Thanks for confirming. I had assumed that since it was so utterly ridiculous I must have misunderstood. Apparently not. We also live in this area and I cannot understand why anyone considers these changes to be anything other than extremely detrimental and not supported in the slightest by the Streetspace rationale. Nor can I see how others consider most of these roads to be ‘rat runs’. My understanding is that these are the aims of Streetspace:- Make it easier and safer for people to keep up social distancing - Help people walk and cycle more often - Avoid a sharp increase in car use to prevent essential deliveries and emergency services being gridlocked - Keep London’s air as clean as possible to protect everyone’s health and reduce carbon emissions Keeping those aims in mind, and as David R Rowlands suggests, yes - please come and take a look. If you are lucky you might see one other local pedestrian walking down any of the roads linking South Ealing Road and Windmill Road (Whitestile, Darwin, Carlyle etc). I could safely socially distance from other pedestrians by probably half the length of the entire road. I meet more cats than people. So, no rationale for making these changes to make it safer for pedestrians - they are already safe. Similar picture for cyclists. Occasionally there is the odd one here or there. There are not thousands of cars hurtling at high speed back and forth between Windmill Road and South Ealing Road to present a threat to this tiny number of cyclists. As Graham Thorpe points out it can be 10 minutes between cars on Whitestile Road. He should know, he lives there. So no rationale either for making it safer for this small number of cyclists - they are already safe. Is it about a causing a sharp increase in car use? I don’t see how, as these roads are largely used by local people like me. The absurd perception that they are short cuts/rat runs simply isn’t true for MOST of these roads. The idea of Streetspace being the reason for doing this is therefore nonsense. Windmill Road runs virtually parallel to South Ealing Road. Whitestile, Darwin, Carlyle etc are all perpendicular. There is no short cut/rat run in using any of those roads between South Ealing and Windmill Road. It’s just a different route. Driving down Windmill Road and turning into Whitestile Road to get to South Ealing Road isn’t rat running. It’s just using a different street to get to the same place and travelling roughly the same distance. People are allowed to drive down your road to get to places, David. Just like they are allowed to drive down mine. There is absolutely no rationale behind closing those streets to movement left to right. Even if it was ‘rat-running’ (whatever that is) that’s got nothing to do with Streetscape unless it’s about the aims above. The residents of all of these roads will be forced onto South Ealing or Windmill Road depending on what side of the ‘wall’ they live on, for no conceivable Streetspace reason at all.Radbourne Avenue and Enfield Road may be different. These I guess could be used as short cuts so perhaps have increased traffic that presents issues for pedestrians/cyclist safety under the Streetscape rationale. The best solution to this, however, cannot possibly be creating a sort of wall blocking all roads in the middle between Windmill Road and South Ealing Road. I am genuinely glad to hear that the proposed changes will make parts of Junction Road and others quieter and less polluted. This is indeed one of the key aims of the Streetspace scheme. Unfortunately it is clear that these schemes across London are just sacrificing certain roads/areas to protect others. Can I please ask that people consider the impact of these measures beyond a seven-house radius of their own home. The pollution due to idling traffic on Windmill Road and its junctions with adjacent roads is choking. You can taste it, smell it and often see the fog of it. It pervades through all rooms facing this road and its junctions. The changes made to the Great West Road have made this substantially worse; a couple of cars wanting to turn right from Windmill Road onto the Great West Road bring everything to a standstill. At times Windmill Road is busy but South Ealing isn’t and vice versa. A small amount of local traffic travels slowly and safely between the two to even things out - same journey different route. Preventing all cross traffic between them will paralyse Windmill Road unless there are changes to the GWR island arrangement. Traffic will be trapped with nowhere to go and air pollution will increase. Any resident of Whitestile, Carlyle etc on the Windmill Road side will be forced into this, even though previously they would have simply driven the other way on their own road and joined South Ealing Road. I certainly was not asked my views on these changes and would have strongly opposed them. I am prepared to be shown wrong, but far as I can tell these changes do not fulfil any single one of the aims of Streetspace. In fact it appears to actively oppose all of them. It will be less safe for pedestrians along Windmill Road (children walk to school along here too), less safe for cyclists, increase traffic, potentially hold up emergency vehicles and will increase the pollution on this already heavily polluted road and the surrounding areas.
Tanya Baker ● 1347d