The proposals, which will thereafter go out to consultation to affected residents and establishments, include the introduction of a mini roundabout and closure of St John’s Road.
The Area 7 report is available on the Council’s website at: http://moderngov.redbridge.gov.uk/documents/g6171/Public%20reports%20pack%2029th-Oct-2013%2019.15%20Area%207%20Committee%20Cranbrook%20Newbury%20and%20Valentines.pdf?T=10.
In speaking on this issue at today's Area 7 Committee meeting I said part of the following:
St John's Seven Kings is a significant church and community centre. Between 300 and 400 people from the church and community use St John's in the course of most weeks. Many live locally but a proportion travel from outside the area (and often need to drive in order to come) while others (particularly users of the Council-run lunch club which meets on a daily basis) require Dial-A-Ride or Council transport in order to attend. In addition, the church and centre also needs to be accessed by hearses for funerals and limousines for weddings. Additionally, the Blood Doning service brings several large vehicles and the mobile library parks outside St Johns on Friday mornings.
If this proposal were to be agreed, parking in the area would be significantly reduced, most traffic (including all larger vehicles such as hearses, limousines, mini buses, Blood Doning lorries and the mobile library) coming to St John's would have to use side roads to do so and would have to do U-turns in St Johns Road in order to leave.
The long-term effect of this change is likely to be reductions in the number of users generally and in the number of weddings and funerals held. The proposal could therefore have a significant impact on our ability to function as community centre in future. The Council has already closed one community centre - the Downshall Centre - in order to open an additional school. I ask this committee whether it really wants the expansion of Downshall School to have the effect of threatening the future of another community centre in the same locality, as could well be the case were this proposal to be implemented.
The long-term effect of this change is likely to be reductions in the number of users generally and in the number of weddings and funerals held. The proposal could therefore have a significant impact on our ability to function as community centre in future. The Council has already closed one community centre - the Downshall Centre - in order to open an additional school. I ask this committee whether it really wants the expansion of Downshall School to have the effect of threatening the future of another community centre in the same locality, as could well be the case were this proposal to be implemented.
The proposal to install a mini roundabout and close off St Johns Road is, in my view, not the traffic management option that most people locally wish to see. I have spoken to many people locally about this issue and all those I have spoken to think that traffic lights are the best traffic management solution.
The mini roundabout as envisaged is likely to enable traffic to exit Meads Lane more easily but by doing so could cause tailbacks in Aldborough Road South. This would simply move the problem from one road to another, whereas traffic lights would regulate the traffic flow more consistently. Using the original proposal for traffic lights on this junction would also mean that part of St Johns Road could remain open providing better access to St Johns than is possible through the roundabout proposal.
I am told that the Council has funding which could be used for traffic lights and that the Council could install lights independently of TfL. I therefore encourage Councillors to argue for traffic lights as the solution to the traffic management issues in this area as opposed to this less effective and more problematic mini roundabout proposal.
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Athlete - Vehicles And Animals.
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