More Changes Proposed to Grove Park Traffic Restrictions

Access to Burlington Lane from the A316 could be restored. Picture: Google Streetview

March 5, 2023

The latest review of traffic measures in the Grove Park area has concluded that they should be changed rather than scrapped.

A report by Jefferson Nwokeoma, Assistant Director – Traffic, Transport & Parking, which is the final review of the operation of the restriction on Staveley Road between the A316 and Burlington Lane, is recommending that it be made permanent by a Chief Officer Decision (COD). This would not mean any change in the operation of the scheme but that it would be enabled by a new traffic order to replace the current experimental one and would no longer be subject to periodic review.

In addition, he is suggesting that, to give more access to the area for deliveries, visitors and trades, the no entry restriction from the A316 at Burlington Lane should be scrapped and replaced with access restrictions that only apply during school pick up and drop off times in the week during the school term.

The recommendations are being made despite over 80% of the respondents to the latest consultation on the restrictions calling for them to be removed. Over 1,000 people responded to a consultation about the scheme with 57% giving a ‘W4 2’ or ‘W4 3’ postcode. 78% provided a postcode from within the borough of Hounslow. 82% of respondents said they were opposed to making the Staveley Road restrictions permanent with 10% supporting the move and 80% said they were opposed to making the Burlington Lane restriction permanent with 9% in favour.

It is believed that new cameras would be installed on Burlington Lane to enforce restricted access between 8am to 9am and from 2.45pm to 3.45pm, Monday - Friday (during school term time) on Burlington Lane, between its junctions with the A316 and Staveley Road. Outside these hours all traffic, not just those with resident exemptions, would be able to use Burlington Lane to enter Grove Park from the A316. When the restrictions apply, then non-exempt vehicles would have to exit the area by Hartington Road or Sutton Court Road.

Given the high level of response to consultation, Cllr Katherine Dunne, the cabinet member with responsibility for transport, is recommending these proposals be first put to the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee to request its views. This meets on 11 April and the proposals would then be considered by the council cabinet at a meeting later in the month.

Initially the Staveley Road restriction was implemented as a school street but became a general restriction in January 2022 when the Burlington Lane exit from the A316 was closed off. This was done on a trial basis through an Experimental Traffic Management Order (ETMO).

During 2022, traffic on Burlington Lane decreased by 44.8% when compared with 2019 with westbound journeys down 85%. However, pedestrian use of the road has fallen during this time and cycle journeys are up only marginally.

On Staveley Road the average weekday vehicle flow was 5744 in 2019 and this has fallen to 2376 in 2022, a decrease of 58.6%. No clear pattern of pedestrian or cyclist use of the road has emerged from the two months of pre- and post-trial data that is available which showed rises in one month and falls in another. The report puts this fluctuation down to weather conditions.

During the period traffic volumes on both the A4 and the A316 declined despite the implementation of the Staveley Road and Burlington Lane schemes but the report concludes that this may have been due to roadworks on the A4 causing people to avoid the area.

Accident data for the area shows a fall in the number of incidents in which people were killed or seriously injured but this is in line with the general decline across the borough for the same period.

Over 80,000 Penalty Charge Notices have been issued for the Staveley Road restriction up to the end of this January which the report says is ‘higher than would be expected’. The officer notes that the independent adjudicator has ruled the current signage to be compliant but, nevertheless, discussions with TfL are ongoing and improved signage is expected to be in place by late spring.

Based on average readings from 12 air quality monitoring stations it was concluded that the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) fell within the area of the restrictions relative to the borough average but that levels of the same pollutant ‘notably increased’ on the A4 at the same time.

The report concludes that calls for all of the trial measures to be removed should be rejected due to the adverse impact that the increase in through traffic would have on residents. It also was determined that reversing the Staveley Road access restriction to the previous school street hours and retaining the Burlington Lane no entry restriction should not be considered as that would not address the need for wider access to the area for trades and visitors. In addition, as there were over 5,000 registrants with exemptions in the area, this was too large a number to be compatible with a School Street. It is not clear from the report if residents with exemptions will be able to use Burlington Lane during the new restricted hours.

A spokesperson for the Grove Park Group responded to the proposals by saying, "The Grove Park Group remains committed to finding a scheme for the Grove Park are which works: to reduce through-traffic and improve the environment in which we live. These aims are supported by Hounslow Council and the vast majority of residents responding to our surveys.

“This latest COD proposal to limit access on Burlington Lane only in school street hours ignores the Council's own data around high traffic volumes in the early morning and evening, which will continue to travel through the area and undermines the Council's aims for the scheme. We do not understand how this helps anyone, and this has not been adequately explained by the Council.

“We continue to be disappointed in the approach taken by Hounslow Council: the piecemeal approach to traffic measures, the chaos surrounding these individual reviews, the poor interpretation of inadequate data, the lack of interest in resident feedback, the minimal time and consultation with our locally elected representatives.

“Despite GPG's best efforts and those of Strand on the Green Association, with whom our views align, the Council is still not listening.

“We propose the Council suspends all piecemeal actions surrounding the SCLN, and that instead they review the scheme as a whole - what works and what doesn't. We still require a response to the four points consistently raised at the Chiswick Area Forum, on the recent residents call and directly with the Council: the need for visitor access, a review into speeding traffic, a review on signage and scheme simplification, an approach to address traffic divergence and inequalities introduced with the current scheme."

The One Chiswick group says it has written to the Council Leader Shantanu Rajawat proposing an alternative COD that stopped the Hounslow schemes and asked him to work with Chiswick residents.

In a statement it said, "The actions of Cllr Dunne and Officer Nwokeoma, are bringing the Council into disrepute, they undermine democracy, and they are at odds with Council Leader Rajawat's commitment to be a listening Council."