Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Rise in number of Lorries and other heavy vehicles ignoring the 7.5t weight limit on Ladder roads
I live in Lausanne Road and have noticed a dramatic increase in the number of lorries, concrete trucks and other large vehicles using our road and the nearby roads- particularly Hampden Road.
This is really making me worry - it's a fact of life that people in cars will use the ladder roads as a cut through, but the heavy vehicles are making quite an impact on my personal quality of life, and I'm sure many other local residents as well.
The specific problems with Heavy vehicles using my and other ladder roads(I'm not sure how many others have weight restrictions as well) are:
1. Weight(obviously)- road humps and heavy vehicles are certainly causing the earth to move in our road! Humour aside the impact from loaded trucks hitting the speed humps is so noticeable that it MUST be causing damage to the nearby houses. We have a 3 storey house and it can be felt strongly on all floors, even though we are not directly opposite the road hump. In our road so far as i'm aware the terraces do not have deep foundations but sit on the good old london clay which I hear anecdotally tends to make them more prone to cracking etc from this sort of impact.
2. Noise - the heavy vehicles are particularly noisy - especially skip trucks with their lovely chain percussion. In our road they start coming through in convoy between 6 am and 6.30am.
3. Speed- The trucks also nearly always break the 20 mph speed limit.
4. Damage- Road surfaces are noticeably breaking down. Hampden road seems to gain a new pothole every day and it hardly seems that long ago that it was repaired. There's damage to nearby houses- see point 1, and also , ironically also damage to the signs at the end of the streets indicating that the trucks should not be entering and bollards knocked over/down at the street entrances....
5. Safety - they're huge, and they speed and they're just downright dangerous. Removing small children from a car with a speeding loaded lorry bearing down on you in a narrow road is not fun.
6. Size of the vehicles-. Ok they're big, sometimes very big. and they get stuck sometimes. It is pretty annoying having to wait around to get into your own street because some truck is trying to illegally enter and has got stuck in/on the specially designed narrow street entrance designed to keep them out...
Anyway, I guess everyone gets the picture here.
So what to do?
I've reported the damaged weight restriction sign at the entrance of Hampden Road to the council- reference C58317 for any Hampden road residents or others interested.
I've spent an entertaining 40 minutes calling around Haringey council , who actually have a 'moving vehicle enforcement' department but apparently don't deal with this issue -enforcing other signs yes, but not weight restrictions. So, actually it is the Police Safer Neighbourhoods or Traffic teams who will (hopefully) deal with this.
I spoke to Kate at the above mentioned Police , and she was very helpful and has logged the issue. I've spoken to a few people in person about this and they have also seemed concerned. Perhaps it is more specific to Lausanne/Hampden roads or is the same thing happening elsewhere on the ladder?
I would really like anyone else who has a problem with this to also report to the police on 0208 808 1212 and quote ref: CAD3030/16 May . The police are also interested in details of registration etc of any vehicles which we notice breaking the law in this manner.
Now- a little word. I am not some sort of control freak who imagines that all trucks with from now onwards will be banished from the ladder roads, but this is a volume problem in part and I really really feel that we are on a slippery slope if these restrictions are not enforced. The ladder is the obvious cut through and with building work at Hornsey station (which is where I've seen the concrete trucks come out and go straight down Hampden rd) and New River Village and endless other trucks going east/west particularly to access the industrial park on tottenham lane it doesn't look like it will go away. Not to get too *woo ooo* about it but isn't there also going to be a concrete factory over the other side of the railway sometime soon?
I am around at many different times of the day and evening and feel I'm pretty well placed to make a judgment about whether there are more trucks using my/Hampden rd. It is serious folks... there really is an increase in volume.
I'd love some feedback from others on this as I really can't believe I'd be the only one to have noticed....
Oh , another point on action- Kate at the police has suggested any I/we contact some of the companies involved directly to alert them to the fact that it has been reported to the police and perhaps they might like to have their drivers use alternative(legal) routes to avoid penalties.
The 3 that spring to mind at the moment are:
O'Donovans, Murphys and I'm not sure who to contact specifically but whomever is in charge of the work going on at Hornsey station on the Mosque side.
I've just spent the morning on this, so will have to update later about possible further calls...
*phew*
I'm off for a cuppa I think....
