Word and PDF format

24th April 2007.

Save Sloane Square welcomes Council's withdrawal of Crossroads Plan

Word and PDF format

19th March 2007.

PRESS RELEASE

Council propaganda short on facts

Click on the following claims made by RBKC to jump to our response.

You can jump back to here by clicking on the ^ link.

RBKC says:

• The crossroads is to improve the area and not for traffic reasons.
• Proposed layout does not cut a four-lane highway through the middle of the Square; the dominance of traffic will be dramatically reduced.
• The crossroads scheme will not destroy the integrity and historical character of the area.
• There will not be five new sets of traffic lights in the Square.
• The crossroads will not force traffic into surrounding residential streets.
• The Council has not sought to suppress the traffic figures.
• The crossroads scheme will not exacerbate pollution and residential streets will not take the full impact of reassignment.
• The pedestrian areas will not be difficult for pedestrians. It is wrong to say there will not be a crossing between the two pedestrian spaces.
• The bus stop move is inconvenient but the taxi location will be better in Holbein Place.
• The War memorial and Venus fountain will be enhanced by the new layout.
• There is no threat to public safety.
• There is no threat to shopkeepers.
• We shall cut down only four trees.
• The Council is not wasting money on the crossroads scheme.

• ^RBKC says: The crossroads is to improve the area and not for traffic reasons.

SSS says: Sloane Square is beautiful already: it doesn’t need a four-lane road through its middle, acres of paving and granite water plinths. Why is the Council taking half the money from TFL if the crossroads isn’t a road scheme?

• ^RBKC says: Proposed layout does not cut a four-lane highway through the middle of the Square; the dominance of traffic will be dramatically reduced.

SSS says: Can the Council count? The road has four lanes, two in each direction. It will bring traffic to the centre stage of the Square. The Council expect so much traffic that there is no crossing between the two pedestrian areas.

• ^RBKC says: The crossroads scheme will not destroy the integrity and historical character of the area.

SSS says: The Council’s modernistic scheme is out of character and scale with the period buildings in Sloane Square. No-one wants the Square to be festooned with traffic lights. 

• ^RBKC says: There will not be five new sets of traffic lights in the Square.

SSS says: There will be two sets of traffic lights in the middle of the Square, a third on Cliveden Place, a fourth on Sloane Street and a fifth, pedestrian-operated set, on Symons Street. This adds up to FIVE. And they are considering two further sets in Cadogan Gardens because the roads there won’t be able to cope with the traffic.

• ^RBKC says: The crossroads will not force traffic into surrounding residential streets.

SSS says: RBKC’s own figures show huge traffic increases on many roads in Chelsea and Belgravia. In Cadogan Gardens, traffic would go up fourfold (327%) in the morning and no less than eightfold (734%) in the evening. In other streets, such as Walpole Street, there would be an 80% increase.

• ^RBKC says: The Council has not sought to suppress the traffic figures.

SSS says: The Council were repeatedly asked to release the Chelsea traffic figures: they failed to do so until the eve of the consultation, because they were so bad. They wrongly argue that residents are simply choosing between two designs, and that the consultation has nothing to do with traffic. They excluded the figures from the consultation process.

• ^RBKC says: The crossroads scheme will not exacerbate pollution and residential streets will not take the full impact of reassignment.

SSS says: The crossroads plan makes radical changes to the road system in Sloane Square causing dramatic traffic increases in roads such as Cadogan Gardens. Pollution will worsen in these areas: it will also increase in the Square because the multiple traffic lights will cause the traffic to stop and start, and queues to form.

• ^RBKC says: The pedestrian areas will not be difficult for pedestrians. It is wrong to say there will not be a crossing between the two pedestrian spaces.

SSS says: There will be no crossing between the two spaces because the Council’s own traffic model shows that there is too much traffic to allow for one. The traffic lights will slow down pedestrians.

• ^RBKC says: The bus stop move is inconvenient but the taxi location will be better in Holbein Place.

