative councillor, Cllr Price, tried to advance the matter and was completely ignored by Cllr Thomas and officers – it was humiliating for him.
As for the complaint that the residents of Addiscombe Ct Rd were not consulted, I personally find this amusing in part. Cllr Watson seems to be accused of “Nimbyism”, when the change to 1-Way simply makes Lebanon Rd exactly the same as every other North-South road in the area. Doesn’t it really mean that the anonymous author of this leaflet wants something special for themselves and every other road other than Lebanon Rd? Isn’t that a form of “Nimbyism”? During the consultation representatives of adjacent areas made it clear that they opposed any change that might impact them, regardless of the degree, and were indifferent to the impact on lives and property of the residents of Lebanon Rd. I suppose the real question must be, why were any of these roads made 1-Way in the first place? Was it because the residents wanted it regardless of the consequences for other streets??
Following the implementation of the 1-Way system in Lebanon Rd I have made a point of walking along Addiscombe Ct Rd to observe whether there has been an increase in traffic and whether the north-bound traffic that used to use Lebanon Rd has been diverted significantly onto Addiscombe Ct Rd.
– Yes, there has been an increase in traffic, but the volumes are nothing like the volume that used to pour into Lebanon Rd.
– The flow of traffic in both roads is better and there are now no reasons for drivers to speed up between passing points.
– Addiscombe Ct Rd needs maintenance work as the one of the speed humps is subsiding as drivers are veering to the right to avoid it.
– Both roads would benefit from the 20 mph speed limit being imposed now, to further reduce the overall flow of traffic through the area
– The overall traffic passing along Cedar Rd, and its connecting roads, appears to have declined since Lebanon Rd was made 1-Way.
The breaches of the highway code that are illustrated in the article are matters for the police and there is an obvious need for cameras and strict enforcement. Overtaking trams is extremely dangerous, especially when they are at a stop and pedestrians may attempt to cross the road. I strongly suspect that a good number of drivers are ignorant of the meaning of the white lines and a similar number simply don’t care.
If the residents of Addiscombe Ct Rd, Tunstall Rd or any of the other roads have a problem with traffic it is far better for us to all work together to find a fair, equitable solution and to lobby the council for change.
Oh Rod.
So many words, and not one of them to suggest that you, and the East Croydon Community Organisation, or ECCO, which you sometimes represent, were the only residents’ group which supported the Lebanon Road traffic changes, while residents associations for Canning Road and elsewhere were over-ruled.
Maybe that’s why you seem to struggle to understand the importance of the accustaions of Nimby-ism laid at Mark Watson’s Lebanon Road doorstep. For it is one thing to defend one’s own personal interests, and quite another to have a change of policy introduced which is of particular benefit to you, perhaps by tens of thousands of pounds when property values are assessed, when you are a councillor and cabinet member of the council making those changes.
Of course, Cllr Watson declared his interest, but he has failed to explain the abject lack of consultation of the residents of those roads who have been adversely affected by the changes and who, doubtless, would have registered objections were they ever given a proper notification.
Canning Rd residents could have presented their objections to the committee, but they didn’t. So no one of the Transport Cttee knows what the basis of their objections were and couldn’t debate them.
The one objection presented was that the scope of change wasn’t far reaching enough, and that the council should look at closing off other roads to reduce the flow of traffic. The objector and I are trying to get some work done looking at what else can be achieved within limited resources. We would welcome anyone else who wants to join in.
Being an Addiscombe Court Road resident I read this article with avid interest. Thank goodness somebody has finally raised this issue on our behalf.
No notices were displayed in ACR, nor were leaflets delivered – the Council’s reply to an earlier FOI request confirms this. The very first the we were made aware of this was when thousands of cars started travelling down our street. It is quite shocking that this has been allowed to happen given that Croydon Council knew full well where the traffic would be displaced to – they only placed traffic monitoring devices in ACR and Lebanon Road. Whether intentional or not this smacks of deceit.
To add insult to injury my neighbours and I are yet to receive any response to our voicemails and emails, that we lodged with the Councillor after receiving the first leaflet from the anonymous pamphleteer.
The Council’s\Councillor’s leaflet is misleading at best. It refers to residents associations being consulted, and a representative of one of these associations being asked to speak at the Committee. Yet ACR does not have a residents association. So which residents association took it upon itself to speak for our street? And as for the representative who spoke at the Committee, seemingly on our behalf, which street do they live on?
The Councillors leaflet makes explicit that one way working in Lebanon Road was to tackle the problem of head to head traffic, rather than traffic volumes. If this is correct then why was no consideration given to the fact that the next through road (ie ACR) is two way working? Indeed paragraph 12 of the July Committee report refers to the option of introducing one way working in the opposite direction, and dismisses it as not resolving the problem of through traffic. So why were the Committee not asked by officers to consider where all this traffic was going to go, whilst officers subsequently and quietly placed traffic monitoring devices in ACR and Lebanon Road only?
The traffic monitoring relates to a period much earlier in the year, when traffic was still finding its way through the highway changes. I think if this exercise were repeated now we would find even more traffic using ACR and even less using Lebanon Road.
I also note with interest that the Labour Councillors Addiscombe web page update on the introduction of the one way working was taken down shortly after we received the first pamphlet through our doors. I think there is an urgent need for the Councillors and Council to urgently respond to residents who have contacted them, and put forward concrete proposals to remedy this situation, rather than the vague ideas included in their leaflet.
Finally, I think it is a bit rich for a Lebanon Road resident to sit in his street, which is now as quiet as a mill-pond, whilst traffic roars down our street, and lecture ACR residents who were not extended the courtesy of the consultation that he has benefitted from.
Mr Robbins, this Lebanon Rd resident has spent enough of his own time trying to promote better community representation for the entire area, including ACR, in respect of traffic mgmt, planning and the environment.
Spent his Sunday mornings putting leaflets through the letter boxes of Tunstall & Addiscombe Ct Rd to promote public meetings and other community events. Has been on hand to help set up & dismantle public events. Yet to date no one from either ACR or Tunstall Rd’s has been willing to get actively involved in ECCO, the local community organisation, and join the steering group.
Had there been better attendance at the ECCO public meetings by residents of ACR and TR, people would have heard all about the campaign to make Lebanon Rd 1-Way and understood the reasons.
As for Lebanon Rd being as quiet as a mill-pond, from my observations the level of traffic is roughly equal between the two roads.
A note of fact: Everyone had the opportunity to present objections to the proposal at the Transport Committee Meeting. One person, from another street, did attend and did present their objections. No one from Addiscombe Court Rd, Tunstall Rd, Canning Rd, and all the roads between Cedar Rd and Addiscombe Rd cared to attend to present an objection. I can state this with certainty as I presented the case to the committee for Lebanon Rd to be made 1-Way.
What you mean, Rod, is everyone who knew that such a scheme was being proposed had the opportunity to attend and present objections.
Those that were never advised that this was going on, of course, did not.
If members of the Canning & Clyde could approach me in the street to express their objections during the consultation period, they knew it was occurring. The person from Cedar Rd, who attended, also wouldn’t have been included in the consultation. The proposal & consultation was discussed at more than one ECCO public meeting.Leaflets promoting the ECCO public meetings are put through the door of every home in the ECCO area, and the residents of the now affected roads were as welcome as everyone else.
When all the roads except Cedar Rd, Colson Rd, Lebanon Rd, Leslie Park Rd and Oval Rd were made 1-Way, did the council come and canvass the residents of those roads, and detail what the impacts would be?
Rod: If these people really did approach you in the street with their objections, then why did you not represent those views at the committee hearing?
The thing is, ECCO – a “community” organisation which according to your own website has not had a meeting for six months – has no statutory responsibilities. It is arguable about how representative you might be. By your own admission, you, as a Lebanon Road resident, in this case certainly did not represent the views of those on Canning, Clyde and Addiscombe Court Roads.
It is noted that you don’t say that you were approached by people from Addiscombe Court Road, thereby underlining the widely held assertion that the people most likely to be most affected by the changes were not properly consulted.
The council’s own figures show a four-fold increase in traffic on your neighbours’ road, while your road has benefited from much reduced traffic flow.
It increasingly looks like a stitch-up for the benefit of those on Lebanon Road, which you have managed to confirm with your lengthy comments.
I’m a resident of Addiscombe Court Road and was signposted to this article by one of my neighbours who has already responded to your ill-informed and incorrect comments, Rod.
