There’s widespread concern among residents in Old Coulsdon about a set of road closures scheduled for the end of this month, which one residents’ association predicts will cut off residents or force them to take long detours on any journeys.
No through roads: the council is closing Stites Hill Road during roadworks on Coulsdon Road
Croydon Council plans to close Stites Hill Road at the same time as Coulsdon Road for what it describes as “traffic management”.
The Old Coulsdon Residents’ Association has been lobbying Croydon Mayor Jason Perry, their MP, the Hampstead-based Chris Philp, and Transport for London for some alternative solution. “No one seems to be listening,” OCRA said in a latest plea on social media last night.
This road closure (there are others in the area) is planned to last for a whole month, from July 25 to August 25.
According to Croydon Council, the Stites Hill Road closure is “to assist with traffic management for drainage works on Coulsdon Road”.
But the residents’ association posted on Twitter: “Great concern by residents that they are faced with long detours. There has been no council communication with residents or OCRA.”
It’s the second time in six months that there has been significant disruption to roads and bus routes between Coulsdon and Caterham, as Croydon’s cash-strapped council seeks to make improvements to drainage and make the area near Coulsdon Common more resilient against flooding.
In April, works began alongside Coulsdon Common with the objective of improving soakaways that had become ineffective, leading to deep, long-lasting puddling and flooding on the busy road.
Not listening: part-time Mayor Jason Perry
But as the excavations went down, the positioning of utilities piping meant that the new drainage measures could not be undertaken. The works were abandoned, the holes filled in, and plans laid for the contractors to return to the site to complete the works during the school summer holidays.
The time for those postponed works has now arrived, but with the additional road closure proposed by the council prompting genuine concerns of worse disruption than was endured before.
Meanwhile, this week has seen the start of another set of road closures in Coulsdon, on Placehouse Lane, just south of Grange Park, a road that normally links Coulsdon Road to Tollers Lane.
Placehouse Lane is closed for three weeks for sewage and surface water works.
Bus route 60 is diverted as a consequence. Towards Old Coulsdon the 60 will terminate at the 466 stop by the bakers.
When the Coulsdon Common works begin later this month, the 466 route will terminate at Old Coulsdon, with some buses continuing to Caterham via Hooley and Merstham.
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This does make access to Caterham, Caterham on the Hill, Chaldon and even Whyteleafe incredibly difficult from that (i.e. my) side of the world.
Surely the new Shadow Leader of the House Of Commons and “effective local MP” (his words) Philp can get this sorted?
PS/ And Bradmore Way is due for more of the same too: 23-07-24 to 03-09-24.
Obviously Perry is to blame – but the council’s communications are, ever, woeful. How hard can it be to include residents in the loop? I’ll be affected, but if it hadn’t been for IC I wouldn’t have an effing clue! BTW, she hasn’t spoken out about this specific set of closures, but someone called Hilary Dickson who delights in the obfuscating title of ‘Road Space Manager’ has gone on record about other diverts. Is it all her fault?
Are there going to be suitable diversion signs placed to assist in the free movement of traffic into Caterham and from Caterham into Coulsdon? Have Tandridge Council been consulted and made aware of this issue?
Are the contractors being advised that as this is a major route both for vehicles and public transport, for their hours of work to be extended to hurry the task and to be finished as soon as possible.
It was noticed before that there appeared to be a lack of contractors working on this job. With powerful illumination and longer working hours to include weekends, surely this would have a beneficial affect on completion.
Finally, I cannot understand why the local M.P. has not taken this issue on board and support our concerns and try and work out a manageable solution.