Forum Topic

Church St update at the Area Furum next week

So which councillors if any of them will stand up and continue to speak up for such a small group of residents who are causing so much disruption to thousands of others?Still seems very one sided as two councillors and a Church St resident against a solo person against the whole sorry messChurch Street – Initial Impact Analysis (The Chair has confirmed that he will accept the following speakers – one Syon councillor and one Isleworth councillor and two speakers from the floor, one of which would preferably be from Church Street)

Paul Fisher ● 3451d18 Comments

Suzi.  I really do understand and can visualise the cars all speeding along outside your houses in the tiny road but this is what is happening everywhere so closing roads is not the answer.  i don't think 'one way' is the answer either and you will never be able to reduce the numbers of cars driving along that route back to the volume of 30 years ago.As far as pollution goes it is a valid point for everyone and you are in a low level bowl where maybe the pollution cannot disperse.  We are on top of Syon hill, above you and even we have the impact of Mogden after the expansions which have been allowed.  From reading postings on here about picnics in a park it dawned that the smell is poo particles in the air ..so what these are like mixed with the road pollution down at your level, goodness knows.  One thing is certain nobody is going to sort that out nor look at refusing planning on those allotments or more high rises along your section of the river, which must stop the winds circulating to pick up the pollution.

Sarah Felstead ● 3447d

This has been pretty much what many people - some of them councillors - have done over the years Ian. I haven't heard anyone dispute the problems in Church St. but it is how to resolve them that has always been at issue. There is no way any reasonable person can really imagine just shutting roads off completely will solve anything, and bitter experience should inform that decision. If North St. - who I am sure have felt the brunt of this closure - should also vote for such a scheme what the hell will happen? It is absolute madness and shows a terrible lack of interest or care for the local population. Only a wide ranging traffic management scheme can hope to tackle the problems we have.

Vanessa Smith ● 3448d

With regard to Suzi Mutch's original post about Phil and myself attending a meeting - we went to the Church St resident Matt Koster's house to have a look at the problem at the residents' invitation. Several others were there. As Phil said higher up the thread, this was not to rubber stamp our support for their campaign, but just to 'see for ourselves'. I saw enough to make me think some kind of measure should be taken, but certainly no more than making the road one way.

Ian Speed ● 3449d

According to the latest monitoring results (quoted on the community page), January 2016 saw monthly mean readings of at least 77 cubic milligrams of NO2 on Twickenham Road - this is nearly twice the legal limit of 40, and is a huge increase on previous years.This is the road with 5 schools and a major hospital. Councils have responsibility to safeguard public health of "vulnerable who live, study, work" on highly polluted roads by shifting traffic OFF such roads.I wonder how happy would the parents of all the children in the affected schools feel if they knew these readings?

Marina Thomas ● 3449d

There is to be re-consultation for North St. to ask if the people there would like their road closed or made one-way. What is wrong with Hounslow Council - why don't we all ask to have our roads closed and be done with it? Not being content with buggering up the local traffic they now want to try and make it even worse - morons - the lot of them. Is it not enough that a major part of Isleworth is already at a virtual standstill for much of the time?

Vanessa Smith ● 3449d

I would be astounded if Ian Speed had promised or implied his support for closure as he has always been quite unambiguous in his opposition to the idea.  If it is being suggested that he listened to residents' problems and tried to work with them towards a solution then that is of course a different matter.As for me, I spent a considerable amount of my time as a councillor working with Church Street residents, and other interested parties, in an attempt to find a solution.  My clear recollection is that closure was mooted by a minority of individuals and as far as I was concerned it was always one of many possible options, but with two very important caveats.  Firstly, it was unquestionably the option of last resort, and secondly it would have had to have followed an extensive consultation with all those who would potentially be affected.It would appear that neither of those caveats was invoked by the present ward councillors, which for me is far more a bone of contention than the fact of the closure itself.

Phil Andrews ● 3451d

Suzi,I am all for traffic evaporation, and would love all through traffic to go away from the area, but we need to look at the unique local context.Twickenham road runs parallel to Thames, so unless we build a flyover at the end of Park Road, Richmond and Twickenham traffic will continue using Twickenham Rd because they have no alternatives.As Adam mentioned on a different thread, Isleworth is a 'wasteland' public transport wise. We cannot compare Isleworth with San Fransisco, which has the best public transportation system on the West Coast.

Marina Thomas ● 3451d

Suzi - It's no good anyone banging on about reducing traffic unless they can come up with some really radical ideas - many have tried with no success. Frankly I find comments about sitting on hands and moaning quite offensive, do you know how many people have objected to this closure and are trying to find a solution, so we're all negative are we? I don't think so. I have maintained that cherry picking roads to close is not a solution, a comprehensive traffic management plan that covers from the A4 Gillette junction right up to the A316 taking in the London Rd and the Twickenham and surrounding roads is the only way forward. We've had the saga of the mini roundabout at South St. - again done in isolation, no improvement to the junction at Worton Rd./Twickenham Rd. done in tandem with the roundabout. No treatment to the junction further up at Mogden Lane/Twickenham Rd. and certainly no notice at all taken of the closure - by Richmond Council - of the Cole Park area which has added even more traffic to the Twickenham Rd. trying to access the A316. Do you realise or even care about the amount of traffic this has driven down other residential roads or the pollution levels that have to affect the schools along the route?Please do not labour under the misapprehension we all sit around and whinge - we definitely do not - what is needed is meaningful dialogue and far greater consideration for people apart from a privileged few.

Vanessa Smith ● 3451d

Well said Adam

Paul Fisher ● 3451d

To be more precise you should probably have ended your post with "to make Church Street a better place for me to live, and two fingers to the rest of Isleworth".I'm all for reducing traffic, but closing one road doesn't go any way towards solving the problem.

