Harcourt Road - Wallington
Sunita Gordon, Marian James and Barry Lewis
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? A 'Pondering' on Elm Ponds ?
Sutton Council continues to fund charities to Combat Domestic Abuse.
Harcourt Road - Wallington
? A 'Pondering' on Elm Ponds ?
Sutton Council continues to fund charities to Combat Domestic Abuse.
A chance to rethink
by Barry on 10 February, 2021
The recent High Court ruling gives us all a chance to rethink the Butter Hill Bridge closure. Excess traffic on Butter Hill has been an ongoing problem. The experiment with the Bridge closure brought significant benefits for some but downsides for others.
The Bridge has been closed for over four months and residents have seen the positives and the negatives. We need to try and think about the problem not only from a personal perspective but also from a community viewpoint.
Bridge closed or Bridge open is a binary choice and whichever is chosen will lead to winners and losers. There are some third way suggestions such as ANPR access for residents or peak time only access. These alternatives will also have winners and losers. If it boils down to Bridge open or Bridge closed how do we decide?
Should the Bridge be permanently reopened with traffic back to how it was? Is that fair on the residents who experience the highest traffic volumes on Butter Hill and Leechcroft?
Should the Bridge remain closed? Is that fair to commuters and others whose journey times are extended? What about the shop?
ANPR access over the Bridge for residents is a possible solution which has a lot of support. There are problems implementing this, is it for Butter Hill residents only or do you allow both sides of the Bridge? If only Butter Hill then ‘unfair’ on the other side and does not help the local shop. If both sides of the Bridge then could be a large area and where does it stop?
What next? The Bridge will be reopened shortly. This has to happen because of the High Court case. The High Court has not said that LTNs are wrong but that the process by which they were implemented was flawed. We are keen not to lose the benefits that have accrued from the Bridge being closed and we want to try and re-introduce elements of the scheme when possible. We fully get the difficulties that residents have experienced over the past few months and we want to find ways to overcome these problems.
Over the coming weeks we will re-engage with the community to find a suitable path. We will do this by all means possible. In the meantime if you have any brilliant thoughts with alternative solutions to this conundrum then please drop us a comment below.
3 Comments
Either close the bridge or one way access …..time and money being wasted must be huge that could be being used else where ! Access over the bridge one way traffic and exit at the wallington green end , entrance from pub end only to Leechcroft road and to make elm grove parade a no entry from from the juncton that turns on to Leechcroft road so residents still have access from elm grove parade at both ends , so essentially a big circle of traffic to ease pressure on local streets , the hard work has already been done most people realise the bridge is closed at the moment and this is just going to confuse and upset people all over again how much longer has this got to rumble on for , unfortunately unless you actually live on the affect roads by speeding traffic or angry aggressive driving you don’t really understand, having to leave home a few minutes earlier and re planning your daily routine is not hardship in the bigger picture of things , hopefully the decision will be made swiftly before people lose interest in a subject that is clearly means a great deal to our community!
i lived butterhill on leechcroft rd for 11 years i understand the volume of traffic is now very high volume i am now in manor rd north and use the through road butterhill bridge to go to wrythe green otherwise along way round ether way you go it causes more pollution you could save a lot traffic build up of traffic on butterhill by solving the problem that caused or definitely made it 100%worse which is the island monstrosity that you made in the road outside wallington corner shop which comming from hackbrige to wallington corner was 2 lanes now reduces it to 1 laneof which 2 could pass alllowing traffic from butterhill to flow
as well altering the island you would need to take out traffic lights and put a round about system at wallington green to make it all flow .i have cars and big trucks all day and night passing my house why should butter hill get preference of who drives over the bridge because they live there we all pay car tax and council tax you should put a pollution meter in manor rd north in the morning and knight it would go off the scaleit is not only butter hill with traffic problem