Brixton Central Square - Reconsultation

[gaijingirl]

Just got "N-Gage" the newsletter of the Brixton Area Forum with all kinds of news on various projects going on around the area such as the resurfacing of the skate park, the mobile urinal things which are being trialed have been really successful so they're extending the trial... etc

Anyway it appears there is a meeting in St Matthew's Tenants Hall on St Matthew's Road 18 Jan, 7:30pm to reconsult on:

narrowing Effra Road
closing Effra Road (between the Town Hall and St Matthew's Church)
Closing Brixton Hill

 

[zenie]

closing Effra Road (between the Town Hall and St Matthew's Church)
Closing Brixton Hill

What indefnitley???

 

[brixtonvilla]

Closing Brixton Hill

But how will I get home at night? *starts crying*

 

[newbie]

If they close the hill late at night all the commuters will be stuck in Haywards Heath or wherever and they'll never trouble us again. I propose the empty and abandoned roadway is turned into an artificial ski slope so's I can slide down to the shops and get one of those chairlift thingies back up.

 

[brixtonvilla]

Now THAT's urban planning... wanna stand for local government, newbie? Skiing for all, not just the yuppies!

 

[clandestino]

Closing Brixton Hill

whaa...?

does it say anything more than that? is this in the context of the central square or is it a different proposal?

 

[gaijingirl]

whaa...?

does it say anything more than that? is this in the context of the central square or is it a different proposal?

Word for word:

Brixton Central Square Update

We would like to invite you the (sic) next meeting of the Brixton Area Committee where an update on this project will be provided.

The meeting will take place on 18th January 2006 at 7:30pm in St Matthew's Tenants Hall, St Matthew's Road, SW2

The Council Executive in December asked for another round of public consultation and asked the Brixton Area Committee to reconsider optionf ro a new road network in central Brixton. The options they want to reconsult upon are:

- narrowing Effra Road.
- closing Effra Road.
- narrowing Brixton Hill (between the Town Hall and St Matthew's Church)
- closing Brixton Hill

or keeping the existing road layout.

The Executive have also asked TFL to assess the traffic options outlined above and to devise a scheme for the Brixton Central Square which is affordable within the funds available and does not require additional funds from other sources. The current scheme requires a further £2 million pounds of funding. Brixton Area Committee would like to see approaches to the home office to fund the deficit.

Existing funds for this project from TfL are contained within their current business plan but will only be formally approved by the TfL board subject to the agreement of the final business case and design of the Square. TfL have also reported that form April this year they will undertake work on Brixton Road between Stockwell Road and the Acred Lane/Coldharbour Lane junction. This aims to combat serious pedestrian and bus congestion.

If you are interested in commenting on the need for further consultaion on the five traffic options, or wish to make your views heard on one of the options, please come along to the next meeting of the Area Committee.

 

[clandestino]

thanks for typing that out.


it's baffling. how can closing brixton hill be anything other than utter lunacy?

 

[citydreams]

it's baffling. how can closing brixton hill be anything other than utter lunacy?

I'm guessing that this can not be a serious proposal. The honus would be on Lambeth council to prove to TfL that this would not adversely affect through traffic. I can't see the A205 coping.

 

[Crispy]

TfL have also reported that form April this year they will undertake work on Brixton Road between Stockwell Road and the Acred Lane/Coldharbour Lane junction. This aims to combat serious pedestrian and bus congestion.

That's good news at least. Not sure what they can really do, what with the railway bridges making a bottleneck there, but there's definately a congestion problem along there.

 

[pooka]

Just got "N-Gage" the newsletter of the Brixton Area Forum

We got one of those two, and noted that they couldn't be bothered to explain what the Brixton Area Committee is -presumably on the (tad arrogant) assumption that everyone knows.

"N-gage" is the newsletter of Brixton Area Committe, which is a committee of of the Councillors representing the 5 wards that make up Brixton, a different beastie to the Area Forum, which is local ordinary peeps.

N-gauge on the other hand is something which is 148 times smaller than reality

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Yeah, I got that and saw the "close Brixton Hill" and just thought WTF?

Where will all the buses go? Up Tulse Hill way and back on to the South Circular or what?

 

[Rushy]

I got the impression they meant that by closing the bottom of Brixton Hill between the church and town hall they would then send all the northbound traffic around the church via the bottom of St Matthew's Road, then Effra Road and back onto Brixton High Street - basically putting a big kink in the A23.

