Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Wood Green car-free plan axed
Proposals to transform Wood Green into a car-free shopping haven have been scrapped.
The plan had been drawn up in a bid to breathe new life into Wood Green town centre and establish it as a successful metropolitan shopping centre.
Pedestrianisation was mooted as one part of the image overhaul which Haringey Council hopes will attract “affluent” spenders to the area.
The proposals aim to tackle what the council sees as three decades of decline.
But at a planning meeting last Thursday council officers said they had dropped the idea following opposition from residents consulted earlier this year.
Around 450 people signed an online petition amid fears that banning cars from High Road would increase traffic in the Harringay Ladder.
Eddie Finnegan, of Wightman Road, said: "Bus-only or pedestrianisation of Wood Green High Road is superficially attractive until you consider the consequences. As a Harringay resident for 31 years I know what those will be. Traffic will be atrocious and it will only get worse."
Councillor Gina Adamou, who represents Harringay ward, said Green Lanes traders were also concerned that shutting off the high street would drive customers away.
The pedestrianisation plan had been devised to tackle the loss of trade in Wood Green.
Customers and high-quality retailers have turned their back on the area in favour of shopping centres at Brent Cross and Enfield, the council said. It suggested that pedestrianising High Road, or making it only open to buses, would make it safer and more attractive to shoppers.
Councillor Ray Dodds, deputy chairman of the planning commitee, said: “I know there are concerns, but there’s also an opportunity to do something really positive for Wood Green.
"Wood Green’s high street is dying. You go into Marks and Spencers and you can only get the end-of -the-line stuff, for anything better you have to go to elsewhere. That’s what Wood Green has been reduced to. We have to be more imaginative."
Officers said "no commitment" would be given to a bus-only High Road without a review of the impact of traffic on surrounding streets. But they said the council’s vision includes better bus routes and improved cycling facilities.
If the plan is approved, Shopping City will be redeveloped with the possibility of a department store moving to the area. The number of fast-food outlets and budget shops would be reduced.
Public services like a polyclinics and police “shops” would be introduced and Wood Green Central Library would be refurbished or relocated to a new premises in High Road.
A decision on the plans will be taken at a cabinet meeting on October 14.
more here scroll down on the news page
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic, wightman Road, wood green, wood green spd
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Alison P on
-
Isobel
My concern was simply that proper research be done before taking the massive decision to shut a major road leading into the area, and that was the basis of my comments to the consultation. Did you contribute?
I don't share your faith in the powers that be, my best justification for this being the sad and sorry mess that is the Arena shopping village. If Haringey did consult experts before that, then they didn't do a very good job did they.
-
Permalink Reply by John D on
-
What people don't seem to realise is that traffic is self-limiting. I don't drive through Wood Green High Road because it's so congested, particularly since they widened the pavements. I never drive at more than 20mph down Wightman Road because you just can't. And the 20 mph limit on the ladder roads is a joke- you can't drive over the speed bumps faster than 10mph without ripping your suspension off.
We don't need more regulation and deterrence of traffic - we need more education and encouragement to use public transport. Didn't someone say recently that the carrot works better han the stick ?
-
Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
-
I have to say, I don't buy this Wightman Road thing.. OK the rung streets are 100% residential, but Wightman IMO is not residential.. It's a local connecting thoroughfare, like St Ann's or West Green Road and therefore will be used by traffic..
Of course, people live on Wightman, but they also live on Green Lanes, perhaps more so, but you can't call that residential either..
-
Permalink Reply by rahman on
-
Wightman road is semi-residential. Its not comparable to Green Lanes which is in effect a long row of shops with flats above. There are only three or four shops on the whole of Wightman road, even though it is a pretty long stretch. people who live on Green Lanes do so accepting that it is essentially a commercial road.
I think the only problem with Wightman Road is that people who have bought there in the last thirty years would have done so knowing that there is a busy road on their doorstep. Its probably difficult for the Council to accept objections by its residents to it being used as a through road. Traffic problems should have been glaringly obvious at the time of moving in.
-
-
Hey Rahman, I have to say I agree .. what a change.. eh? :o)
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- …
- 5
- 6
- 7
- Next ›
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
