A council has rejected calls to scrap road layout changes around a South London bridge, which opposition councillors have slammed as a “catastrophe”.
Wandsworth Council redesigned the junction of Putney Bridge Road, Lower Richmond Road and Putney High Street, by Putney Bridge, in a bid to make it easier and safer to cross for pedestrians and cyclists last year.
Wandsworth Conservatives put forward a motion at a council meeting on Wednesday night (July 16) outlining how the “damaging” redesign had dramatically worsened traffic in the already congested area, “choking Putney and impacting drivers, cyclists and bus users”.
The motion said the changes were introduced without an updated traffic study and urged the Labour administration, who took control of the council in 2022, to reverse them.
The works involved removing some pedestrian islands at the junction and making others bigger to allow people to cross in fewer stages, introducing a segregated northbound cycle lane up to the bridge and installing new traffic lights to allow cyclists to cross a few seconds before vehicles behind. The main phase of the works was carried out from September to December last year.
Conservative councillor Ethan Brooks told the meeting that as soon as the works were completed it was clear “the new layout had left us worse off, one lane in either direction onto the bridge, traffic worse than ever – this was a mistake, everybody knows it”.
Councillor Brooks said: “We all see the queues stretching back to Erpingham Road and beyond, down Lower Richmond Road and all the way back along Wandsworth Park down Putney Bridge Road. Putney Hill is jammed and the high street a car park, even the side streets aren’t spared.”
He added: “Putney needs hope – hope that the traffic situation will improve, that we might hear people’s worry and that the choking congestion is not the future we’re being consigned to.”
Conservative councillor Emmeline Owens added: “Anyone who’s tried to get their children to school, to sports fixtures, or elderly parents to hospital appointments knows the reality. It is now a daily struggle just to cross Putney – whether you’re on a bus or in a car. Since the roadworks began last September, and even after their completion, traffic has become enormously worse.”
Labour councillor Jenny Yates, Cabinet Member for Transport, said she understood residents’ frustration and that tackling the congestion was a top priority. She told the meeting there were a number of reasons for congestion in Putney, including the closure of Hammersmith Bridge to vehicles in 2019.
Councillor Yates said the council had already made changes to ease traffic following the redesign and it was working with Transport for London (TfL) to introduce further measures, including updating the sequencing of traffic lights on Lower Richmond Road to give drivers more time to pass, providing more room on Putney High Street to receive vehicles from Putney Bridge Road and installing new double yellow lines.
But she stressed the administration inherited the scheme to redesign the junction from the Conservatives and the Transport Committee, including the opposition, unanimously approved it in 2023. “We were all acting with good intentions, in good faith,” she said. “You, us and our good council officers who worked hard with TfL to try and design a better layout to this complicated junction that would improve it for pedestrians and cyclists without adversely impacting traffic flows.”
Councillor Yates added: “We will continue to work hard with TfL on changes that can be made to help traffic flows through the junction and to do everything we can to ease congestion and address residents’ concerns.”
Putney High Street sits on the route that was named as the most congested in London in 2022, according to a report by traffic researchers INRIX. The report identified the Fulham Road to Morden Hall Road stretch of the A219 southbound, including Putney High Street, as London’s “most congested” route that year. Drivers spent an average of 47 hours a year sitting in traffic on the stretch, it added.
Conservative councillor James Jeffreys said the tweaks put forward in response to the motion “have no timeframe, could have been introduced months ago and won’t touch the sides” as he warned residents’ patience was running thin over the “obvious catastrophe before us”.
The motion was rejected at the end of the debate, with 21 councillors voting in its favour and 27 against.
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