Wandsworth Council says changes to make a Putney road one-way in an effort to deal with rat-running followed “extensive talks” with residents. On the next street along, a resident says the first he heard about it was a leaflet through the door.
From Monday 24 August, Weiss Road, between Lower Richmond Road and Felsham Road, becomes one-way southbound. The council’s letter calls it “urgent measures” to stop rat-running and to cut “queue-jumping traffic on Felsham Road”, timed for a “bedding-in period before the school term”. It is the latest of the summer’s junction changes the council has rolled out around Putney Bridge.
The letter, dated 12 August and signed by Henry Cheung, the council’s assistant director of traffic and engineering, went to residents of eight streets: Weiss Road, Salvin Road, Henry Jackson Road, Ardshiel Close, Bigg’s Row, Bemish Road, Lower Richmond Road and Felsham Road. It says: “These changes follow extensive talks between residents and the council.”
A resident of Salvin Road, who asked not to be named, says however that the letter was his introduction to the scheme. “The first I knew about the proposal was an unaddressed leaflet that came through the door last week – during holiday season with people away,” he wrote to Putney.news.
His street is one of the places the traffic is expected to go. Drivers who can no longer cut through Weiss Road will use Bigg’s Row or go down Henry Jackson Road and along Bigg’s Row to reach Lower Richmond Road. “It’s a case of rat-runners trying to beat other rat-runners, with residents on the surrounding roads caught in the middle.”
He has asked the council what traffic modelling or assessment was carried out on Henry Jackson Road, Bigg’s Row, Salvin Road and Roskell Road to work out where the Weiss Road traffic will go.
The question was put to Mr Cheung and copied in the three Thamesfield ward councillors, and has yet to receive a reply. Fleur Anderson, Putney’s MP, has written to the council asking the same questions. Council Leader, Robert Morritt, has also been asked to pause the scheme until the surrounding roads are consulted. Cllr Morritt is one of the three Thamesfield councillors, and the junction changes in his own ward have been the centrepiece of the council’s summer.
The letter says the council acted because of “concerns regarding traffic congestion on Weiss Road”, and the resident’s complaint is not with the people who live there but with where their traffic is being sent. By February the Putney traffic problem had already spread to side roads around the junction as drivers dodged the queues; the question the letter does not answer is which roads it spreads to next.
What the council has not said
One-way restrictions are normally made under a legal traffic order. The council’s own guidance says permanent orders are advertised with a period for objections, and experimental ones can be objected to for six months after they start. The letter does not say which kind is being used, or whether residents can object. Putney.news found no Weiss Road traffic notice in the London Gazette or on the council’s traffic orders page, and the Putney Bridge junction web page the letter points readers to does not mention Weiss Road.
The letter says an update will go to the council’s Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 24 September, “where the current proposals will be reviewed and ongoing interventions discussed”. By then the one-way will have been running for a month, through the first weeks of the school term.
If you live on one of these streets
The three Thamesfield ward councillors are Ethan Brooks (cllr.e.brooks@wandsworth.gov.uk), Robert Morritt (Cllr.R.Morritt@wandsworth.gov.uk) and Salvatore Murtas (Cllr.S.Murtas@wandsworth.gov.uk). The cabinet member for transport is Nick Austin (cllr.n.austin@wandsworth.gov.uk). The council’s traffic and engineering team can be reached at trafficandengineering@wandsworth.gov.uk, quoting the reference “Weiss Road one-way”. The Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee meets at 7.30pm on 24 September, a Wednesday; the agenda and papers will appear on the council’s democracy website beforehand. If the traffic on your street changes from next week, tell us through the contact form.
Its difficult to see the point of this absolutely minimalist, ridiculous change. So Weiss Road won’t be able to be used by rat runners; Wandsworth’s letter says the move is to stop rat-running and to cut “queue-jumping traffic on Felsham Road.” Drivers who can no longer cut through Weiss Road will use Bigg’s Row or go down Henry Jackson Road and along Bigg’s Row to reach Lower Richmond Road. But this already happens (and in Salvin Road too)! So this change will achieve nothing at all.
If Wandsworth really wanted to stop rat running, they would make the areas north and south of Lower Richmond Road LTNs, but I can’t see them having the courage to face off the motor lobby, so we’ll be stuck with this problem.
PS: the statement in the subheading that “The traffic has to go somewhere” is simply wrong. There is not a fixed amount of traffic – its not water in a pipe – and through ‘evaporation’ many trips will not happen.
This is why we need a strategic approach to transport in Putney and Wandsworth as a whole. The current motor traffic doesn’t all need to be pushed somewhere else. Some of it needs to switch to other modes. This has been done elsewhere and can be done here – with political will.
Engineering fixes focusing only on moving more cars through finite road space haven’t worked so far, and are extremely unlikely to work in the future. In addition, we all need to think about how we get around, and how we can use our cars less for short journeys. Our elected leaders need to get serious about measures to make it safer and easier for those who are able to get around on foot, bikes, public transport, and protect residential streets from through traffic.
There will of course be opposition to change and some things won’t work – but other areas have shown the longer-term benefits (including for their local economies) of working through the shorter-term pain.
The research published this week showing the success of ULEZ and the consequent improvements in children’s lung capacity shows what can be achieved by principled, forward-looking leaders using the best available scientific evidence of what is needed and what works. This summer’s droughts and heatwaves show that we need solutions – now – to reduce our dependence on private cars. This would benefit essential drivers as well.
We now have a chance to finally achieve something in Putney with the leads for the Council, Transport and the Environment all here. All that is needed is the willingness to engage with local residents and just do it.