This is a very belated and much too brief note about some of the points discussed at the Palmers Green ward forum that was held on 9th January. Readers who were at the meeting might wish to add more detail or provide their own interpretation of the outcomes of the meeting, which weren't entirely clear!
Many of the residents at the standing-room only meeting had come along in the hopes of hearing some definite news about plans for a controlled parking zone (CPZ) in Osborne Road, introduction of a one-way system in Osborne and neighbouring streets, and the creation of a low-traffic neighbourhood covering the whole of the "Connaught Gardens quieter neighbourhood" - the roughly triangular area bounded by Hedge Lane, Green Lanes, the North Circular Road and the Cambridge Roundabout. Despite the presence at the meeting of David Taylor, head of traffic and transportation, and Richard Eason, the lead council officer for the quieter neighbourhoods programme, they all went home disappointed.
CPZ consultation
The day before the ward forum meeting a statutory consultation was launched about a controlled parking zone in Osborne Road - see this page on the council website for details and to send in objections.
This was supposed to be the final stage of a consultation process that started some time ago, when petitions were received from Osborne and Windsor Roads. On the basis of feedback from the two streets, the council is proposing a CPZ in Osborne only, as Windsor residents voted against a CPZ in their street (by a narrow margin).
However, it was evident that residents of surrounding streets, especially Windsor Road and New River Crescent, were very concerned that cars unable to park in Osborne Road would instead use their roads. In fact, it soon became clear that treating a single road in this manner makes little sense.
The outcome of the discussions seems to be that, depending on responses to the current consultation, the council might be willing to revisit the proposals and in effect restart the consultation.
As was pointed out from the floor of the meeting, the council might be well advised to abandon its policy of only consulting on CPZs once a street had raised a petition. It would make more sense, reduce bureaucracy and speed up the process if the council were to adopt a policy of CPZs being the default option in areas where there is insufficient off-street parking relative to the number (and size!) of vehicles owned by residents.
The consultation remains open until 29th January - letstalk.enfield.gov.uk/OsborneRoadCPZ1.
A low-traffic neighbourhood for "Connaught Gardens"
The Connaught Garden quieter neighbourhood proposals that the council consulted on in 2017. These would have done nothing for the residents of Callard Avenue
At the previous ward forum David Taylor had provided approximate dates for when announcements would be made about proposals for traffic-calming measures in the "Connaught Gardens" area, but at the January meeting Richard Eason announced, to the dismay of many attendees, that work was "paused" and that he could not give any idea of the new timeframes.
The main reasons were (a) the realisation that previous planning had completely failed to include measures to relieve the residents of Callard Avenue (in fact, they would probably exacerbate the situation) and (b) the council's lack of resources. They are only able to develop plans for one quieter neighbourhood at a time, and the Fox Lane scheme is taking rather longer than anticipated. Richard said that the team was working through several hundred responses to the Fox Lane consultation and he did not know how long this would take. (So much for the conviction of many people at the following week's Fox Lane meeting that the council takes no notice whatever of objections and just does what it wanted to do in the first place!)
Once a definitive plan for Fox Lane had been finalised, the team would be able to start work on Connaught Gardens.
I think it's fair to say that this announcement made quite a few attendees angry, especially the residents of Callard Avenue. There was also dismay expressed about the failure to solve congestion in Windsor and Osborne Roads, the absence of a cross-borough 20mph speed limit and the lack of a pedestrian phase at the Green Lanes/Bourne Hill/Hedge Lane junction.
