The thorny issue of heavy traffic using the residential side streets in Addiscombe is up for discussion once again, with potentially significant implications for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and children.
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The council is using traffic counters on some roads, gathering information which is supposed to inform discussion about regulating local traffic in different ways. Changes may increase (or decrease) the number of cars using any given road.
The consultation is being funded from the Mayor of London’s Healthy Streets initiative, but Croydon’s part-time Mayor, pro-pollution Jason Perry, will have the final decision.
There’s more than a suspicion that this exercise is being used to unpick the 2015 move that made Lebanon Road one-way southbound – a scheme which was seen as being largely at the behest of the then Labour council cabinet member, and one-time convicted fraudster, Mark Watson.
Watson lived on Lebanon Road, and was among the beneficiaries of much-reduced traffic flows. Watson was a key member of the clique surrounding Tony Newman, the now discredited former council leader. The Lebanon Road moves proved to be so unpopular, Watson failed to get selected by his Labour Party colleagues as a councillor candidate in 2018. But the road changes stayed largely unaltered.
Those living on parallel streets have had a decade to fulminate and grumble.
Street level: Tony Newman, as council leader, allowed his chum Mark Watson to influence traffic decisions in Addiscombe
Traffic management measures were introduced in Addiscombe Court Road and Canning Road in 2018. These measures caused traffic to be displaced to residential access streets within the HOME residents’ association area, predominantly Elgin Road (the next available northbound route for through traffic).
Council officials have held meetings with residents on the streets adjacent to Elgin Road – Havelock Road, Outram Road, and Ashburton Road – who all experience high levels of through traffic on a daily basis.
Areas covered by ASPRA, the Addiscombe and Shirley Park Residents Association and ECCO, the East Croydon Community Organisation, have also been consulted.
According to ECCO, “Road safety and cycling will be key themes, in addition to through traffic, integral to this project and our partners will have an opportunity to raise any road safety concerns they may have at any time during the engagement process.”
A more public consultation is about to take place, with meetings open to all residents for their views on increasing traffic, the impact of speeding cars, traffic calming measures and ways to balance the interests of all those who live or use these streets.
- 4.30–8.30pm Thursday, November 23, at Clyde Hall, Clyde Rd CR0 6SZ
- 4.30–8.30pm Wednesday, November 29, at Tunstall Primary School, Tunstall Rd CR0 6TY
- 4.30–8.30pm Thursday, November 30, at St Mildred’s Parish Church Small Hall, 30 Bingham Rd, CR0 7EB
- 4.30–8.30pm Monday, December 4, at Church of the Nazarene, 57a Lower Addiscombe Rd, CRO 6PQ
There will be further meetings, “co-design workshops”, held in January 2024, and drop-in sessions in July next year, before any schemes might be implemented in 2025.
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I feel a correction is in order. The contention that ‘Changes may increase (or decrease) the number of cars using any given road’ does not appear in any part of the consultation proposal on LB Croydon’s website, indeed the ‘Key objectives’ list the following:
• reduce the level of through traffic in your residential roads;
• reduce traffic speeds where appropriate and reduce the perception of road danger;
• improve road safety;
• encourage more walking and cycling.
Each of these objectives are surely positives?
A positive for residents in Lebanon Road, aside from the widespread disregard for the 20mph speed limit during peak hours and during the night, is that since the designation of the southbound one way traffic flow, no parked vehicles have been damaged by passing traffic, our own vehicle still bearing some of the scars from a hit and run as the whole of the front bumper was torn off, and left in the road.
There’s an easy Tory solution to this. Rip out all the no-entry, 20mph and one-way signs and speed bumps, and turn Addiscombe into a high-traffic neighbourhood