My letter to residents about the closure of Thackeray Grove

I wanted to give you an update on where we have got to with the Lidl application and the closure of T/8hackeray Grove. This is a long email but I wanted to lay everything out.

As you know, I have been supporting residents throughout my time as a councillor regarding their concerns over the impact closing Thackeray Grove would have. Because the staggered junction at the Thackeray Grove/ Roman Road/ Green Lane/Emerson Avenue crossroads is not up to modern safety standards, highways officials at the council have insisted it is made safer as part of any development of the site.

This rightly caused real concern, particularly on Walton and Kingston Avenues, that the traffic would be redirected down those roads. Residents on Tollesby Road and Arlington Road were concerned that their roads would be impacted by increased traffic.

I have conducted surveys and petitions, held meetings with Lidl and successfully got the Planning Committee to defer making a decision because I felt the views and concerns of residents were not being addressed. They agreed that Lidl should re-examine all other options to see if there is a way of addressing the junction’s safety without impacting residents. Lidl have gone away and looked at this.

Recently, I held a meeting with Lidl and a group of residents to discuss alternatives, their pros and cons. I’d like to thank the residents who came along and gave their feedback. They summed up the strength of feeling and the concerns of residents very well. Here is a summary of the options looked at:

Do nothing – Not acceptable to the highways experts as it does not improve safety for cars and pedestrians. The planning inspector also said something would have to be done about the junction in the last appeal.

Mini-roundabouts – no longer used because they cause confusion over priority and don’t provide controlled crossings for pedestrians and cyclists.

Closure of The Prospect – Whilst many residents were keen on this option, there was opposition to it too. Whilst this would reduce use of the junction, it would still need lights on the junction to get it up to modern safety standards. I will touch upon the impact of that below.

Left in/left out only of Thackeray Grove – This would still require lights and would need bollards and a central reservation to prevent illegal manoeuvres.

One-way route only on Thackeray Grove – This does not solve the safety issues associated with a staggered junction and it would still require traffic lights.

This boils down to two options:

·       A four-arm signalised junction (which keeps Thackeray Grove open). Or;

·       A three-arm signalised junction (which closes Thackeray Grove).

The four-way traffic light junction is one that residents were keen to explore to avoid closing Thackeray Grove. Lidl got in highways experts to model this. They found that it would solve the safety issues on the junction. However, the sequence for the traffic lights, including the time it would take to include the option for cars exiting Thackeray to cross over to Roman Road, would result in significantly longer traffic queues on Emerson Avenue and Green Lane at peak times. This would make it harder to exit Tollesby Avenue. Queues to exit Thackeray on a morning would back up onto The Prospect. This would likely encourage people to rat run down Walton Avenue more than if it was closed. I have included the drawing which shows traffic below.