Presumably this will please all those who argued so strongly against the closure/narrowing of Effra Road on the basis that heavy arterial road traffic reduces crime and increases safety. Maybe by doubling the traffic on that short stretch of Effra road bewteen Saltoun and Mervan Roads it will make everyone twice as safe?

 

[potential]

cant they spend the TWO MILLION QUID on something
more worthy ??
havent got the n-gage news letter to hand but there
didnt seem to be a e-mail address or postal address ???
to put view's across.........

 

[netbob]

cant they spend the TWO MILLION QUID on something
more worthy ??
havent got the n-gage news letter to hand but there
didnt seem to be a e-mail address or postal address ???
to put view's across.........

This is going to the council at some point: http://mysayonrevitalise.blogspot.com/

 

[Brixton Hatter]

it's baffling. how can closing brixton hill be anything other than utter lunacy?

I think they just mean the bit in front of the Fridge.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I think they just mean the bit in front of the Fridge.

Why didn't they just say that then(although I did suspect that's what they meant - but only from seeing the road plans from their previous plans)

 

[clandestino]

I think they just mean the bit in front of the Fridge.

but that doesn't make sense either. surely the point of the central square was whether to join the peace gardens with tate and windrush? joining the peace gardens to the fridge just makes...well nothing much really.

 

[clandestino]

did anyone make it along to the meeting? i'm at evening class on wednesdays so couldn't go.

 

[lang rabbie]

The report that went to the Brixton Area Committee included the following:

Officers report that the following comment has been received from Transport for London (TfL) with regard to the Executive decision:

“(i) Funding
Transport for London (TfL) will examine the viability of modifying the Brixton Central Square project to remove the need for the estimated additional £2M funding requirement. However, TfL expresses concern that the removal of initiatives which would have been provided by this funding such as CCTV and the provision of surveillance facilities would adversely affect the overall Business Case as many of the quantifiable benefits due to crime reduction would be lost.

(ii) Consultation
The only additional consultation TfL propose to carry out is at final design stage. Consultation would be required to advise the general public of the final design which may result in some minor changes. We feel that the previous round of consultation directed us to the current proposals and layout with respect to the narrowing of Effra Road rather than the full closure. We do not propose to carry out more consultation on the road layout.

(iii) Narrowing or closure of Brixton Hill
This would not be a viable option in economic and transport terms and cannot be considered.”

I don't think the minutes of the meeting are on Lambeth's website yet.

 

[citydreams]

did anyone make it along to the meeting? i'm at evening class on wednesdays so couldn't go.

Aye, I went, for what it was worth.

Councillor Sugden (spelling) couldn't stay for the whole meeting, though did manage to give a twenty minute speech without bringing the executive to account or explaining why he felt the need for consultation on schemes that TfL had long ago ruled out as infeasible (re Brixton Hill closure).

It was resolved to send the proposal back to the scrutiny committee to send it back to the executive, or something equally confusing.

 

[Droppin']

I got the impression they meant that by closing the bottom of Brixton Hill between the church and town hall they would then send all the northbound traffic around the church via the bottom of St Matthew's Road, then Effra Road and back onto Brixton High Street - basically putting a big kink in the A23.

Presumably this will please all those who argued so strongly against the closure/narrowing of Effra Road on the basis that heavy arterial road traffic reduces crime and increases safety. Maybe by doubling the traffic on that short stretch of Effra road bewteen Saltoun and Mervan Roads it will make everyone twice as safe?

I got the same impression. I did also hear they might close off both in that small area and have the traffic coming up Brixton Hill to the Church perform a massive U-turn and go straight back the other way down Effra Rd. Presumably the idea being that if you want to go further up Brixton High St, turn up Acre Lane or Coldharbour Lane you have to turn off before or after the bend and weedle your way through the houses?! Sounds inspired!

I'll be the first to put a takeaway van on the corner if they do. Worlds biggest drive through

 

[twistedAM]

thanks for typing that out.


it's baffling. how can closing brixton hill be anything other than utter lunacy?

that artificial ski slope sounds a great idea

perhaps the Clapham Park Project can get involved and knock down New Park Road and make a car park so we can have a 'Park & Ski' scheme

and think of the jobs a chairlift would creat...perhaps we could have the Brixton gondola as well? always struck me as having the potential to be the Aspen of Europe

ah well, dream over...back to work

 

[pooka]

Isn't this 'close Brixton Hill' stuff just a spoiler to kill the project dead?

 

[RushcroftRoader]

I think they are serious.
The proposals ( I think) involve closing Rushcroft Road to traffic at the Windrush Square end as well.