Campaigners challenge Ealing Council over not doing enough for road safety in West Ealing

Road safety campaigners have challenged Ealing Council, active travel charity Sustrans and Transport for London over its proposals in a public consultation to improve West Ealing saying some of them are “dangerous” and “do little to improve” road safety.

The council ran a consultation for Live West Ealing from 19 February 2024 to 31 March 2024.

On the Live West Ealing, website, Ealing Council explains that it got funding for TfL’s Liveable Neighbourhoods programme which it says aims to “fund projects that will help make streets more attractive, healthy and safe. Together with TfL we are investing up to £8.6 million in West Ealing. The ideas for the West Ealing Liveable Neighbourhoods were first shaped by feedback from the local community in 2018 and 2019, but in 2020 the programme was paused because of Covid-19.”

According to Make Uxbridge Road Safe!, the council has scaled back safety improvements from a previous proposal in 2019. In that proposal there were bike lanes along the area of road near West Ealing’s Lido Junction where local resident and former police officer Claudia Manera was killed in a collision with a heavy goods vehicle while cycling.

Campaigners also highlighted their concerns that road traffic incidents are still occurring since then with one recently in February 2024 where a pedestrian and a vehicle were involved in a collision near Lido Junction.

A spokesperson from Make Uxbridge Road Safe! told EALING.NEWS: “We are extremely disappointed by the proposals put forward for consultation by Ealing Council and Sustrans. The latest proposals fail to build out the narrow pavements around Lido Junction despite these sections being used regularly by wheelchair users and those with push chairs.

“They fail to include a new pedestrian crossing point at Grosvenor Road, even though this was highlighted as a danger spot in Sustrans’ pedestrian safety audit in 2018.”

The spokesperson added: “And, alarmingly, the proposals don’t include any protected space for cyclists either in the lead up to Lido Junction or along the Broadway section of West Ealing, despite a cyclist being killed here.

“We feel the proposals as they stand don’t comply with either Transport for London’s or the Department for Transport’s best practice guidance for road and junction design. