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Coulsdon Town Centre Improvement Scheme
The Coulsdon Inner Relief Road is no more - it has been renamed
the Coulsdon Town Centre Improvement Scheme now that it has been
taken over by Transport for London's Street Management section
from the Government's Highways Agency. Unfortunately the name
change can be regarded as the most significant change to the
revised scheme as it has been designed by the same staff transferred
to the new organisation.
Whilst the proposed road is described as a single carriageway,
as we have argued for, instead of reducing the width of the road,
they have retained the same width as the former scheme but allocated
the western side to a coach and heavy goods vehicle lane, alongside
a pedestrian and cycle route. However, coaches form only a small
part of the traffic and the HGV lane could encourage even more
lorries to use the A23 than at present, whilst the pedestrian
and cycle route is not only of little use to pedestrians, but
potentially dangerous to cyclists. There would also be no saving
in construction costs and no change in the environmental effects
of the scheme in terms of severance and visual impact.
A traffic-light controlled junction is now proposed at the
northern end of the proposed road instead of a roundabout, which
is an improvement, but the scale can still be considered excessive,
requiring needless demolition of houses and resulting in a visually
sterile landscape at the northern end of Coulsdon Town Centre.
The major problems for northbound traffic on the Brighton Road
are the junctions to the north, especially that with Old Lodge
Lane. There is thus the likelihood that the new road will merely
serve to relocate the existing traffic queues in Coulsdon further
to the north. A real solution to the problems must combine any
new road construction with traffic restraint measures and encouragement
of use of public transport.
A suggestion is made that Smitham station should be relocated
slightly to the west next to the bridge over the Brighton Road,
but although this would be beneficial to shoppers, it would be
of disbenefit to the residents of the Stoats Nest and Coulsdon
Woods housing estates on the east side of the railway lines.
The new road would also be constructed through the car parking
area for the station without provision for replacement.
Coulsdon South Station needs a more frequent train service
to encourage greater usage, and it also lacks an adequate area
for car parking and step-free access to the down platform. Almost
certainly the only way to deal with these deficiencies is to
replace it by a new Coulsdon Central station on the site of Coulsdon
North station, linked to increased train services as part of
the 'Thameslink 2000' scheme. A new station would be better sited
to serve the shops and offices in Coulsdon, and also the Coulsdon
Woods and Stoats Nest housing estates. Much or the car parking
provided by the GLC at Coulsdon North could be reused, instead
or merely being landscaped by planting as shown on the new plans.
This could be reached by slip roads from the proposed road, which
could also serve the Coulsdon North Industrial Estate.
Schemes such as this will test whether the new Transport for
London organisation is able to implement a programme of measures
for integrated transport, but the latest plans for Coulsdon fail
to conform to parts of the recently published Mayor's Transport
Strategy. The Transport Group will be discussing these plans
in the coming weeks and of course other members are welcome to
send their own views, or write to "Focus".
John Cunningham
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