Adam Beamish ● 3451d

Vanessa, I suggest you start reviewing the new reports coming out from the council - but I guess as with everything you will  find the negatives and not look to at least trial improving the area.  The pollution is a big problem but a big problem needs radical solution of which this is just trial one.The other option is to just sit on your hands and moan on websites like these. Good luck with that - I'm going to choose to get on and work with others to make Isleworth a better place to live!

Suzi Mutch ● 3451d

Hi SuziWhen I was involved with the various meetings regarding Church St in general there was only one resident who lived there who kept advocating the closure so I still cannot fathom why such a drastic action was taken

Paul Fisher ● 3451d

So now you have upped the ante by saying you were getting 3000 cars a day through Church St. this seems to be a moveable number depending on the drama you wish to employ presumably? "The bigger picture here as per my previous post however is the high levels of pollution across, Isleworth and the borough and the only way to reduce that is to reduce traffic capacity. As Church Street provides further capacity for traffic to travel between the A316 and A4 closing it will reduce traffic in the wider area and so pollution."Good Luck with reducing traffic capacity - you don't seem to have any answer to that - as no-one does, this is cloud-cuckoo stuff. What would happen if we all badger the life out of the council to close our roads too? It is utter nonsense, traffic unfortunately is a fact of life. The traffic is going nowhere except for the roads where the rest of your fellow residents live, thanks a bunch.   

Vanessa Smith ● 3451d

Hi Sarah, the majority of residents in Church Street have lived here over 30 years, with traffic increasing monumentally. So the point about knowing that you would be inflicted by over 3000 cars a day was not what was bought into.The bigger picture here as per my previous post however is the high levels of pollution across, Isleworth and the borough and the only way to reduce that is to reduce traffic capacity. As Church Street provides further capacity for traffic to travel between the A316 and A4 closing it will reduce traffic in the wider area and so pollution.

Suzi Mutch ● 3451d

This is one of the sagas I have dipped into in recent weeks.  With the best will in the world the people living along this road knew it was busy when they bought their houses and bought a style of living alongside that road.We have lived here for 40 years and the only difference is the volume of traffic, which has expanded on all the roads not just Church Street.  I used to go down there but I stopped several cars ago after the introduction or change in style of the width bollards, my choice as I hate bollards.Using the road system is my choice.  As far as I am aware this road is an ancient right of way and I am amazed that it can be closed.  It is not a 'cut through' as all roads could be described as such, it is a roadway and a route.The knock on effect on the 'roads or cut throughs' around is pretty significant.St Johns road has a much longer tail back.  I find the back seat driving team making comments about how the people at the end of St Johns, near the mini roundabout should be banned from parking outside their houses because of the extra.tail back....pretty unreasonable if that is the next bright idea.  The parking slows traffic down and peole tend to wait and give way especially to the bus drivers along that stretch.  The emergency vehicles seem to be travelling on the wrong side of the road from the hospital more frequently in order to negotiate the long queues along past the hospital.  Not good.  After the start of the closure I have have personally seen several incidents of people taking right turns at Busch Corner to turn towards Hounslow.  I imagine their sat nav didn't warn of the queue ahead until they have gone past the correct turn to Hounslow just past Syon Lane station, so they just adapt the next road access to suit them.  Which is what is being done in Church Street.

Sarah Felstead ● 3451d

Hi Vanessa, multiple initiatives where trialled, many such as the one way chicane were driven over and destroyed by angry drivers being slowed down. What you are not looking at however is the bigger picture. If you reduce capacity for cars, you will reduce the number of motorists. This has been proven over and over again across the world for example San Francisco removed a highway that carried over 100,000 cars per day - the Boulevard that replaces it carries just 45,000. Think how this will have improved pollution in the area. There are many, many examples of the same method having been trialled and having been successful. This is just exactly that a trial.Did you know that in 2011 pollution was higher in Church Street, according to LBH figures, than at the junction of South Street and the Twickenham Road (both A Roads).  Church Street is a narrow residential road with no major cross junctions so surely it is incredibly telling .  Pollution in Church Street has been rising year on year and at the last report sat just 5.8 points behind the junction stated above. The scary pollution figures for the Area, however, is at Busch corner and opening Church Street will not alleviated this, the only way to reduce pollution here is to reduce total traffic volume.And the only way to reduce traffic and pollution across the borough is to reduce traffic capacity meaning that a lot of traffic will have to find other routes to their destination and people doing local journeys may choose to walk or cycleAs for Wednesday - traffic was backed up in every direction. Richmond was Gridlocked as was the A316 - something big was happening in St Margarets.

Suzi Mutch ● 3451d

Not having been party to any of these discussions I can't comment BUT you say "the possibility of Church Street closure". There's always been "a possibility" - I don't think anyone doesn't know the effects of traffic on small roads, however, there are many variants on traffic control before considering complete closure that could then, and in fact still could be, tried out. But quite where the wishes of tiny minority can overrule the majority of others figures in this I have no idea. Twickenham Rd. was absolutely appalling in the middle of the day on Wednesday, it rarely is without heavy traffic most days now. You cannot overlook the knock-on effects on the surrounding area, but that's O.K. as long as the people in Church St. are happy, we should all sit back and be stitched-up by an unholy alliance of them and local councillors who obviously don't want to be re-elected, which in case they've forgotten needs a majority.

Vanessa Smith ● 3451d

I find your post particularly confusing, when Ian Speed & Phil Andrews discussed at length with a number of the resident of the street, prior to the last election the possibility of Church Street closure and reducing through traffic in Isleworth as a focus of their campaign. Is this not a clear indication that ICG are just fair weather friends?

Suzi Mutch ● 3451d