Response submitted to transport planners
Thanks everyone for your emails, notes, phone calls in response to the newsletter, website and flyer. Also a big thanks to everyone who delivered the flyers to every house on the 4 roads.
Based on all of the feedback, we have submitted the following letter to the transport planners. Our main goal is for them to move to the next stage in their process which is the public consultation. This is where everyone individually can register their views, this is only a summary of the feedback to aid them in their process. Please do speak to the ward councillors, and encourage them to move this to a public consultation in the autumn.
More information to come shortly that will address specific questions residents have raised. Have a great rest of the summer.
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Dear Ms Fallows, Re: Proposals by Camden for traffic flow changes in Dartmouth Park
Following your presentation to local groups on 20th June 2018, at which you requested feedback, 4Roads met to discuss your proposals and notified residents of the 4Roads via an electronic newsletter and door dropped flyer. The response has been very encouraging, both backing the overall efforts to finally do something about making all the roads the same from a planning perspective and the courage of the council to tackle the issue of air pollution on the health and well-being of our residents. This comes from over 12 people during our in-person meeting, and then over 50 email responses (there are only ~250 houses on these streets).
We also know that social media has been used to spread the word about the proposals with less context and background information. While we have tried to gain our responses just from the residents we have been working with, others seem to have chosen a more broadcast method that might give you mixed signals back from this stage on the backing to really make a change. Due to this we would really encourage you to move to the public consultation stage so that everyone is given a voice, and everyone is given all of the information with the proper context and background.
Based on the feedback we have received, overwhelming Option 4 should not be considered. We were actually surprised that was put as an option, as the Camden council itself in September 2015 agreed that this was a problem that needed to be solved. Considering the other 3 options, we feel like only Option 1 comes close to actually solving the issue and would be really make Dartmouth Park a community again.
That said, we have several items which would need to be reviewed:
Right Hand turn from Highgate Road onto Chetwynd
Traffic flows that would be diverted up to Swain’s Lane and further north
Understanding of similar schemes to small business, and if any alterations would limit the impact (pedestrian areas, more parking bays, etc)
Only using 1-way systems when it means regaining the sidewalk for use, as long as two biking is maintained; as they have proven to only increase traffic speeds
Data published to predict the number of ‘longer routes’ taken due to the system; as it is very likely to generate a very small amount of extra driving relative to current levels
More of an effort to understand the impacts on the local schools and any modifications for them
Again, a scheme that maintains all local roads for local people
While this seems like a difficult task, we are here to help with the areas that our not our speciality (such as data tracking, etc), and to work with others. We would be very open to working with yourself and a small group of residents before the public consultation to come up with a solution that we know will be robust. There seems to be many that do not want to make the same mistakes from 20 years ago, we are with them, and encourage this type of neighbourhood collaboration. From the beginning, we have always been about local roads for local people.
We look forward to working together to make changes for the health and welfare of the community.