Healthy Streets

Enfield Council's recently announced plans for a new cycling and walking route will mean that the important shopping, travel and employment hub at Southgate Circus will for the first time be safely accessible by bike from the Fox Lane LTN and Palmers Green. However, continuing the route east of PG to the Cambridge Roundabout will require bold measures to make Hazelwood Lane safe for cycling.

Enfield Council's initial proposed route for the Southgate Circus to Palmers Green section of the planned new active travel route runs along High Street before going through the Meadway Estate to access Fox Lane

Enfield Council's Journeys and Places Team is inviting members of the public to input ideas and comments into the design of a new walking and cycling route from Southgate Station to Edmonton via Palmers Green, intended to plug one of the many remaining gaps in the borough's safe cycling network.

The Southgate Circus to Great Cambridge Junction Walking and Cycling Route will take advantage of the quietened streets in the Fox Lane low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) before crossing Green Lanes near the Fox pub and continuing along Hazelwood Lane and Connaught Gardens.

As stated on the Let's Talk Enfield website, the new route "will provide a quiet, safe, and secure route to encourage more people to choose to walk, wheel and cycle in the borough. This in turn will bring the benefits of keeping children and adults healthy and fit, reduce motor traffic, and improve air quality."

For this early stage of public engagement, the council is using an online tool which allows residents to input their views by placing coloured pins on a map. The map shows the council's initial proposals for the route, but without any detail of their thinking about the particular type of infrastructure used, eg segregated cycle lanes, improved junctions or road crossings etc. The draft route is surrounded by a wider shaded area, so presumably the public are invited to add pins anywhere within this area.

From Palmers Green to the Cambridge Roundabout the early route proposal goes along Hazelwood Lane and the stretch of Connaught Gardens that runs parallel to the North Circular

The map will be available for public input until midnight on Sunday 30th April, following which

"We will be taking on board the feedback gathered which, along with early monitoring data and information, will inform the designs for the proposed walking and cycling route from Southgate to Great Cambridge Junction. We will develop a proposed plan that will be presented to the community later in 2023. Further development of the design and implementation will be subject to funding and statutory consultation."

In fact, according to a table (reproduced below) forming part of the Communication, Engagement and Consultation Plan, the council should be publishing its proposals before the end of this month.

Palmers Green to the Cambridge Roundabout - how will it be made safer?

Traffic counts carried out in 2019 showed high volumes of "rat running" traffic travelling along Connaught Gardens and the bottom part of Hazelwood Lane. Unless this traffic is removed, it is hard to conceive that a safe cycling route could be created through this area

Between Southgate Circus and Palmers Green the new route will initially use segregated cycle lanes along High Street, before passing through the Fox Lane LTN, which already has little traffic and is free from the drivers who used to cut through the area paying scant regard to the speed limit. However, once the route crosses Green Lanes heading towards Edmonton, it's unclear what measures the council has in mind to to "provide a quiet, safe, and secure route". Currently, Hazelwood Lane, the route shown on the map, is a very unfriendly environment for anyone on a bike, but is probably too narrow for cycle lanes.

Enfield Council's proposals dating from 2020 for an LTN in the Connaught Gardens Quieter Neighbourhood (click on the map for a larger version)In 2020, when the council was planning to create an LTN covering the entire triangular area bounded by Green Lanes, Hedge Lane and the North Circular, it published traffic counts which revealed (to no-one's great surprise) that large numbers of drivers were using Connaught Gardens and the bottom end of Hazelwood Lane to cut through between major roads (Hedge Lane and either the North Circular or Green Lanes).

People living nearby have been complaining for years about this traffic and in particular about drivers turning corners too fast. However, while a one-way system was introduced in 2020 to reduce traffic in the northernmost corner of the "Connaught Gardens Quieter Neighbourhood", the much more serious problems at the southern end have still not been addressed and it is unclear whether the council still intends to complete this project or instead shift its emphasis to tackling traffic problems elsewhere in the borough.

Realistically, though, it's hard to see how a safe cycle route could be run along Hazelwood Lane without either creating segregated bike lanes (difficult) or removing most of the traffic and slowing down the remainder, which would need an LTN along the lines of that proposed in 2020.