Traffic backed up to Putney Common and Wandsworth Park again this weekend. And the consultation Wandsworth Council promised residents by the end of June 2026 has not launched. The committee that would normally hold the council to account on all of this has been cancelled until September.
Without pressure, it seems, the council is content to leave Putney Bridge junction as it is while we continue to suffer the worst traffic in London thanks to a botched redesign. A former head of transport warned back in February that this is exactly what would happen..
Four months have passed since the last substantive council update on the junction. The council’s own junction page (last updated on 10 April) commits to consulting residents “in May or June 2026” on options to stop queue-jumping traffic cutting through residential streets off Lower Richmond Road. It is now 7 June. There is no such consultation on Citizenspace, the platform Wandsworth uses for every equivalent residential roads scheme.
A lane reassignment outside Putney Station, originally promised for February, was relisted on the council page as “due to complete May 2026.” A traffic island the council described at its February committee meeting as a “summer” target (with “October half-term” as fallback) is now listed as “in final stages of approval with TfL,” with no timetable given.
A departing councillor’s final plea
The last time the Transport Committee examined the junction was 11 February. The chair opened the meeting by acknowledging it was John Locker’s last as a councillor, describing him as “always a source of very detailed scrutiny in a collegiate way.” Locker, who had represented Thamesfield ward and was not standing for re-election, made a direct personal appeal to officers before the meeting closed.
“Please don’t stop just because politicians go away and have an election in the coming months,” he said. “Continue to talk to the residents, continue to talk about schemes that can help their individual roads, to avoid rat running, and all of those sorts of things. Continue to put the pressure on TfL. It’s really important that they make the changes that they have to in terms of regulating where buses have their changeovers, sorting out the traffic light phasing, et cetera, et cetera. Let’s make sure that this scheme works for everyone is my appeal.”
At the same meeting, Cllr Hamilton moved formally that the junction be kept on future committee agendas. “I think it is one that residents want to see real action on so we can all agree that it can stay the next time,” she said.
That next time has not come. The June Transport Committee meeting has been cancelled as part of a wider suspension of all council committees while Wandsworth works through a constitutional and financial review. The next listed sitting is 24 September 2026, seven months after Locker’s final appearance and the committee’s own request for continued scrutiny.
The junction is 21 months into a situation that was supposed to be resolved. The next scheduled opportunity for public scrutiny is September. If the consultation launches before then, we will report it.
What you can do
Wandsworth Council’s transport and engineering team can be contacted directly at trafficandengineering@wandsworth.gov.uk. The queue-jumping consultation, when it eventually launches, will appear at haveyoursay.citizenspace.com/wandsworth. Check for a new Putney item.
The current Thamesfield ward councillors can be found at democracy.wandsworth.gov.uk. The Transport Committee resumes on 24 September, 7.30pm, at Wandsworth Town Hall. Public attendees are welcome.
