Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council explains decisions to close & re-open Ladder roads
A few days ago, I questioned the Council's claims that the Ladder roads were reopened to traffic as a result of a consultation with residents. I emailed a number of questions to the Council and this morning received a reply which I reproduce below. My questions appear at the start of each paragraph.
What was the sequence of events regarding the decisions to open/close the roads?
On Thursday 7 January, the council received one email request to close Duckett Road. We inspected Duckett and other ladder roads and, as they were not on the priority list of roads agreed in the Council gritting strategy, suggested possible closure of some of the ladder roads.
The police were consulted for their view and, at that stage, they supported closure of the roads due to the icy conditions. With this in mind the Head of Sustainable Transport, made the decision to close the roads late Thursday afternoon and instructed our contractor to put the closures in place as soon as possible. During Friday it became clear that dealing with the icy conditions by closing the roads was not a practical or sustainable option for a number of reasons. Firstly because the closures were being moved or removed and, although we were inspecting the closures, neither the council nor the Police could enforce them effectively. Secondly we were receiving requests from residents to re-open the roads. Gritting the roads was still not an option as we were needed to conserve salt supplies and more snow was forecast over the weekend. We therefore decided to open the roads and put up caution signs. This was discussed and agreed with the Police and the barriers removed and "Caution Icy Road Ahead" warning signs put up on the roads on Friday evening. If it was emails to Highways that drove the decision to re-open the roads, how many emails were received? Were they from Harringay residents or from elsewhere? During Friday, the council received a number of telephone calls from residents about the closures. This included:
At what level was the decision to re-open taken, officer or member level?
The decision to re-open was at officer level.
If the decision to close was taken on police advice, why were the roads re-opened against that advice?
Both the decision to close and to re-open the roads was made in consultation with the police.
Were the roads inspected prior to their re-opening? If so what criteria were used to judge them safe for traffic?
The roads were re-inspected during Friday. It was considered that the general driver advice and the warning signs provided sufficient warning about the icy conditions.
Fair enough. The officers did the best they could in demanding conditions, but the response leaves a number of questions in my mind. I sent this short reply:
Many thanks Nilgun. My thanks also to Beverley Taylor for a useful and clear response.
I completely understand that it is not always possible to treat all roads, particularly during an extreme bout of weather such as this. That being the case I wonder if there is a need to develop a policy for closing particular roads under certain conditions.
It seems to me from Beverley's response that the decisions were taken with the best information available at the time in an effort to respond to resident feedback. However what is not clear is that established criteria were available for the officers to refer to. This led to roads being closed and reopened whilst conditions remained unchanged.
To those of us who live on the roads, particularly the hillier ones, it was abundantly clear that, whilst untreated, the roads were unsafe for vehicles. It wasn't possible to walk on them without falling over, let alone drive on them.
I would have thought that the 'soft closure' technique that was used would still have allowed access to medical services and school deliveries and I'm not sure why a car owner would be worried about parking since the roads were undriveable.
We've heard that four or five cars were damaged in each of Beresford, Allison and Hewitt after the roads were reopened. Also a number of motorists got stranded and had to abandon their cars. In this instance both residents and motorists who use the roads would have been better served had the closure stayed in place for a further 24 hours.
A policy on road closure in extreme conditions, or at least a set of criteria for officer to refer to, might be a step in the right direction.
Best regards,
Hugh
What was the sequence of events regarding the decisions to open/close the roads?
On Thursday 7 January, the council received one email request to close Duckett Road. We inspected Duckett and other ladder roads and, as they were not on the priority list of roads agreed in the Council gritting strategy, suggested possible closure of some of the ladder roads.
