Oval Neighbourhood Enhancement Programmes - events this week

If you are in the Oval NEP area you will have received a letter from Cllr Jack Hopkins asking you to vote for or against various schemes in the area.

This week there are two opportunities to peruse the info and talk to council officials about the ideas:

Tuesday 1 October 2013
5.00pm to 9.00pm
Wheatsheaf Community Centre
Wheatsheaf Lane
London SW8 2UP

Saturday 5 October 2013
9.30am to 3.00pm
Wheatsheaf Community Centre
Wheatsheaf Lane
London SW8 2UP

The details in the mailing are a bit sketchy. Here is a more detailed breakdown:

1. Bonnington Square Public Piazza between Italo café and Pleasure Garden
Bonnington Square Pleasure Garden was designed by local residents, and constructed in 1994 on a site damaged by bombs in the Second World War. More recently,the Paradise Project extended the greening to the wider neighbourhood. The local community looks after the neighbourhood greening and the Garden.
As part of the NEP,residents have proposed some improvements: the main focus is on creating a piazza between the Italo Café and the Pleasure Garden. This would effectively pedestrianise the space between them and would have implications for traffic flows in Bonnington Square and neighbouring streets and parking. Alternatively,this could be designed as a space to be shared by motorists and pedestrians. Secure cycle parking could be introduced;the motorcycle bay could be extended and bin enclosures could be created,subject to approval from the council. Residents have conducted a consultation exercise, displaying plans and inviting comments. We will work with them to gauge support for different elements of the proposals and explore the feasibility and impacts of different options. Some elements,such as changes to parking arrangements, would require statutory consultation.

2. Claylands Road Public Realm Improvements
Residents have put forward proposals which are designed to reduce traffic speeds on the sections of Claylands Road and Trigon Road flanked by Claylands Green and to make the area more attractive. We propose to create a new and level road‐pavement surface in the roads which run along Claylands Green. We would extend the pavement into the road and plant trees or introduce planters on these build‐outs. This will have some impact on parking, depending on the number of build‐outs. There are proposals to swap around a number of business parking bays in Claylands Road with residential parking bays in Ashmole Street and convert others near Clapham Road to short‐term free parking bays, in order to support local businesses. Claylands Road and Trigon Road are included in this year’s highways resurfacing programme,and we are hoping to be able to take advantage of a financial contribution to part‐fund this project. Claylands Road forms part of the pilot for Children’s Routes to School, described immediately below. We will conduct a localised consultation exercise to discuss the proposals.

3. Children’s Route
We engaged the local schools in a consultation exercise with all the children. As a result of this, we have identified the roads most frequently used by children as their route to school. We are proposing to designate these roads as “Children’s Routes” to enable us to introduce stronger measures to slow down traffic. We envisage this part of the project to go beyond the timeline for NEP, gradually introducing safety and design features with children in mind where money becomes available. In the meantime, we propose to pilot a 10mph speed limit on these routes, either part‐time during school hours or all‐day. This lower speed limit would mean safer roads for everyone,especially children. It would also discourage rat‐running along these roads. Some local residents have experimented driving at 10mph from the main roads to their homes, and now support the proposals. The average additional time per trip along Meadow Road from Claylands Road to Fentiman Road would be about 14 seconds, and from Fentiman Road to Dorset Road would be about
eight seconds. If this speed limit were introduced we would start by piloting it for six months at the end of which we would review the effectiveness of the measure.

4.Heyford Avenue Traffic Calming
Heyford Avenue has a wide junction with Old South Lambeth Road. Local residents have proposed to slow down traffic by extending the pavement into the road near to this junction and to introduce planters or plant trees on these build‐outs to make the street more attractive. A speed hump is also proposed on Old South Lambeth Road near to this junction.5. Meadow Road Traffic Calming Meadow Road has a wide junction with Dorset Road, and a similar treatment to Heyford Avenue (described above)is proposed by the residents. It is also proposed to prevent long vehicles from turning right intoDorset Road from Meadow Road as they tend then to get stuck at the tight junction between Dorset Road and Old South Lambeth Road.

6. Tradescant Road Pocket Park
Residents have proposed extending the pavement into the road near to where Tradescant Road turns sharply eastwards towards St. Stephen’s Terrace. This would result in a wider pavement along half of the width of this section of road, which would create an opportunity to introduce a small park with trees and seating. A bid has been submitted by local residents for Pocket Parks funding. If this bid were to be successful,this proposal could be introduced without drawing on the NEP budget.

7.Albert Square Traffic Calming
Local residents have proposed plans to make part of Albert Square one‐way, and to have some no‐entry points to discourage through traffic and force it to take the long way around.
They perceive the lack off traffic calming in their street as an encouragement to drivers looking for a short‐cut between Clapham Road and South Lambeth Road, in contrast to Dorset Road and Fentiman Road. It may be possible to exempt cyclists from some of the restrictions. Detailed plans are still under development at this stage.

8. Cycle and motorcycle parking
The proposals are for a secure cycle hangar in Albert Square and for the conversion of some car parking spaces into cycle and motorcycle parking in Wilkinson Street, St. Stephen’s Terrace and Albert Square.

9.Alderbert Terrace, St. Stephen’s Terrace
Traffic calming is proposed – plans are under development.

10. Tree planting and greening
We are proposing to plant trees on a number of streets, including Fentiman Road, Meadow Road, Claylands Road, Wilkinson Road and Heyford Avenue to make the area greener and
more attractive. We are working with a specialist to ensure that only suitable trees are planted in your area.
We are also bidding for additional funding from ‘Trees for Cities’,so if you would like trees on your street, please let us know.

11. Play streets on Ashmole Street and Kibworth Street
There is a desire from local residents to have these streets designated as play streets. This would mean the street being closed at a certain times to through traffic to allow children to play in the road safely. Resident volunteers would have to monitor traffic going in and out of the street.