Sat navs have been sending drivers into Chelverton Road for weeks, where a 20-30 minute queue awaits anyone trying to turn left onto Putney High Street. The council has been monitoring the situation. TfL has been in discussions. Officers have been collecting data.
Chelverton Road residents have put up a sign.
It went up Monday morning at the Charlwood Road entrance, positioned where drivers can see it before they commit to the one-way street. It reads:
“Your navigation app is directing you incorrectly. Expect a 20-30 min queue to turn left onto Putney High Street. TfL and Wandsworth Council do not factor your waiting time into their traffic management decisions.”
Brilliant. Simple. Effective.
In the space of five minutes on Tuesday morning, Putney.news witnessed three vehicles pause, read the sign, reverse and turn around. Residents are already discussing a second sign further toward Upper Richmond Road to catch drivers even earlier. Good. Do it.
The council, for context, will not be in a position to review whether its junction changes are working until February 2027. The Transport Committee was told earlier this month that the critical island removal on Putney High Street will not happen until October 2026, after which officers will need a few months of data before results can be assessed. The committee meets four times a year. February 2027 is the next realistic slot.
A piece of card on a lamppost beat that timeline by roughly eleven months.
There is an extra detail worth noting. The sign shares its pole with a newly installed set of cameras, including what appears to be a licence plate recognition unit of the kind used for traffic enforcement. So at the entrance to Chelverton Road there is now a resident telling drivers the council does not factor their waiting time, alongside hardware that may well be used to fine them for being there. You couldn’t make it up.
Residents did try the official route first. A petition to impose legal restrictions on Chelverton Road (which would have required sat navs to reroute drivers away from it) fell short. Council transport officer Henry Cheung told residents the petition “was unsuccessful due to a lack of support.” The Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 gives councils the power to impose the turn bans and access limits that sat nav companies respect, but the restrictions have to exist first, and the council has not imposed them.
So while we wait for 2027, what else can Putney do for itself?
The sign is a start. It cost nothing, took minutes to make, and is already working. What other practical, low-cost fixes are residents sitting on? What do you know about your street that the council’s data collectors don’t? If you have an idea, however small, however simple, we want to hear it. Email us at news@putney.news or drop it in the comments.
Yes, its a start, this sign. But it’s just tinkering atvthe edges, useful though it may be, and it doesn’t tackle the root cause, which us that there ARE SIMPLY TOO MAMY CARS! I have a better idea: leave your cars at home and take public transport!
Anything the council does to traffic will be a disaster. Cllr Yates is the issue & her Roehampton seat needs to be removed from her. She is the transport chief . She does not appear at public gathering on transport issues. She thinks the Putney High street chaos is acceptable. Useless one