Tags for Forum Posts: 7.5t, Ladder traffic solutions, Lorries on the Ladder, Wightman Road, concrete factory, hampden road, heavy lorries, heavy lorry, hgv, lausanne road, More…
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Wightman Rd runs north/south, the ladder roads east/west... The long way around is surely Green Lanes/Turnpike Lane. I mean, to get to Wightman Rd these guys come from West Green Rd and get onto Wightman via a ladder rd as soon as they can at the moment.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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One of the main priorities for the SNT (Safer Neighbourhood Team) is to deal with traffic problems. Clearly, trucks using the ladder roads is one of these problems. I expect the SNT to use one of their shifts staking out the problem roads we have pointed out and pulling these trucks over and fining them, as well as phoning up owners with a follow up call.
They have told me that some time was spent on this last year; I think an hour or two. They caught no-one. Either the problem has got worse since then or, they were staking out the wrong roads or, they were walking up the passage at the time and missing all the trucks!
But I do want to see some action on this!! Hello SNT ... your response please. :)
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Permalink Reply by Harringay SNT on
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The biggest problem we have with this is time. As Matt stated at the request of Adam we spent two three hour shifts in Fairfax Road and got nothing. There were however a number that were just under the weight limit.
You need to be aware that our main concerns at the moment are Anti-Social Behaviour in Cavendish Road and Sydney Road. Ciminal Damage and associated Anti-Social Behaviour in our betting establishments. Tackling our currently very high levels of Motor Vehicle crime and Burglaries.
We do keep our eyes open during patrols but once again available time is against us. We have only three police officers with powers to deal as PCSO`s do not have these powers. We work Forty hours a week and some of this is taken up dealing with arrests, paperwork and any Aid commitments or any training days we may have. Using what time is left has to cover Thirty Nine Roads and Finsbury Park. It certainly helps when people are contacting companies direct as residents are around so much longer than we are.
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Thanks for getting back on this Glyn. I know there are time pressures. I didn't know the PSCO's couldn't deal with this. It might be an idea to start with Hampden Rd and Falkland/Frobisher rds when you next do this.
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1 hour between 6:15 and 7:15 in the morning would net you a few at the moment in Lausanne Rd.
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Permalink Reply by Anette on
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Rachael, well done for flagging this. We have them bouncing up Seymour Road too, and I will try and get names and numbers from now on. My house shakes too, and I am worried about cracks and damage.
Is there anything that can be done with regards to width restrictions on all the Ladder roads? Most of the roads don't have that.
One suggestion would be to narrow the roads even more where the Passage is crossing. Or make the roads really narrow upon entry.
I think that would be the most efficient way of stopping them.
The concrete factory is a huge concern, and we do need to look at this, to prevent danger to both lives and properties.
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There seem to be alot of people next to road humps complaining of their foundations being shook. It's time to think about taking these road humps up, getting rid of them altogether.
A new technology is out for curbing speed which involves a camera at each end of the road measuring a driver's speed between the two. Go over the 20mph speed limit in ladder roads and the driver receives a fine. People soon get the message.
The technology involves wireless communication between the cameras and the use of this should be ratified by the government by year's end. It's being tested right now in Camden.
**** Let's get rid of the humps and bring in the cameras. ****
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I saw that on the cover of the Times last week... I suppose the AA will be recommending machines to interfere in the wireless transmission.... ho hum...
I agree though, the humps don't work, they just make it worse...
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You ready to start up a 'get rid of the road humps campaign' Johnny? Of course, it'll have to go hand in hand with a better solution. Not sure if I like the camera idea either. I prefer Anette's idea of narrowing the entry points so trucks can't get in unless they are;
(a) the council
(b) delivering to a resident / school
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You know, it's not the skip trucks I have a problem with really, it's the road hump. I'm sure I would hardly hear them at all if it were not for the road humps. Bless the council this morning, no skip trucks bothered with us because they were collecting the rubbish in our road between 6 and 7. The council/accord trucks use the road for access sometimes too but they do not speed like the skip trucks and make the house shake. Do they have governors on them?
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Permalink Reply by Adam on
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i disagree that the humps don't work - before they were installed some drivers used these roads as a racetrack. i shot some video before and after the humps were installed and the difference in speeds of the vast majority of the drivers was considerate - happy to show this to anyone who has forgotten how much worse it was before
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Our traffic used to be a lot more two way, for instance to remove them from Warham Rd would be a disaster but mostly we had people negotiating past one another. I think we were a special case but I only saw the odd speeding driver and they did a lot less damage than a speeding skip. Not only do the skip trucks not slow down to 20, I am sure they are going as fast as they possibly can.
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