I am not sure whether you are being deliberately obtuse or just not getting it. One cannot attend a council meeting if you’ve not been informed about its existence, nor can you feed into consultation or make adequate representation if you are unaware it’s taking place.
A note of fact: Having lived in Addiscombe Court Road for more than 15 years, there has never been an Addiscombe Court Road residents’ association. The East Croydon Community Organisation doesn’t represent my views at all; when did the elections take place for this group?
Who are the ACR representatives who attend and feed back to residents on the street? Having done a quick survey of my surrounding neighbours, neither they nor I remember voting for these people to speak collectively on the street’s behalf (as alluded to in Cllr Watson’s leaflet).
A note of fact: Meaningful consultation does not mean canvassing the views of two or three ACR residents who happen to attend an unrepresentative or unelected ECCO meeting. Putting aside the various equalities issues that come to mind with this (which will have to be addressed sooner or later by the relevant authorities), you can’t possibly concur that engaging with two or three people that happened to attend an evening meeting in a pub ticks off the consultation box for Croydon Council, because it doesn’t in any stretch of the imagination.
The traffic issues that you identified in your earlier post have just moved to our road.
The first time residents were made aware of the changes was when we noticed an increase of traffic on our road in January. It’s not nimby-ism to want to be consulted by Croydon Council, especially when a council policy has a direct impact on our health and environment.
So you have walked down Addiscombe Court Road? Come at 8am when you’ve got hundreds of cars coming down at speed. Come and view the articulated lorries that get stuck at the junction of Tunstall Road because, unlike the rest of the roads you mentioned Rod, ACR is not a one way street but has TWO WAY TRAFFIC.
Again this was not identified by Croydon. If a proper assessment had been done then this would have been established and mitigating action to reduce the impact. Come and view the cars cutting in front of the trams to use ACR as a cut-through, it’s only a matter of time before a serious accident happens.
A note of fact Rod: While Croydon Council chose to consult with the surrounding roads (Lebanon, Chisholm, Bisenden, Blake, Brickwood, Colson and Cedar Road), ACR – the road adjacent to Lebanon Road – was the only street that had traffic monitoring equipment placed before and after the one-way system went live. Don’t you think it strange that Croydon Council only placed equipment on our road and none of the other roads, streets where residents were consulted?
The council was fully aware that residents on ACR would be directly and negatively impacted by the changes, they did not to inform or consult with 150 households on the road.
This is reprehensible and a failure on all those involved to ensure that ALL residents who would be directly affected by the one-way system were identified, informed and consulted.
Wow! We are all getting hot under the collar about two tin-pot little roads in this lovely borough, that appears to be filled with such delightfully tolerant people, both in front of and behind the wheels of their beloved jalopies.
But wait kiddies, you ain’t seen nothing yet. When thousands upon thousands upon thousands of similar pieces of machinery (from an estimated catchment area of 1.1 million people) descend on the town centre in 2020. It’s estimated at 40 million visits to Westfield every year and those people wont be using Shank’s Pony, Lebanon and Addiscombe Court Road issues will simply pale into insignificance. Unless of course this impeccable Croydon Council has resolved the matter by then. But don’t hold your breath.
You may have underestimated the likely disruption. It is my understanding that when East Croydon Stn gets it new platform, the bridge Lwr Addiscombe Rd / St James Rd will have to close and be replaced with a wider & strong bridge. While I have no idea how long this is expected to take, it is unlikely to be an overnight event as the existing bridge would need to be removed first,
The traffic that currently uses that route every day In & Out of Croydon, nose to tail during rush hours, will need to be diverted somewhere.
Combine that with the chaos you’ve identified and the council’s lack of authority over roads controlled by TfL, you can be sure it’s a recipe for fun all day long.
Historically weak resident representation in Central Croydon and the peripheral areas provide a perfect environment for people’s interests to be wholly disregarded.
I note your comments with interest, maybe I have underestimated the disruption. Only time will tell.
The historical weak resident representation in Croydon is epitomised at Local Council Elections when only about 35% of the people bother to vote. But as soon as something affects THEM, this silent majority on election day suddenly become soap-box orators who will harangue until the bitter end. Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted springs to mind.
You are completely right in your observations. In my experience Croydon is characterised by an almost complete lack of interest or care about other communities and people. “I’m alright Jack” could be their motto. You only need to look at the planning masterplan and the Croydon “Places” to appreciate how the system rewards this.
