UPDATED Wandsworth Council has announced its new plan for fixing Putney’s broken bridge junction and it’s… more of the same.
In an announcement and accompanying video, cabinet member for transport Cllr Daniel Hamilton says the new Conservative administration spent months of listening and “worked with transport experts” to build its new plan for Putney Bridge junction.
Residents who have queued through 18 months of gridlock have got several promises, most of which were already on the books before the Conservatives took over in May. The one that might genuinely help – redesigning the junction itself – isn’t among them.
What was outlined
Hamilton’s plan has four headline measures for the junction itself:
- Remove cycle wands from the Putney Bridge Road entrance to the junction
- Put in CCTV on the Embankment on the other side of the junction
- Limit rat-running on roads leading into Lower Richmond Road
- Remove the traffic island on the junction outside Snappy Snaps.
He also outlined four measures that the council would “look at” or “move forward with”. They are:
- Remove a pedestrian crossing across Putney Bridge
- Reintroduce two lanes on Putney Bridge Road leading into the junction
- New lane markings at Putney Station
- Widening the High Street outside TKMaxx
Of those eight, three have been longstanding promises, and two deal with symptoms of the congestion rather than the traffic itself.
That leaves three new proposed measures: removing cycle wands and putting two lanes back on Putney Bridge Road, and removing a pedestrian crossing – something that Hamilton says that the council will “investigate”.
The most significant likely improvement – adding a second lane from Putney Bridge Road – will still need Transport for London’s sign-off.
The excuse that does not add up
Hamilton blamed “increasing traffic demand.” The council’s own numbers say the opposite. Department for Transport figures the council itself analysed show 37,313 vehicles crossed Putney Bridge daily in 2024, down from 42,498 in 2018, a drop of over 5,000 cars a day, while Hammersmith Bridge stayed shut the whole time.
So what actually caused the gridlock? Consultants AECOM found the real culprit: signal timings that were never built to the design Transport for London approved. Lower Richmond Road’s left turn lost close to half its green time. Feed the real, wrong timings back into AECOM’s model and it reproduces the queues almost exactly.
TfL warned in writing, before approval, that the scheme would cause “extensive queuing.” Nobody listened then either.
Hamilton makes no mention of the key reason the junction has failed: it was designed using traffic data from two abnormal periods: before Hammersmith Bridge was closed and then again during the Covid period. Put simply, it was designed to handle a lower level of traffic that doesn’t exist anymore – and won’t in future either.
It was a fundamental mistake made by TfL and the Council that undercuts the junction’s entire design and which both sides continue to ignore.
One walk, no talk
Hamilton says the council “listened carefully” before drawing up the plan. Since taking office in May, his only recorded engagement with residents on the junction is a single walkabout in June, organised not by the council but by Putney Action Group. By PAG’s own account, nothing was committed.
The council promised residents a consultation on rat-running by June. It never launched. We reported when the deadline passed. Months on, it still has not appeared.
Formal scrutiny has fared no better. The Transport Committee, the body meant to hold this decision to account, has not sat since February. Hamilton himself demanded the junction “stay on the agenda” at that meeting, before he had the power to make it happen. The next meeting he can act on is nearly three months away, on 24 September.
Not new. Recycled.
Most of Wednesday’s package was drawn up long before the election. Officers told the February 2026 Transport Committee the Snappy Snaps island removal was scheduled for that summer, October half-term at the latest. The TK Maxx work has been promised for over six months and is currently waiting on a defunct BT box to be removed.
This is not the first time a Conservative has promised more than they delivered on this junction. In April, candidate Ethan Brooks told 200 people at a hustings that a Conservative administration would revisit the junction design even if, he argued, it meant handing back £300,000 in government grant money to reverse it.
There is no evidence the council would need to repay that money but even if it did, Brooks said it would be “enormous value for money.” Cllr Hamilton has taken a very different view. He rules out any redesign of the junction, claiming it would not meet safety rules and “would carry substantial cost to taxpayers.”
| Promise | Source | 8 July outcome | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Reverse the junction changes by Putney Bridge” | Austin/West Putney leaflet | Explicitly ruled out | Not delivered |
| “Remove pointless islands that reduce road space” | Austin/West Putney leaflet | Snappy Snaps island removed | Delivered (already planned) |
| “Relocate bus stops and driver changeover points” | Austin/West Putney leaflet | Not addressed | Not delivered |
| “Protect residents from… money grabbing cameras restricting access” | Austin/West Putney leaflet | New CCTV enforcement, Putney Embankment | Opposite direction |
| Return £300,000 grant “if we have to… then we must” | Brooks, hustings, 13 April | Claim never tested in any formal setting; no historical precedent found | Unproven |
| “Must be fixed first,” no specific commitment | Austin, hustings, 15 April | One measure (“looking at”) matches this, uncommitted | Still unproven |
Cllr Nick Austin’s West Putney team went further still. Before the election, their leaflet carried a checked box and an unconditional promise: “Reverse the junction changes by Putney Bridge.” Underneath: “LABOUR HAVE REFUSED TO REVERSE THESE CHANGES. A CONSERVATIVE-RUN COUNCIL WILL.”
Wednesday’s plan does not reverse the junction changes.
Hours after the announcement, Austin, Shakeel Ahmad and Melanie Hampton emailed residents claiming credit for delivering their promise, crediting Putney Action Group. PAG’s own account of the only meeting that has happened since May says nothing was delivered.
Residents spotted the gap themselves. One leaflet promised to protect them from “money grabbing cameras restricting access.” Wednesday’s plan installs new cameras on Putney Embankment. A WhatsApp group circulated both leaflet panels side by side within hours, headed “WHAT WAS PROMISED.”
Even their own councillor is not convinced. Thamesfield Conservative Cllr Robert Morritt tried to defend the plan: “The important thing is the Council has begun to make changes,” he told residents, before noting that bus stop chaos on Lower Richmond Road was “not acceptable.” What he said would “really bring further benefits” was “speedy sign off on the extra green time and road change layout.”
How we got here
The junction was a Conservative scheme first, drawn up from 2017 and approved unanimously in September 2023 under transport lead John Locker. Labour built it in December 2024, and defended it all the way to May’s election, when they lost control of the council. The fixes keep changing hands. The queue on Lower Richmond Road has not moved.
Correction, 8.45am: In an earlier version of this article, we read the proposed addition of two lanes into the junction as meaning two lanes form the Lower Richmond Road side of the junction, a measure that residents have been calling for for over a year and which local Conservative councillors have called for. In fact, the proposal is for two lanes on the other side of the junction – on Putney Bridge Road. We have updated the article accordingly.
There is being local journalist, holding the councillors to scrutiny and reporting…the residents are very happy. The action simple and doable by any political party.
As a local resident I am (and you?) should be pleased that there is action. Labour ignored the residents. However, the rat runs need more attention ( as you will know) but this is a start.The light extension was a Labour idea that came to nothing. The return of 2 lanes on Putney Bridge Road Putney is mega news. Huge yet not highlighted as this will mage a big difference to the flow from Wandsworth ( so not a Hammersmith Bridge problem) and down the High Street. The removal of the high street street bike lane strips is brilliant news ……the bus lane times. So why do you need to find the negatives? …being political? …why could Labour not have done this? ..nothing is rocket science but listening to the residents seemed to be.
The local MP must be very pissed off…..nothing from her that I see, as she returns to foreign affairs in the Commons. Her Hammersmith opening promise always a joke. Her BT box spat come to nothing…..worth following up. Is she toast as the MP?