Get involved in Streatham's new community garden

Latest on Streatham High Road works week commencing 12 Feb

Latest news from TfL - thanks to Streatham Action's transport group - about the road works currently causing major disruption on Streatham High Road at St Leonard's Junction:

"The upshot of the Monday morning site meeting between Thames Water and TfL determined that ...  the building of a raised table at the junction of Gleneldon Road and Streatham High Road, alongside part of the work to the triangulated central reservation immediately in front of that junction ... will be able to take place in tandem with the repair to the leaking water pipe by Thames Water on the corner of Gleneldon Road.

More details of planned roadworks for new safer St Leonard's Junction 12th Feb - 29 March

We have received more information about the work that is about to begin to make St Leonard’s Junction safe.

The improvements at the junction of Streatham High Road, Mitcham Lane, Tooting Bec Gardens and Gleneldon Road come after years of local campaigning to get safety concerns addressed.  It is a major ‘win’ for Streatham.  However there will be disruption while the work takes place and so your Green Party team will be working hard to ensure that this is minimised. 

More road closures next week as work starts 12 Feb on new, safer St Leonard's Junction

TfL have informed us of how they plan to handle traffic disruption during the works to improve the safety of St Leonard's Junction, which are due to begin on Monday 12th Feb and continue until the end of March.

Bus passengers and drivers face nearly another two months of road closures and  diversions - following the unexpected road works caused by a burst sewer under Streatham High Road in January.

The works to improve the junction of Streatham High Road, Mitcham Lane and Tooting Bec Gardens are the result of long campaigns to make the road safer for all its users. It has been the scene of numerous nasty accidents over recent years, including two fatalities.

New community garden gets the go-ahead

Residents meet Network Rail

Land next to the railway between Gleneldon Road and Wellfield Rd that has lain derelict for more than a decade is to be turned into a community garden, thanks to the determination of local residents.

A group of local people have got the go-ahead to lease the land from Network Rail and will form a trust to manage the land for the community.

Site that has been a long time vacant

They plan to transform what is currently a windswept eyesore that attracts fly-tipping into a beautiful oasis, growing organic fruit and vegatables, and encouraging participation from local schools, youth groups and the wider community.

Initially Network Rail had earmarked the land for commercial development, but negotations over the last two years have paid off. 

Collisions increase on A23 in Streatham

Collisions on the A23 through Streatham have increased, according to latest statistics from Transport for London.

In the period November 2013 to October 2016 there were 403 collisions, including 5 fatalities and 31 serious injuries on the A23 between the South Circular in the north and the junction of Streatham High Road and Hermitage Lane in the south. This is an increase of 13% on the previous period (May 2012 - April 2015). Fatalities rose from 4 to 5, and serious injuries rose from 24 to 31.

New plans for lethal St Leonard's Junction

Cllr Scott Ainslie and the Green team scrutinise plans

Transport for London is developing new plans for St Leonard's Junction - where two people have been killed and five seriously injured in just over two years.

The Streatham Green Team and other members of the Safer A23 Campaign have been working with TfL to propose changes to the road design aimed at reducing danger at the junction. For decades the junction has been a hazard for local people.

Fatality at St Leonard's junction

Around 6.30am this morning there was a fatal road traffic collision at the St Leonard's Junction (Mitcham Lane, Streatham High Road, Gleneldon Road) involving a pedestrian and a motorbike.

This is absolutely tragic. Details have still to fully emerge, but this is a junction which local people have consistently raised as dangerous, and which we have been pushing Transport for London (Tfl) to address. TfL agreed to review the junction in November 2012. After over a year of delays, they finally finished the review in Feb 2014. But they came back with no proposals to make it safer whatsoever, apparently because of budget cuts, which meant money was diverted elsewhere.

Since then we have been working with the police to make the case for action. Police agreed to carry out a risk assessment of the junction, in particular the crossing at the south of the junction where it is clearly unsafe to cross. There is no break in the traffic sequence to allow pedestrians to cross the road safely. Local residents have raised this repeatedly. This was where the latest fatality appears to have occurred.

