Road closures in Old Coulsdon have been described by local activists as “a wholly absurd idea of creating an Iron Curtain between Surrey and Croydon”.
No through road: the closure signs have gone up in Old Coulsdon
The road closure of Stites Hill Road, enforced by Croydon Council for “traffic management” at the same time that Coulsdon Road is closed for drainage engineering, is set to go ahead next week, despite vociferous pleas from residents’ associations across Coulsdon and in Caterham on the Hill.
The closures, which also include Fox Lane and The Grove, are due to begin on July 25 and last for a month.
Neither Croydon Council nor Surrey County Council have budged, despite public complaints that many residents in Old Coulsdon will be cut off from travelling, unable to use buses and forced to book expensive taxis to attend routine GP appointments.
Some residents say that as a consequence of the closures they face detours of up to 10 miles just to make a local journey. Others warn that fire engines and ambulances will be unable to reach emergency call-outs in the area.
The residents associations, led by the Old Coulsdon Residents RA, say that the road closures will adversely affect the elderly and the vulnerable worst.
“Mayor Jason Perry likes to say that he’s ‘listening’,” according to one official from another Coulsdon RA. “Well, he’s not been listening to us.”
In correspondence with RAs, Mayor Perry has been forced to apologise for Croydon Council’s poor communications over the road closures.
Apology: Mayor Jason Perry
“Our communication has not been as clear as it should be, and I am working with council officers to improve the way we inform residents about road closures,” piss-poor Perry said in one letter.
In April, works began alongside Coulsdon Common and The Fox pub with the objective of improving soakaways that had become ineffective, leading to deep, long-lasting puddling and flooding on the busy road. The works were stopped when Croydon Council’s contractors “encountered engineering difficulties”.
According to Perry, the closure of Stites Hill Road is all someone else’s fault: Surrey CC.
“During the original works Surrey County Council felt that the impact of the works on their network was not sustainable,” Mayor Perry claims.
“Unfortunately, despite discussions with Surrey County Council there are limited options that they would approve to minimise impact on their local roads. This has, therefore, led to the proposed traffic management plan.” By which, Perry means closing Stites Hill Road.
Perry’s excuse is: “We have a duty under Section 16(1) of the Traffic Management Act 2004 to ‘facilitate the expeditious movement of traffic on road networks for which another authority is the traffic authority’. As a result, we have had to consider the traffic impact of these works on the Surrey network.”
Blocked off: the closure of Stites Hill Road when Coulsdon Road is closed will create an ‘Iron Curtain’ between Croydon and Surrey, according to locals
Some notices have said the works will take four weeks. Road signs placed by contractors FM Conway state the works will last three weeks. Perry has been telling residents the works will last two weeks, but is allowing four weeks just because… well… “works” innit.
Perry wrote: “We have instructed FM Conway to accelerate works by working weekends and longer days. It is anticipated that the works will take two weeks, subject to no unforeseen circumstances. However, we agreed to the road closure for four weeks, given the engineering difficulties we encountered with the original works.”
“They are installing a new soakaway,” one disgruntled local told Inside Croydon. “It’s not like they’re building Crossrail.”
Among a list of Doomsday scenarios laid out in opposition to the closure of Stites Hill Road is that GP surgeries and the Caterham Dene health centre will be cut off. Old Coulsdon residents won’t even be able to visit their nearest supermarket, which is in Caterham.
Foxed: Coulsdon Road could be closed for four weeks, for works that Croydon’s contractors failed to finish earlier this year
Residents have offered suggestions of temporary weight limits on the roads and some closures to side roads off Ninehams Road in Caterham.
Others have described the traffic management plan as “high-handed, arrogant and incompetent”, and suggested that Surrey CC and Croydon Council will, in fact, be breaking several legal duties under highways laws.
“We can’t understand our this solution is not being used and why local RAs were not consulted so that we could offer this as a solution that would work in the interest of both Coulsdon and Caterham residents,” one residents’ association official said.
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Perhaps OCRA should also consider the residents of several roads on Caterham on the Hill whose lives were blighted during the last works when narrow roads were used as rat runs which caused gridlock, also presenting problems to emergency vehicles. Numerous parked cars were also damaged. The Corporation of London weren’t happy either at the vehicles damaging the grass verges of Coulsdon Common on Stites Hill Road as the road is too narrow for anything other than small cars to pass comfortably.
There’s nothing wrong with the road. It was last done in lockdown and is totally usable in all weather’s, with the new type of tarmac they are using. They’ve dug up ninehams road at least 100 times in the last few years. The road companies are taking advantage of the council’s contracts as it is the middle of 2 council’s. Charging the highest amount and using the roadwork sites as free storage for machines. The work on this section was done in lockdown and the workman had almost plenty of time to engineer it correctly when nobody was using it.
And the roadworks on Coulsdon Road have nothing to do with the road surface, and everything to do with repairing and upgrading the soakaways underneath the road. As the article makes clear.
Is Fox Lane really going to be closed? If this is the case, should there not be a comment in this report from The Fox people on how this will affect their trade?
Whatever happens, one does get the impression something should have been done about this flooding problem a lot sooner when it might have causes less disruption.
10 mile detour?! These closures are frustrating but to state people are actually facing 10 mile detours is absolutely outrageous and farcical. It’ll probably add 5-10 minutes to your journey. Don’t be so melodramatic