Petition to Rename Staveley Road After Queen Rejected
The Queen and Queen Mother said to have loved the cherry blossom on Staveley Road. Picture: Jon Perry
February 26, 2023
A request to have Staveley Road renamed Queen Elizabeth II Drive in honour of the late monarch has been rejected by Hounslow Council.
The petition accompanying the request, which was submitted by former councillor Sam Hearn and signed by 30 people, stated that the proposal would ‘draw on Her Majesty's reputation for healing community divisions’. It was also deemed to be fitting because of the ‘many reports’ of The Queen and The Queen Mother being driven along the road particularly when the cherry trees were in blossom as they were both said to ask to take this route at this time. It was also contended that the renaming would end confusion between Staveley Road and Staveley Gardens.
A second request was made in the petition to remove the barrier at the junction of Staveley Road which it said served no useful purpose. Originally the barrier was designed to discourage people cutting through the road between the A4 and A316 but it was argued that this purpose had become obsolete due to the access restrictions on Staveley Road and Hartington Road. It was claimed that the barrier now only served to disrupt the lives of local residents and forced traffic to use another residential street, Burlington Lane on which there is a busy train station used by children at the local school. It was argued that the barrier increased local congestion and pollution and was causing additional problems at already difficult road junctions in the area. It was suggested that pavement and kerb treatments could be used to encourage drivers to adhere to the 20mph speed limit.
The petition was discussed at the council’s cabinet meeting on Tuesday 21 February with Mr Hearn addressing the councillors. Referring to the 2019 workshop-based survey carried out by traffic officers on traffic problems in the south Chiswick area, he said that only four of the 500 survey responses received had identified Staveley Road/ Park Road junction as a problem, and only one of those respondents had indicated a local postcode. He continued that Staveley Road had previously had a good safety record and that there was no evidence that it had reduced journeys through the area.
The leader of Hounslow Council thanked Mr Hearn for his submission and said that it had already been agreed that council officers would be looking into the issue of the barrier and reporting back to relevant cabinet members.
He asked Cllr Lambert to address the street naming element of the petition. Cllr Lambert said there was a case for naming a road after the late monarch, HM Queen Elizabeth II, somewhere in the borough but that he didn’t think Staveley Road was appropriate due to its size. He said other larger thoroughfares such as Chiswick High Road might fit the bill better. After the meeting he said he had made the comment in jest.
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