Yesterday, I met with police to discuss the findings of their risk assessment. They described the junction as "an absolute nightmare". They were also going to do some more work around the junction yesterday afternoon, with some new officers, to raise awareness among drivers.

Sadly, it appears this has come too late for those involved in the Road Traffic Collision this morning.

This is not the first fatality at this junction. It also follows many other collisions there.

Once the details of this latest fatality are released, we will be asking for an urgent meeting with TfL, and present them with the risk assessment that the police have prepared. This junction has to be made safer, and Transport for London must take urgent action.

[Update 13.28 I have spoken to police again at the scene. There are no obvious indications the motorbike was speeding. The pedestrian killed was around 33 years old, on his way to work, and believed to be from Gleneldon Road. It does look at this stage a lot like the dangerous crossing is the main factor in this.]

See also for the history at this junction:

http://www.streathamguardian.co.uk/news/10024077.Crash_causes_injury_and_traffic_chaos/

http://streathamnews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/safety-review-at-junction-of-mitcham.html

http://streathamnews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/another-collision-at-tooting-bec.html

http://streathamnews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/yet-another-collision-at-st-leonards.html

http://streathamnews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/bus-beached-at-junction-of-streatham.html

http://streathamnews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/what-could-be-done-about-junction-of.html

http://streathamnews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/response-from-tfl-about-st-leonards.html

Response from TfL about St Leonard's junction

We have received the following, very disappointing response, from Transport for London following its review of the St Leonard's junction. It seems to focus on efficiency and cost, rather than on making it safer.

"We have recently completed a study looking into the layout of the St Leonards junction to see if it may be feasible to improve its efficiency. This covered road users of all modes using the junction, including general vehicles, buses and other HGVs, cyclists, and pedestrians. Our study found that there are no easy options to make physical improvements. This junction is bounded by two historic churches and many shops, as well as being on a steep hill. These factors make infrastructure changes, such as widening the footways and carriageways or providing additional lanes, very challenging and expensive, and could not be justified under our current policies.

"The study also considered management of the existing space at the junction, by looking at lane markings and traffic signal timings. The existing high traffic flows at the peak hours use most of the available junction capacity and there is regular queuing. Therefore, options to improve matters are limited and would require allocation in favour of one particular set of users which would mean that conditions are far worse for the others. For example, increasing green light times for vehicles would lead to increased waiting times for pedestrians who are crossing, and could therefore not be justified when looking at the needs of all users in the round, rather than one particular group.

"However, there is a new timing review underway which is due to finish by March 2014. I hope the review will lead to some improvements in journey times for all users but regret that the options for large scale improvements appear limited at this location."

Bus 'beached' at junction of Streatham High Road / Tooting Bec Gardens / Mitcham Lane

There were huge tailbacks on Thursday morning along the Southbound carriageway on Streatham High Road (A23) when a bus apparently hit a traffic island and got stuck.

The incident happened at the St Leonard's Church junction, where Streatham High Road meets Tooting Bec Gardens and Mitcham Lane at the point where Gleneldon Road joins the High Road.

TfL promised a safety review of this junction last year. It was due to happen in April, but we got it brought forward after several collisions over Christmas. It was also recently resurfaced, and the box junction moved. We are still waiting for the results.

There are a number of ideas that could be pursued to improve the junction significantly if TfL is prepared to think creatively.

Changes to Gleneldon Mews

When we got the asbestos removed last year from Gleneldon Mews, local businesses along the Mews drew our attention to the state of the road surface and asked whether anything could be done to sort it out.

They had asked for repairs to made a few times. But this area has been neglected by local politicians for a while - possibly because so few people live along the Mews and so they don't consider there are many votes there.

The road is cobbled and riddled with potholes. So we did a street audit, and highlighted the problems that we found, and asked the council whether they could be fixed.

We are pleased to say that work has now begun on the Mews to fix the road surface.

Patches of cobbles are being replaced, which should also deal with the large amounts of surface water that collects there. We have also asked for the area at the top of the road where it meets Gleneldon Road to be leveled off, to provide full access to wheelchair users and those using mobility scooters. This will also help those travelling up the South side of Gleneldon Road.