Putney residents say traffic in the area has reached “completely ridiculous” levels, with queues stretching from one end of residential streets to the other, buses disappearing from timetables, and locals late for work or stuck in sweltering homes because opening the windows only lets in fumes.
One of the worst flashpoints is around Disraeli Road where community members report it now takes more than half an hour just to travel a few hundred metres across town.
“Before they changed the junction at the bottom of the High Street this did not used to happen,” said Cordelia Meacher, a local resident, on Tuesday morning. “I know we keep saying this on repeat. But taking over half an hour to cross from Disraeli to Norroy is completely ridiculous!!”
Others pointed to recent redesigns on Putney High Street — including the removal of traffic lanes and installation of new bus lanes — as a key factor in the worsening gridlock.
The latest disruption follows new roadworks this week on Lower Richmond Road, adding to what residents say has become a near-daily headache, particularly for businesses and families living on side streets now routinely used as rat runs.
“I’ve just been speaking to the businesses in Winthorpe Road and they’re fuming,” said Mick, a local campaigner, who is encouraging affected residents to join the Putney Action Group. “Everyone’s had enough.”
Some residents say they’ve lived in Putney for more than 40 years and have never seen the roads this bad. The council’s current plan to review the impact of road changes in October is widely seen as too little, too late. But despite mounting complaints, they say communications from the council remain vague or defensive.
“Transport say they are sticking with after October as the review date but making tweaks,” said Steffi Sutters, a local councillor, after contacting Wandsworth Council. “I’ve asked what exactly they are doing.”
The responses so far have done little to cool tempers, especially among those who feel Putney High Street ‘improvements’ have made things worse for everyone — increasing pollution, slowing down buses, and shifting traffic onto smaller, residential roads not built to handle the load.
To make matters worse, the longer delays are again causing bus companies to run ghost buses to meet TfL targets – and so avoid fines – leaving angry passengers waiting at bus stops. The situation has become so bad that the bus companies reportedly hold monthly meetings with the Wandsworth cabinet member for transport and Putney’s MP but the meetings are closed and no reports are made available, leaving residents in the dark.
Adding to the general fury over transport, a public meeting organised by The Putney Society was due to discuss bus issues with TfL and Putney bus garage this Monday but the society was forced to cancel it after they both refused to put up representatives.
Locals are now circulating petitions and escalating pressure on their elected representatives to explain what’s gone wrong and fix it — not months from now, but before the summer brings even more cars and congestion.
I expect our “share” of the reported 22,000 daily crossings over Hammersmith bridge aren’t helping either.
It’s not a competition but you might have mentioned Werter rd congested 7 days 6.30 to mid eve. Over 51% of households signed a werter petition presented to council last month. We are told review won’t happen until Oct with cabinet discussion next Feb
We are simply asking in first instance for two lanes to be restored at exit. The fatuous bit of cycle lane can rarely used as colossal commercial vehicles travelling past Sainsburu make is impossible. It should start further down. Restoring two way exit would be a cheap fast solution.
The congestion of the roads makes travelling up to Putney on the 93 or 39 from West Hill / Southfields to get children to schools – completely unreliable. It’s more reliable and much more expensive to talk to Southfields station and walk from East Putney Station. How many times in the last year has Putney High Street been closed completely due to an accident or issue on Putney Bridge? And recently email from Fleur Andersen MP says that traffice on Wandsworth Bridge has gone DOWN???