Camden Council is proposing a redesign of the intersection which has seen 15 crashes in five years
Designs for upgraded roads and new cycle lanes at an “intimidating” Camden junction have sparked fears among local traders that they could hurt their businesses.
In October the council floated new proposals to improve the “unpleasant” York Way and Agar Grove intersection bordering Islington to make it safer for walking and cycling. The roads, often dominated by heavy traffic, could see new mini zebra crossings, pedestrian islands and segregated cycle tracks with their own traffic signals.
Designs to install a ‘Circulating Cycle Stage’, also known as a cyclops junction, would bring the crossings closer to layouts used in Manchester, Cambridge and the Netherlands. But while local cycling campaign groups have praised the “clever” designs they believe will ensure fewer traffic collisions, local businesses operating at the junction have hit out at the plans.
“It will ruin my business,” said Taniea Dulal, who bought the decades-old Grove Tyres last year. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), she said she was blindsided by the proposals, having earlier received permission from the council to allow customers to change car tyres on the yellow lines outside her shop on Agar Grove.
Taniea fears that if the space outside is replaced by a segregated cycle lane, her business will lose that edge and customers will stop coming. “I’ll end up living in the street. I don’t know why they didn’t take this shop into consideration,” she said, adding that she had contacted the council about this but had not heard back.
The council later informed the LDRS it would be responding to her directly, but said it did not consider changing tyres on this road at present to be safe.
The owner of York Way’s Villa Café, Yaman Kaya, who is also a regular volunteer for Islington’s Labour Party, worries that if the parking space right outside his building goes it will make things harder not just for delivery drivers but for his elderly mother, who lives upstairs and already struggles with walking.
“I never felt the road was unsafe,” he said, but argued that the designs would leave less space for the lorries to pass through every day. Yaman told the LDRS there was already too little space between the heavy goods vehicles and pedestrians, and recalled one episode when a truck spilled stones into the road which were then hit by passing cars, ricocheting into his window and cracking it.
Campaign group Camden Cyclists backed the new designs they feel will address the vulnerability of road users like children cycling to school and less confident bike riders. “The junction currently sees around one in every five road users travelling by bike. There is a real need for better cycling infrastructure here,” the group stated.
Dursan Talbat, who owns Primrose Café on York Way, accepted that the roads needed to be made safer. His employee recounted one time where she helped a cyclist who was knocked off her bike while trying to make a left turn.
“She was shaking and stuck in the middle of the road waiting for an ambulance for a long time,” she told the LDRS.
But the café team added that previous redesigns had already damaged the local economy. “We used to be so busy when cars could park and stop by for takeaway coffees and sandwiches,” he said, until the existing cycle lane outside the front door was installed.
Camden Council says the designs would have “minimal impact on current vehicle traffic flows, which has been demonstrated by traffic modelling”. The Labour-run administration added that traffic counts carried out in July 2025 at York Way, just north of the junction, recorded a seven-day average of 8,600 motor vehicles and 1,900 people cycling per day.
The council also told the LDRS the width of traffic lanes and number of parking spaces would stay the same, and should the redesign go ahead the Town Hall would monitor economic data.
Cllr Adam Harrison, Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden, said the proposals were still at consultation stage, and the council was ready to consider and respond to all public comments.
“Your voice matters and we’re here to listen,” he said, but emphasised that safety of residents and road users was at the heart of the new designs.
Speaking to the LDRS, Cllr Harrison said: “Over the past five years, there have been 15 collisions at this junction – and that is 15 too many. We want local business owners to know that we’ve carefully developed the proposal to be as unintrusive as possible.
“There’s much to be hopeful about – we’ve seen in similar rollouts across the borough that local business benefits from improved walking and cycling environments.”
The consultation on the proposed York Way junction redesign closes on Thursday, November 20.
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