SSS says: It is highly inconvenient to move the bus stop away from the station. A bus stop at the mouth of the King’s Road will block following traffic. It is unworkable to put the taxi rank down Holbein Place: it is difficult to get there for taxis, and they can’t drive off easily in different directions. The taxi drivers are opposed to the crossroads.

 

• ^RBKC says: The War memorial and Venus fountain will be enhanced by the new layout.

SSS says: The crossroads plan makes a mockery of the War memorial: it is insulting to put it outside a clothes retailer. The Venus fountain will lose all prominence if it is put in a corner beside Peter Jones.

• ^RBKC says: There is no threat to public safety.

SSS says: Who wants to leave the station at night and walk into a pedestrian area where you would be invisible to passing traffic? The pedestrian areas are a magnet for muggers and other undesirables.

• ^RBKC says: There is no threat to shopkeepers.

SSS says: No sympathetic council would propose a two-year build programme, causing complete disruption in Chelsea, when the introduction of the congestion charge is threatening business levels.

• ^RBKC says: We shall cut down only four trees.

SSS says: The Council’s tree plan for Sloane Square is nonsense. There can be no trees around the station because of the shallow ground there. They will never plant two trees in the middle of the crossroads given the traffic. Trees will have to be removed to accommodate the four lane road, and also in Cadogan Gardens to install traffic lights.

• ^RBKC says: The Council is not wasting money on the crossroads scheme.

SSS says: TFL have no money other than ours. They shouldn’t be funding a development in Chelsea when they don’t have enough funds to install safety features on the underground and build the Olympics infrastructure.  RBKC had a £5 million budget for Kensington High Street. It cost £10 million. The same sort of overrun will happen in Chelsea.

Ends

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Word and PDF format

27th February 2007.

PRESS RELEASE

Council reveal devastating impact of Crossroads plan

At the eleventh hour, Kensington & Chelsea Council have finally revealed the devastating impact which their Crossroads Plan would have on the residential streets around Sloane Square.

The Council’s Crossroads Plan, by driving a four-lane road through the middle of Sloane Square, would make major changes to several crucial traffic flows. Holbein Mews would close; Symons Street (behind Peter Jones) would reverse, to flow away from and not into the Square; and traffic could no longer drive from Cliveden Place to Sloane Street. (By contrast, the Renovation Scheme put forward by Atkins and Save Sloane Square would keep all entrances and exits to the Square open and affect traffic flows positively.)

The streets worst hit by the Crossroads Plan are in Hans Town Ward. The Council’s own traffic experts, Project Centre Ltd, estimate that traffic in sections of Cadogan Gardens would quadruple in the mornings (going up by 327%, from 114 to 487 vehicles an hour) and increase eight-fold in the evenings (by 734%, from 64 to 534 vehicles an hour). In Cadogan Square, northbound traffic would more than double, increasing by 110%.

Other areas of Chelsea are badly affected, too. St Leonard’s Terrace – where road humps have already been installed to suppress traffic flow – and Walpole Street would see traffic levels in the evening increase by 100 vehicles an hour, an 80% increase on current figures.

In Belgravia, the consequences would be worst in the morning for Lyall Street (up 79 vehicles an hour) and Eaton Place (up 44). In the evening, the impact is greater: Buckingham Palace Road (up 78), Eaton Gate (up 84), Eaton Terrace (up 60-79 depending on the section), Ebury Street (up 60-94) and a section of Pimlico Road (up by 126).

Objectors to the Council’s Crossroads Plan can express their views by taking part in the third consultation  exercise, starting on 28 February (www.icmresearch.co.uk/sloanesquare.asp).

Dr James Thompson, Chairman of Save Sloane Square, said: ‘The Council have sought to suppress these figures in order to promote their appalling plan. I am dismayed that they have refused to publish traffic figures in the consultation document. The people of Chelsea need to be properly informed by their Council about how this proposal would affect their lives.’

