Summary of traffic on H.O.M.E roads

08/06/20

8 Jun 2020

Those of us who have lived here for a while will have noticed the increase of through traffic on our roads, with all the unpleasant associated impacts of noise, pollution and increased collisions. Look out of your window and you will probably see heavy goods vehicles, delivery vans, motorbikes and plenty of other traffic, all using our roads to rat run between Addiscombe and Lower Addiscombe Roads.

It wasn’t always so busy. In the last five years, there have been two nearby schemes which have protected other residential roads (Lebanon Road, Addiscombe Court Road and Canning Road) but displaced large volumes of northbound traffic onto our roads. Elgin Road now has heavy night time traffic, being the first available northbound route between here and Cherry Orchard Road.

Over the past 3 years, H.O.M.E Residents Association has worked hard to bring this to the attention of the Council, whose policy is not to increase traffic on residential roads, but rather to create healthy and safer streets that encourage more walking, improving air quality and reducing the number of short car journeys that could be walked, cycled or taken on public transport. There has been a string of community meetings and we have been working with our councillors and our MP, Sarah Jones. The Council committed to exploring a project to restrict northbound traffic on our roads, with an initial assessment being undertaken by a consultant. The aim is to create a village feel across Addiscombe, keeping as much traffic on the main roads as possible whilst encouraging people to use other modes of transport.

In May 2020 Councillor Stuart King, Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport & Regeneration, provided H.O.M.E RA with a copy of the report from the consultant, Arcadis, commissioned by the council to assess our proposal as well as an independent review of traffic conditions in the Addiscombe area. Councillor King told us that the recommendations are supported by the council’s Head of Highways, but before he arrived at his decision he gave us the opportunity to respond to the report.

Arcadis' recommendations, in section 7 of the report.

H.O.M.E RA's response.