The police were consulted for their view and, at that stage, they supported closure of the roads due to the icy conditions. With this in mind the Head of Sustainable Transport, made the decision to close the roads late Thursday afternoon and instructed our contractor to put the closures in place as soon as possible. During Friday it became clear that dealing with the icy conditions by closing the roads was not a practical or sustainable option for a number of reasons. Firstly because the closures were being moved or removed and, although we were inspecting the closures, neither the council nor the Police could enforce them effectively. Secondly we were receiving requests from residents to re-open the roads. Gritting the roads was still not an option as we were needed to conserve salt supplies and more snow was forecast over the weekend. We therefore decided to open the roads and put up caution signs. This was discussed and agreed with the Police and the barriers removed and "Caution Icy Road Ahead" warning signs put up on the roads on Friday evening. If it was emails to Highways that drove the decision to re-open the roads, how many emails were received? Were they from Harringay residents or from elsewhere? During Friday, the council received a number of telephone calls from residents about the closures. This included:
- Residents wanting to know if there was alternative parking provision and stating a preference to be able to return to their roads to park.
- Concern from a heavily pregnant woman about medical access.
- A request from South Harringay School to re-open the roads so that they could receive a catering deliver. They informed the council that they would have to close on Monday 11 January if they were not able to receive this delivery.
At what level was the decision to re-open taken, officer or member level?
The decision to re-open was at officer level.
If the decision to close was taken on police advice, why were the roads re-opened against that advice?
Both the decision to close and to re-open the roads was made in consultation with the police.
Were the roads inspected prior to their re-opening? If so what criteria were used to judge them safe for traffic?
The roads were re-inspected during Friday. It was considered that the general driver advice and the warning signs provided sufficient warning about the icy conditions.
Fair enough. The officers did the best they could in demanding conditions, but the response leaves a number of questions in my mind. I sent this short reply:
Many thanks Nilgun. My thanks also to Beverley Taylor for a useful and clear response.
I completely understand that it is not always possible to treat all roads, particularly during an extreme bout of weather such as this. That being the case I wonder if there is a need to develop a policy for closing particular roads under certain conditions.
It seems to me from Beverley's response that the decisions were taken with the best information available at the time in an effort to respond to resident feedback. However what is not clear is that established criteria were available for the officers to refer to. This led to roads being closed and reopened whilst conditions remained unchanged.
To those of us who live on the roads, particularly the hillier ones, it was abundantly clear that, whilst untreated, the roads were unsafe for vehicles. It wasn't possible to walk on them without falling over, let alone drive on them.
I would have thought that the 'soft closure' technique that was used would still have allowed access to medical services and school deliveries and I'm not sure why a car owner would be worried about parking since the roads were undriveable.
We've heard that four or five cars were damaged in each of Beresford, Allison and Hewitt after the roads were reopened. Also a number of motorists got stranded and had to abandon their cars. In this instance both residents and motorists who use the roads would have been better served had the closure stayed in place for a further 24 hours.
A policy on road closure in extreme conditions, or at least a set of criteria for officer to refer to, might be a step in the right direction.
Best regards,
Hugh
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joe Bailey on
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Nice response Hugh!
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Firstly because the closures were being moved or removed and, although we were inspecting the closures, neither the council nor the Police could enforce them effectively
Was this a valid defense for the lack of enforcement of other "crimes" or is it the first time it's been used?
Perhaps they need to put actual gates on the roads that were the worst problem so that they can close them properly next time this happens. Emergency services and schools will have keys but nobody else. People who actually live on the road can go back to treating it as a two way with one entrance (the previous exit) temporarily.
As for
Concern from a heavily pregnant woman about medical access
OK, so they open the road but the ambulance still can't get there because of the ice. This is no excuse.
Residents wanting to know if there was alternative parking provision and stating a preference to be able to return to their roads to park.
Not park, crash into their neighbours vehicles and then try to sneak away. This was the whole reason you closed the road in the first place.
A request from South Harringay School to re-open the roads so that they could receive a catering deliver. They informed the council that they would have to close on Monday 11 January if they were not able to receive this delivery.
I think Hugh has addressed this one...
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Permalink Reply by GillianM on
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It does all seem a bit weak. We can't keep the barriers up because people keep moving them, and we can't reinstall them because a delivery driver / paramedic / expectant dad would not be able to move them if they needed to. Hmm.
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Residents wanting to know if there was alternative parking provision and stating a preference to be able to return to their roads to park.
. . . though of course the powers that be would have preferred that these Duckett dwellers etc would have continued to hog my stretch of 'footway' on Wightman.
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