Balham High Road petition – please sign
We are really worried about the recent accident which happened on Balham High Road involving a motorbike, and have seen several other accidents on the same stretch of road in the last year. So with your MP Sadiq Khan we have launched a petition to ask the Council and Transport for London to urgently work together to make this road safer.
Lots of people have been signing – please sign too:
http://www.sadiqkhan.org.uk/urgent_action_needed_for_balham_high_road
In the meantime we have written and been talking with the Council, Transport for London and the local Police Commander – as a result you might have seen extra police officers at the Ritherdon Rd junction assessing the traffic along the road.
Balham Boulevard latest news
A couple of years ago a plan to make Balham High Road between the Ritherdon Road and Balham a much nicer environment was brought to the Council and agreed. This ‘Balham Boulevard’ plan was to change the current four lane highway into a two lane highway with a nice side road and more greenery and a café style to the pavements – making it a nice place to come to and not just move through. This has multi-million pound backing, and agreement for happen in 2017. But no plans have come about.
Fleur went to progress meeting at the Town Hall and was very disappointed to find that there has been no progress and that Transport for London have found it too hard to make any plans for the road yet. We will both be working with local groups and other Councillors to revive the project, agree a clear vision and hope to get it back on track.
Closure of Triangle nursery
Many local parents have been very upset that the Tooting Locality Nursery at the Triangle was suddenly closed at the end of the Summer term, another sad loss of a much loved facility for under 5s in the area.
Park Run – still on its way!
Park Run have been working on a course around Tooting Common which doesn’t go over any roads, doesn’t impact too much on the busiest paths (we hope) and is the necessary 5km. The current plan is to start near the cricket pitch by Hillbury Road and go up or down the Chestnut Walk and use the bridleway. Using Chestnut Avenue may well be too busy and the grass on the other side of the lake too boggy in Winter so its still being worked on but is nearly there. All being well it should be going to committee for approval in September – so hopefully it won’t be too long until we can be getting our trainers on every Saturday morning for Tooting Commons very own ParkRun and join thousands of others all over the country.
Balham Lesuire Centre creche concerns – tell all young mums about the crèche!
Talking of facilities for under 5s, we love the refurbishment to Balham Lesuire Centre, but no need for a crèche has be buit into the contract between Enable and the Council. As a result there is no room especially designated for a crèche, no advertising of the crèche and as a result the morning facility currently in a squash court is in danger of being closed. Talks are on-going with Balham Lesuire Centre and we really hope that they continue to offer the crèche as it is vital to enabling young mums to get exercise at a time of life when too many young mums can be quite isolated.
Dr Johnson Ave closure consultation
Do you want Dr Johnson Avenue to be closed to traffic, grassed over and be a cycle track instead of a road? Whatever you think about this – do have your say.
Elmbourne Road and Hillbury Road road safety
Residents of Elmbourne Road and Hillbury Road have felt for quite some time that traffic is increasing and getting faster and more aggressive with cyclists , other cars and even pedestrians. These are quite narrow roads with heavy traffic flow. Changes to Dr Johnson Avenue could have an impact on them, but this is an opportunity into how to make these roads safer too. We have raised this with the Council and also support the residents’ petition to the Council assessment of these rooads and options such as making them no through roads be considered.
‘Who put that there?’
All too often it is easy to forget how the day-to-day lives of the partially sighted can be so different to ours.
That is why we are extremely grateful to one Bedford resident who helped give us insight into life for the blind and partially sighted.
Did you know?
- 95 per cent of blind and partially sighted people have collided with an obstacle in their local neighbourhood over a three-month period.
- Nearly a third of those were injured, yet less than one percent claimed compensation for injuries.
- The most common obstacles collided with are:
– cars parked on pavements (70% )
– bins of all kinds (64%)
– permanent and temporary street furniture (59%)
We will be taking some walks around the ward to identify potential hazards but if you can think of any, please do get in touch!
‘Lets Talk’ and Tooting Town Centre Manager meetings
Lets Talk meetings are held regularly around Wandsworth and come to our ward every few years. Its a chance to speak directly to the Council Leader, opposition leader and lots of officers. The Bedford Ward meeting was attended by about 30 people and the issues raised included: too many betting shops, Balham creche, Elmbourne Road safety, parking and speeding, investment in ‘Tooting Bec village’, litter and street cleaning around Tooting Bec station, hedges obstructing pavements, what will replace Barclays Bank, the ‘legal high’ shop on Garratt Lane, enforcement of the 20MPH zone and what is happening to Tooting Bec Lodge. Issues for Tooting Common were: concerns about the removal of the white line and poor signage on the pedestrian/cycle track, floodlights when the triangle football pitch is renovated, rats, litter by the pond and repairs to the tennis court. Wider Borough issues raised were concerns about the lack of affordable housing and despite lots of new developments there is nowhere affordable for first/second time buyers, and what the merger of some services with Richmond council will mean for us.
Rosena and Fleur are following up on these issues, and this week raised many of them with the Tooting Centre Manager in meeting held with Sadiq Kahn MP.
Bedford Hill side of the railway bridge – an eyesore
We’ve been to look at this neglected corner of Balham with a local resident and agree with him that this is an eyesore – lots of weeds, scrubland and graffiti. We’ve been in touch with Transport for London and the Balham Partnership to ask them to look into making something much nicer of this corner of land and of the railway bridge itself.
