A trial of 16 road closures in London Fields intended to create safer and cleaner neighbourhoods has divided residents.
Hackney Council’s proposal aims to allow cyclists and pedestrians to travel freely while preventing “rat running”, the use of side streets to avoid main roads. It is due to start next January. Planters will block off traffic at locations between Richmond Road in the north and Scriven Road in the south.
A Hackney Council press release called the project “one of the largest and most progressive in London”.
A petition started by Mike Hood to stop the proposed road closures has raised more than 300 signatures.
Mr Hood said: “My real concern was that Hackney Council was not talking to the residents or businesses in the borough. It all seemed to be happening behind closed doors.
“Now people of the borough are starting to pay attention and a lot of people are quite horrified about the situation.”
Map of road closures
Residents in favour of the road closures have created a rival petition, which claims that “over 6,000 motor vehicles per day pass through Middleton Road” and that London Fields “suffers from rat-running traffic”.
Stewart Whitworth said: “As a business owner who cycles to the office each day, I know how valuable quiet streets are to my staff and customers.”
The council will be accepting feedback and honing designs during the notification period for the works starting in mid-November. The three month trial starting in January will act as a formal consultation with residents.
When asked about the trial period, Mr Hood said: “Having a trial period is not the same as a consultation period. You’re not going to stop the traffic, you’re going to displace it and it’s going to move elsewhere. If anything it’s going to cause more chaos at junctions.”
Hackney Council’s cabinet member for neighbourhoods and sustainability Feryal Demirci said: “The benefits of the scheme are clear and are manifold: cleaner, quieter, more livable neighbourhoods in which our most vulnerable residents are better protected and served.”
The next Ward Forum meeting on 12th November at the Queensbridge Community Centre will centre on the closure plan.
Map from Hackney Council Website
London Fields Photo by Charles Ward
The road closures on Shrubland Road will force traffic into Grand Union Estate. Traffic travelling down Shrubland Road from Queensbridge Road will divert into Grand Union Estate to get out onto Lansdown Drive ……… but that’s okay is it???? Why? because the majority of residents there are all council tenants. This is disgraceful!!!! What do the Fire and Ambulance service have to say on this matter? My quickest and shortest route to Homerton Hospital will be compromised. Where is the petition to sign against this proposal? I will personally knock on everyones door on the Grand Union Estate to get this stopped!!!
This road closure is an absolute disgrace……
We happen to live on Penpoll Road, the last turning off Graham Road before it joins Mare Street. We are probably one of the very smallest and narrowest residential roads in Hackney, next to one of the busiest roads in Hackney.
As I write it is 9.30 pm on Sat 21st Nov. Our road has been gridlocked, in one direction, since 9.30am today, and still is at 9.30pm, as traffic tries to jump the log jam on Graham Road via the little back roads. It feels more like Graham Road, Dalston Lane, Mare Street, Kingsland Road, Hackney Road etc.
Traffic is also turning off Richmond Road, at one of the road closures, travelling down Eleanor Road onto Wilton Way, and then again into Penpoll Road.
My question is, what road is more deserving than the next…?
As posted previously, Middleton Road is one of the largest roads/thorough fares in the area, and is wide enough for two way traffic.
Today we have been hit by the acrid pollution caused by standstill and revving traffic.
……..maybe our little road isn’t quite middle class and London Fields enough….!!!!
Hackney has very few main arterial roads……..we travel on a weekly basis, East out of Hackney onto the A12, and is only too apparent that there are not enough roads as it is, to serve the area.
These proposed road closures are absolute lunacy.
Feryal Demirci says Jules Pipe is distancing himself from the furor of this proposal because he is personally affected. Where does he live? This scheme is so unfair. Closing Middleton the widest road in the area channelling traffic down narrower roads. There is no monitoring taking place on our road, prior to the trial period so how will we prove the difference? It’s a scandal dreamt up by home owners who want to turn their streets into De Beauvoir. It is always the posh streets closed!