However, this stance may prove to be shortsighted as the population of Croydon centre grows dramatically and is populated by young articulate professionals who might not see why their council tax payments (potentially 25 times higher per hectare than elsewhere) should be used to subsidise the leafy suburbs. The potential for profound division in the town is carved deep into the masterplan and as far as I am aware neither of the main political parties have started to consider what this might mean for them.
As the unannounced TfL roadworks commenced on Addiscombe Road, with it being closed from the tram stop eastwards, Lebanon Rd has returned to being 2-way even though there are No Entry and One-Way signs. TfL and the council officers have failed to put up any signs informing drivers there is no legal through road to Lower Addiscombe Road and directing drivers to a route they can use. TfL have stated that it is the responsibility of the council.
As far as I can tell local councilors were not informed of these works or the duration. The only form of communication seems to have been via the Croydon Guardian, which is not exactly a widely read publication in East Croydon.
There has been no sign yesterday or today of the police to enforce the law. Though perhaps they are ignorant of the situation.
Bizarrely the north-bound traffic appears to be travelling much faster and more aggressively, having passed through the No-Entry and One-Way signs, than the south-bound traffic.
As for consultation by either the Council or TfL, there hasn’t been any, and the first people knew about it on Lebanon Road was traffic chaos outside their front doors (unless they happened to have read the Croydon Guardian, but I have yet to meet anyone who did. Even the Croydon Guardian didn’t provide information for drivers.).
It will be interesting to see how this is played out, given that hundreds of commuters will expect to be able to drive down Park Hill Road and access Lower Addiscombe Road tomorrow morning. Even allowing for it being the holiday period this is hundreds of cars.
But it does suggest that having a councillor living on your street provides absolutely no advantage whatsoever, despite what some people might imagine.
I read Mr Davies reply with interest. In a discussion thread where ACR and Tunstall residents write to complain about thousands of cars a day being displaced from Lebanon Road into their roads on a permanent basis, with a complete absence of consultation, Mr Davies chooses to highlight the temporay problems of Lebanon Road when Addiscombe Court is closed for a few days.
The lack of consultation and communication, which Mr Davies complains of, is exactly what has been experienced by Addiscombe Court and Tunstall Road residents as thousands of cars a day started pouring down their street (and for Tunstall often in the wrong direction). Whilst Mr Davies deems this level of consultation inadequate for Lebanon Road, he previously had no concerns that this was the level of consultation we received when Lebanon Rd was made one way.
Happily over the weekend a magic wand seems to have been waved for Lebanon Rd, as Addiscombe Road seems to have now been complety closed, preventing northbound access to Lebanon Rd, presumably until the works to the tram are completed.
Sadly the magic protecting Lebanon Road does not also seem to be similary extended to ACR and Tunstall in resolving our ongoing traffic difficulties.
traffic382: The chaos that has been present from Lebanon Rd west to Cherry Orchard Rd since Friday evening is significantly different to anything that Addiscombe Court Rd experiences as a consequence of making Lebanon Rd one-way like all but one of the North~South roads in the area (the exception is Colson Rd). That TfL and the Council failed to engage and consult effectively, not only has caused problems for the residents across the entire area, but it has also caused TfL and the Council to have to expend additional resources addressing the problems.
Residents trying to help lost motorists have been threatened and subject to verbal abuse and exposed to danger from aggressively impatient drivers. To such an extent the police had to attend on Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning.
Anyway Addiscombe Court Rd is basking in a respite from the through traffic while the tram works are on. While since Friday that traffic has poured into the road system from Lebanon Rd west. So enjoy your restful almost silent nights for the next week.
In truth there needs to be an area traffic review and all stakeholders need to be consulted. But as the scope of stakeholders widens, each with their own advantages and special status, the chance of getting support for change diminishes. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, anymore than the residents of Addiscombe Court, Tunstall, Canning, Clyde, Elgin, Outram, Havelock and so on would have supported Lebanon Rd’s request to be one-way like the adjacent roads. So perhaps thats why the consultation was kept to a minimum by officers.
Let no one forget that all parties in the election promised to make Lebanon Rd One-Way.
“Inside Croydon’s loyal reader”
you are too modest!