Stapleton Road improvements
There will be some upgrading of the Tooting Bec station end of Stapleton Road with a proposal for more trees, two way cycling, café tables, cycle hoops and clearer signs at each end of the one way. The consultation for this finishes on August 3rd.
Whilst we really welcome these improvements, we are disappointed that this is all that came of a much more ambitious scheme to look at all of the streets around Tooting Bec Station as ‘Tooting Bec Village’ and see what could be done to enhance the whole area. This is really needed but seems to have been dropped.
With the finances coming for the Tooting Broadway area roads, this maybe an opportunity to look again at the streets around Tooting Bec Station. I have talked about this with the Tooting Town Manager and will continue to work on this.
A new Wandsworth wide cycling strategy is being consulted on – whatever your views on cycling, or good ideas about how to increase cycling either on specific roads or generally – do add them to the consultation here:
www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/article/12937/comment_now_on_cycling_strategy
Air pollution is a very big issue for Londoners and kills 1400 of us every year, as well as contributing to lung and heart diseases. There is a new air quality plan for Wandsworth also out for consultation at the moment – do take some time to see if you think it could be improved or any comments you would like to make on it. The deadline is August 5th:
www.wandsworth.gov.uk/info/200485/air_quality/1584/monitoring_and_assessment/7
Local Labour news
In other local Labour party news, we’ve recently had big increase in members – welcome if this is you! We’ve also been debating nd nominating candidates for future elections in some packed and every engaging meetings. The Tooting Labour party has endorsed Sadiq Kahn as our mayoral candidate, Yvette Cooper for the Labour leadership and Stella Creasy for the Deputy Leadership and Leonie Cooper for the Greater London Assembly elections which are next year.
5 responses to “Road safety and other issues – July 2015”
I do agree with your comments;
1) for the first time i noticed from a bus how threadbare the pavements of Balham High Street are from Ritherdon road to the ‘Bec’, and i realised why – not trees, and yet the pavements are wide enough!
2) the traffic up and down the Heaver grid is getting heavier. The main reason is that quite a few drivers are opting to skip the lights on Tooting Bec road and cut corners!
I would propose that the narrower streets on the Heaver Estate are made one way. Louisville does have a school, but parents could easily renegotiate this if dropping off by car. Under utilized roads such as Streathbourne would then be used more and would stop, to a certain extent, any further cut throughs from Tooing bec Road because it is too far down Elmbourne Road.
3) Dr Johnson avenue is not much used and would make a welcome re-addition to the Common. Yes by all means, grass it over, with a small path for cyclists, or even for joggers. Any Jogging paths around the common should not be made of tarmac. even with modern foot equipment tarmac plays havoc with joints – it should be made of the traditional material used for horses, such as on Clapham common. .
Fleur, thanks very much for the update.
I’d like to better understand why the “Balham Boulevard” proposal appears to to be making little progress. It could be transformational for Balham and with such a wide roadspace to work with there is an obvious possibility to make this a much more attractive area.
Is there anything Balham residents can do to.make Wandsworth Council and TFL see this as high priority?
Thanks Paul and Peter for your comments. On the Boulevard, at the meeting this week there seems to have been three major problems that TfL had in coming up with workable solutions. We were shown diagrams of the road showing all the side roads and access points to the High Road. These seem to be causing a lot of the problems in finding ways to traffic and cycling lanes flowing but still having access. The other problem is the number of mature trees and these mean its hard to move the pavement back or be flexible, and the third is the lack of vision for the project and confusion about what it is trying to achieve. There was a lot of emphasis on making this right for cyclists, whereas the original vision was to make this a nicer environment for everyone. You can write to Councillor Cook and share you concerns and we will pass them on. We also hope to organise a public meeting in September – we have other plans to make this a priority and will be in touch.
Peter your idea about making Louusiville (and Drakefield the other way would seem sensible) one way are good ideas. Lets talk more about how we consult local residents about this to see what they would think. I agree that traffic seems to be getting more heavier – and residents of Elmbourne Rd have been saying this too.
Hi there, I have lived in Balham for over 20 years and most of the changes have been positive. I would like to add some comments:
1. Re Dr Johnston Avenue – if you grassed it over I suspect it would just make heavier traffic in the surrounding area, and I use that road a lot and there is always traffic on it so I am not sure why people think it’s not used very much. Also what about access to the car park? does this go too? I would really object to the car park going as this would push cars into the streets.
2. I think making Balham high Road just one lane each side is ludicrous! The pavements are wide enough to put trees down. All it would do is clog up traffic and make more pollution in our area – a crazy idea – who on earth thought of it?
3. There are so many areas of Balham that could be improved: Under the bridge and the railing area; next to Sainsbury’s in the car park – I thought there was supposed to be a coffee shop? (They spent all the money on the pedestrian area but the end of it is a mess) ; Finish off the works on Hildrith street – there are still works signs but nothing being done.
4. Please stop allowing estate agents – I didn’t know Barclays is going – this is really bad news – please do not let it become an estate agent.
5. I think making the Heaver estate streets oneway will make life very difficult for those who live there and cause traffic problems and strongly advise against it.
6. I would like to see more social things happening in Balham – like moving the framers market to Hildreth street, or the area near the sainsburys car park – it seems a bit out of people’s way and not part of everything somehow in the school.
Maybe there could be music, comedy and other things next to Sainsburys on a regular basis ? . We loved the pop up restaurant ‘The Lodge’ could there be more of those?
Thanks for inviting comments, and for all your hard work.
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