The Council wants to hear your views on its plans for changes along the West Ealing to Hanwell stretch of the Uxbridge Road. Key proposals include:
- New 20 mph zones in Hanwell town centre and West Ealing town centre to improve road safety
- Replacing the traffic lights at Hanwell Clock Tower (Boston Road junction) with a mini-roundabout to smooth traffic flow through Hanwell town centre. A zebra crossing and courtesy crossings would be introduced to help pedestrians. The one-way flow on Cherrington Road would be reversed to flow towards Church Road under this proposal
- Creating a mini-roundabout and pedestrian crossings at the Church Road/St George’s Road Junction
- Significant streetscape improvements which include a better defined town square at Hanwell Clock Tower, wider footways, new trees, removal of street clutter, re-energising underused public spaces in West Ealing
- Additional pedestrian crossings by Westminster Road and at Eccleston Road, Hanwell
- Removal of the westbound bus lane between Church Road and Eccleston Road to provide cycle lanes on both sides of the road
- More pay and display bays in West Ealing.
Work should start in summer 2013 and take place in phases over the next two years.
Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for environment and transport said: “This stretch of Uxbridge Road can be difficult for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike. Our proposals will make it safer for while also making it easier to travel through Hanwell and West Ealing.
“The proposed changes are the result of listening to residents over recent years and we are keen to hear the views of as many people as possible so we’re putting on a public exhibition as part of this consultation.”
For more information on the proposals visit the exhibitions at:
- Our Lady & St Joseph’s Parish Church, 52 Uxbridge Road in Hanwell on Tuesday, 12 March, 4-8pm
- St James Church, St James Avenue, West Ealing on Thursday, 14 March 3-7pm
Some of these ideas caused quite a stir at a recent Elthorne Ward Forum meeting and the West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum has done a lot of work on transport and movement issues in West Ealing. I hope we will be able to hear the Forum’s thoughts on this blog.
You can find out more and comment online
Lipstick on a pig unless they resurface the Uxbridge Road – which was scheduled to be resurfaced in 2007 and is now full of cracks, crumbling dips and bumps. Waste of money if anything is done before it is resurfaced.
A few years ago the roads around the North Acton playing fields, near where I work, were designated a CPZ. The parking bays were painted on the surface then not long after the road was dug up and resurfaced! How wasteful was that? I don’t think anyone ever scrutinsed the council over it. Such wastefulness cannot be tolerated.
The West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum (WECNF) has had extensive meetings with LBE Transport Officers in 2012; has written reports to these Officers; and has had discussions with local Councillors. And all this was concerned with the money LBE wants to spend to implement these Corridor 1c changes to the centre of West Ealing. All the WECNF feedback appears to have been ignored.
The country has huge debts and LBE is having to make huge cuts to social services. Local NHS healthcare facilities and services are to be cut and the Met Police in Ealing are having to close Police Stations to cut down their cots.These cuts are likely to continue for the forseeable future. Against this background of austerity we are seemingly going to spend public money on dubiously justified road and pavement changes.
Firstly WECNF questions as to whether people who work, own businesses, shop, travel through or live in the centre have actually asked for any of these changes.
Secondly we have asked repeatedly just what are the ‘problems’ that these changes are supposed to be ‘solving’. Who has asked for the public realm changes for example in St James Avenue, Leeland Road and Green Man Lane Passage? These changes are ‘cosmetic’ and similar in form and ‘value’ to the reduction of the green space in Dean Gardens in recent years and the expensive replacement of it with mosaics of cobbles and boulders.
Thirdly we have asked LBE repaeatedly for copies of the evidence base which leads anyone to the conclusion that the removal of bus lanes; the introduction of parking spaces on the Uxbridge Road into the busy mix of buses, bicycles, cars, and delivery vans; the implementation of raised tables; and a 20 mph speed limit will make travel through West Ealing centre ‘better’.
Lastly the real problem we have right now in the centre is the regular severe congestion of traffic travelling east up to the Lido Junction. These Corridor 1c plans do not address this problem at all.
WECNF was well represented at a public meeting in Ealing Town Hall to discuss these plans on 3 December 2012. All the 100 or so attendees were very unhappy with these proposed changes and they all made this very clear to LBE Councillors, the LBE Cabinet Member for Transport and LBE Transport Officers and Consultants. So here and now we have the same plans being wheeled out to W13 and W7 residents.
If these changes are not going to make local residents and local businesses happy, just who are they going to make happy?.