Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Don't Forget - Wightman Road Closed for 5 months from Next Tuesday (29th March)
In case it's escaped your notice or slipped your mind, Wightman Road will be closed to through traffic for five months starting next Tuesday 29th March.
This will be a significant dislocation to North London traffic movement. So much so that warning notices have been placed as far away as Archway. No doubt it will also have a significant impact on Harringay's traffic.
However, there really is no alternative to at least partial road closure. The railway bridge between Alroy and Wightman roads is being replaced and there will simply be no road for a few months!
One option the Council could have taken would have been to simply reroute the traffic via the Ladder rung roads. It is to their credit, however, they recognised that with over 16,000 vehicles a day using Wightman Road, this would have placed an intolerable burden on our narrow residential roads, already beset by undue traffic volumes.
After consultation with residents, the solution decided upon is to place blocks at regular intervals along Wightman Road, in effect creating clusters of two or three rung roads. Whilst this will retain unfettered access for residents. it will render the whole Ladder, including Wightman, useless as a rat run. You can clearly see the details on the full size pdf map attached below.
Quite what it will mean for traffic in Harringay, Haringey and further afield remains to be seen. Those of us who have been working with the Council on this very much hope that traffic will quickly find other routes. It's fair to say, however, that at very best, we're going to experience some very heavy congestion on Green Lanes for a month or so.
At the same time, the Harringay traffic study will continue. The coincident timing of this piece of work with the bridge closure may be fortunate in that it will give the consultants an opportunity to study the outcome of diverting traffic away from Harringay.
A pdf copy of the Wightman Road closure is attached, along with some Council-produced documentation. You can stay up to date with what's happening on the Wightman Road closure on a dedicated page on the council website here.
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic, wightman bridge, wightman bridge closure
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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I think this is a good idea Maddy.
Hugh, you had a thing a while back where the top three or so discussions were headlined as it were. I thought that was a really useful format. Something like this is one of those Big Things we should all be aware of.
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It is there Maddy. (Thanks Hugh..) Look at the top of the page above the list of forum topics.
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Oh now I see it - but I missed it the first time and was actually looking out for it. Could it be a bit more obvious? Could the map be up there, as I think most people really do not yet understand the extent of the road closure.
I do feel as if I'm asking you to do the council's job for them by informing as many people as possible, but I think it's the only way to mitigate even more chaos.
For example a friend who works at a clinic in St Ann's had heard nothing about the disruption, which will clearly affect both her and her patients' ability to get there (if coming from the West of the borough).
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Maddy, my purpose in adding the front page link was to allow people who know about the issue to easily find a place to get updates. In as far as HoL's role in informing people is concerned I think it's done what it can. People who already use HoL should be aware. Those who don't wouldn't get to see a home page notice no matter how big it is. I see that there have been over 8,000 views of this thread. So that along with the consequent word of mouth it created will have done something for local people.
It's a shame the Council letter drop didn't materialise yet. It's strange that it hasn't because when we met the Council two weeks ago it was pretty much ready to go. I can only assume that they hit printing or distribution problems.
Having said that, both HoL and the Council mail drop would only reach local people. I imagine the real group we want to target is the rat runners who probably come from far and wide. So in my opinion the critical gap is in roadside warnings. However, the Council has arranged for marshals to be at hand so I hope that within a week or two, the bulk of those who will be affected by the closure will know about it.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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On another point re the Fire service, do we not still get response from the station in Hornsey? If so they use Wightman Rd for ladder callouts. Going around the houses, so to speak, Turnpike/GL will delay their arrival significantly during the day. Nights or early mornings should still be OK.
Turning a fire truck or even rubbish truck around at the top of a dead end road such as Sydney Rd is going to be onerous to say the least! Guessing it will be possible to drag these barriers across the road for access when necessary.
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That we will not know until the barriers are down Matt.
However, the council have said the emergency services are part of the planning for this road closure, as you would expect. So, hopefully they will have worked this issue out.
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Justin; yes but in the meantime we talk amongst ourselves speculating instead of getting detailed information from the horse's mouth. The council hasn't come onto this thread, nor any of our elected representatives and no mail shot. Not good enough at all.
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OK Hugh, I take your point, although I imagine 8000 views doesn't necessarily mean 8000 people - I have 'viewed' several times when there were new posts.
It's disgraceful that there's been no letter drop - they managed to do one about Finsbury Park events last week, and could have combined the drop and saved money! I still think there will be people living in the area who haven't heard about it, as well as 'rat-runners' as you call them.
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