Mrs Jill Hoyle, Co-Chairman of the Milner Street Area Residents’ Association, said: ‘The Crossroads Plan would drive traffic into residential areas of Chelsea and Belgravia, but particularly to Cadogan Gardens and Cadogan Square, where there are several schools. The Crossroads Plan is more suitable in style to Croydon than to Chelsea. It ignores the historical significance of the current layout and the importance of the central island as a site for distinguished monuments and as one of the few paved squares in London’.

TRAFFIC IMPACT OF CROSSROADS SCHEME: WORST AFFECTED STREETS

Column 1:  Worst affected roads in Belgravia and Chelsea listed alphabetically
Column 2:  Defines stretch of road listed in Column 1
Column 3:  Current number of vehicles per hour
Column 4:  Projected number of vehicles per hour after crossroads plan implemented
Column 5:  Extra number of vehicles per hour after crossroads plan implemented (Col4 minus Col3)
Column 6:  Percentage change in number of vehicles after crossroads plan implemented

Morning Peak
		No. Vehicles Per Hour
		Current	Proj	Vehicle Increase	%Increase
Col 1	Col 2	Col 3	Col 4	Col 5	Col 6
Bourne St		77	107	30	39
Cadogan Gardens	Nth Culford Gdns	114	487	373	327
Cadogan Gardens	Sth Culford Gdns	127	487	360	283
Cadogan Gardens	Cdgn St-Draycott Pl	151	278	127	84
Cadogan Sq	Northbound	98	206	108	110
Cadogan St		235	291	56	24
Cheltenham Terr		320	351	31	10
Chesham St	North Part	273	308	35	13
Draycott Place		260	301	41	16
Eaton Place	East Lyall St	250	294	44	18
Eaton Terrace	Southbound	32	51	19	59
King's Road	Cad Gdns-Sl Sq	1078	1171	93	9
Franklins Row		537	713	176	33
Lower Sloane St		806	1125	319	40
Lower Sloane St	Holbein-Pimlico	854	1230	376	44
Lower Sloane St	Nth Holbein Mews	831	1131	300	36
Lyall St		566	645	79	14
Pimlico Road		1485	1684	199	13
Pont St	Sl St-Cadogan Plc	1027	1104	77	7
Royal Hospital Rd		1611	1738	127	8
Sloane St	Pont St-Cad Gate	899	978	79	9
Evening Peak
		No. Vehicles Per Hour
		Current	Proj	Vehicle Increase	%Increase
Col 1	Col 2	Col 3	Col 4	Col 5	Col 6
Bourne St		57	101	44	77
Buckingham Pal	Sth Semley Pl	925	1003	78	8
Cadogan Gardens	Nth Culford Gdns	64	534	470	734
Cadogan Gardens	Sth Culford Gdns	64	534	470	734
Cadogan Gardens	Cdgn St-Draycott Pl	116	193	77	66
Cadogan Gate	West Sl St	177	196	19	11
Cadogan Gate		49	67	18	37
Cadogan Sq	Northbound	109	139	30	28
Cadogan Sq	Southbound	144	179	35	24
Chesham St	To Sth Eaton Place	240	300	60	25
Draycott Plce		548	745	197	36
Eaton Gate	Eaton Terr to Sth Eaton Pl	965	1049	84	9
Eaton Place	East Lyall St	176	211	35	20
Eaton Terrace	Nth Chester Row	192	252	60	31
Eaton Terrace	Graham Terr to Ebury Mws	488	567	79	16
Ebury Street	Eaton Terrace-Sth Eaton Pl	123	183	60	49
Ebury Street	Eaton Terrace-Bourne St	499	593	94	19
Ebury Street	Sth Eaton Pl-Eliz St	196	224	28	14
Elizabeth Street	West Buck Palace	453	496	43	9
Franklins Row		401	431	30	7
King's Road	Cdgn Gnds-Sl Sq