Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Bid to ease car park 'anarchy' at the Arena has stalled
The Hornsey Journal reports that plans to break the traffic gridlock at the Arena retail park have stalled - despite being given the green light three months ago.
Some landowners in the Arena Retail Park in Green Lanes, Harringay, have failed to sign up to a scheme proposed by Sainsbury's to overhaul access, it is claimed.
Full story here
Some landowners in the Arena Retail Park in Green Lanes, Harringay, have failed to sign up to a scheme proposed by Sainsbury's to overhaul access, it is claimed.
Full story here
Tags for Forum Posts: Arena, Sainsbury's Story, green lanes, planning, traffic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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They have identified one of the problems as being the very short time the green light is shown on exiting. At the moment it's about 6 seconds which is about time for two cars to go through. I can't see why they can't adjust this, even as a trial.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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From what I could tell they did adjust the lights & things were better (except in the weekend) but it seems to be back to a shorter time again.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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And how about the quote in the story from the Council. Trying to wash their hands of the matter or what?
A council spokeswoman said: "This is a private matter between Wildmoor Properties and Sainsbury's PLC, which requires private agreement. The council will continue to use everything in its statutory powers to work to resolve this situation. The use of the council's exceptional powers of compulsory acquisition has not been ruled out.
It shouldn't be a private matte at all. It's one of community interest surely.
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It may be that Wildmoor own the whole site and that consequently the access roads are regarded as private. Where the Council is responsible, and perhaps at fault, is in giving planning permission for development for which the infrastructure is insufficient. I have posed the question before - what would happen if there were a fire at Sainsbury's at 5pm on a Saturday when the roads are gridlocked ?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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That sounds an awful lot like a threat John D...
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I repeat John D, It shouldn't be a private matter at all. It's one of community interest surely, especially because, as you point out the Council are responsible for allowing the mess in the first place. What were their criteria? They asked Wildmoor to carry out their own traffic survey and based their decision on that! Can you credit that. Bet there are a few people who've applied fro planning permission and been refused who wish ot was that easy.
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That pedestrian crossing at Endymion was introduced by the council wasn't it? It is the reason the lights for turning left don't work so well. We now have time every cycle devoted to pedestrians.
I am keen for the chaos to continue. We no longer shop at Sainsburys and Ocado are very good at selling me nice bottles of ale to keep in the fridge.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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It's a bit like the traffic situation here more generally - there is some fiddling that we could do to improve flow but ultimately there is just too much traffic. Yes, the lights could be green for a bit longer - but that only works if there is some room on Green Lanes for the traffic to move into. All to often that just isn't true (especially when turning right out of Arena). John's right - having a pedestrian crossing at the Endymion junction probably makes it worse (but it's still a wonderful thing to have all the same).
I feel very gloomy about the whole situation. I never go there by car, avoid driving round there at the weekend and recommend that my friends never use it. It was a stupid decision to go ahead with it and I'm appalled that Haringey are trying to wash their hands of it. But as I say, I really can't see what solutions there are given the state of traffic on Green Lanes and the fact that the only way in and out of Arena has to navigate Green Lanes.
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Sainsbury's has been there for years and there was never a traffic problem as such before. Same with Homebase. Both stores have been expanded and cleaned up and I'm very happy about that. The only other differences are a few other shops such as Next & Argos which don't attract that much custom relative to Sainsbury's & Homebase. The Arena development is actually quite small.
Maybe a supermarket has closed down in the surrounding area and therefore we have the extra traffic? Other than that it must be something to do with the road layout.
Richard of Wildmoor Properties is a pretty approachable sort of fellow. Maybe HOL should have a chat with him. Good first article for Liz's new radio podcast to be!
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Ikea had a £1 charge in place for a while but unfortunately lots of people suddenly turn into Daily Mail readers when it comes to anything to do with the selfish individual needing to win out over a common sense collective approach to resolving problems. The £1 charge was dropped.
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Permalink Reply by Caroline on
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I'm no fan of of the Arena but I don't agree that the Council made a stupid decision in agreeing its expansion. On the face of it, it is the perfect location for a shopping centre: 4 major bus routes, walking distance to a tube station, next door to a railway station and easy access to a railway station on another line. From a transport point of view it would be hard to object to the location. If people are stupid enough to drive there and value their time so little that they are happy to sit stationary in the car park for hours at a time so be it.
However, I appreciate that it causes congestion on Green Lanes and makes our lives rather difficult at weekends. Something needs to be done but it is likely that most of the suggested solutions, such as rephasing the traffic lights would be likely to cause further back up of trafic on Green Lanes itself.
Unfortunately, Matt I think that anybody who is willing to drive there would be unlikely to be put off by a £1 charge. How about the radical option of masively reducing the amont of car parking and improving pedestrain access? Just think of the community gardens and allotments we could create on that amount of land! Wildmoor could sell some of it for housing and use the receipt to provide free shopping trolleys for all Harringay residents (preferably whicker). We could design a logo for it.
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