This project by RBKC was consulted on for 6 weeks in the summer of 2021. The scheme includes a new zebra crossing at the St Helens Gardens/St Quintin Avenue junction.
Works on the project began in June 2022, after a long interval. A notification letter was sent to residents in the immediate area on 12th May with a plan of the scheme and giving an estimated programme of 25 weeks.
The section of the road was closed, with diversions round the northern part of Kelfield Gardens and St Quintin Avenue.
The StQW/SHRA newsletter for January 2023 explains the issues which are causing the most concern now that the near completed scheme is in operation and the traffic diversion removed. Very briefly these are:
• safety from traffic, especially for children at the Kelfeld/St Helens Gardens junctions. Kerbs have been entirely removed and replaced by what the consultation leaflet referred to as ‘continuous crossings’ and in the May 2023 notification letter as ‘Copenhagen crossings’. Not many of the public are familiar with these terms used by traffic engineers.
• a worsening scenario on the number of vehicles mounting the footway and driving across to the privately owned forecourt areas at the front of the shops, in order to park or for deliveries/collections. The consultation leaflet referred (in text and images) to ‘bollards to prevent informal parking on the forecourts’.
• Doubts about the construction of the areas of ‘rain gardens’ and whether planting in these areas will survive, coupled with uncertainty over the future of the existing (but aged) timber planters outside the shops.
Key documents issued by the Council are available below. The consultation leaflet went to 1,200 homes (we are told) and featured in an earlier post on this website. The geographic coverage of the May 2023 notification of works was a more narrow circulation of which we do not have details of the addresses included.
The StQW/St Helens Association held an open meeting on Zoom on June 10th 2021 to discuss the scheme. Zoom polls were used to canvass views from the members for a response to the RBKC consultation. Attendance was 35 members, 80% of whom took part in the Zoom polls used at the meeting. Some chose not to vote as they lived some distance from St Helens Gardens.
The response which we submitted to the Council’s consultation in 2021 can be downloaded below. We set out the percentage of those who completed the Zoom polls at our meeting. This made clear the level of support for some elements of the scheme and of objections to others.