Coulsdon West Residents' Association

Reactivation of Croydon centre by the council

An early concern was that ‘people need to feel safe’.  A means to do so is to provide space (where we can) to enable social distancing.  We mapped areas where social distancing  is likely to be a challenge.  These areas include:

•             the High Street with its narrow footways on which there are bus stops, queuing outside Sainsbury’s Local and the cash point etc.    

•             Park Street with a narrow footway on which there are bus stops, and which is narrowed further by the scaffolding and hoarding around the development site.

•             Dingwall Road, on which there are narrow footways (especially on the eastern side and the normally busy bus stop on the narrow footway in front of Boxpark) beside East Croydon Station where GTR has instigated a one-way system for passenger entry and exit.

We used a proportion of the relatively small amount of High Street Recovery Fund (provided by central government for the purposes of facilitating social distancing) to:

•             quickly deploy traffic cones to provide more pedestrian space in carriageways: and

•             stencil onto the footway and ‘reclaimed carriageway’ reminders for people to keep a safe distance.  

As well as advising, encouraging and funding local authorities to provide space to allow social distancing in town centres, central government and TfL are doing the same for local authorities to help them facilitate and encourage more travelling by bike and on foot.    The Secretary of State for Transport has said that central government expects local authorities to make significant changes to their road layouts to give more space to cyclists and pedestrians.

We successfully bid to the DfT for funding to make the temporary schemes within the Town Centre:

•             more robust; and

•             clearer, more legible and understandable;

and to:

•             allow people to walk with greater confidence within the ‘reclaimed carriageway’; 

•             better accommodate and encourage cycling.

We are in the process of evolving the designs and taking account of the important issues you raise as we do so.   

By making streets such as the High Street and Dingwall Road one-way, we are able to free up carriageway space for pedestrians to social distance and still allow cycle access in both directions.  By putting a diagonal closure across Dingwall Road and Lansdowne Road at their junction, we are able to:

·         stop the north bound ‘rat run’ in Dingwall Road / Sydenham Road which drivers use to bypass the Wellelsey Road.  

·         disrupt / make more difficult the westbound ‘rat run’ along Lansdowne Road

·         create space for people leaving East Croydon Station and wanting to cross Dingwall Road into Lansdowne Road

·         provide space for much more cycle parking    

The schemes being evolved/implemented will still be temporary in nature.  As we say on the Council website, ‘Any scheme that proves successful and popular could be made permanent with a formal consultation carried out’.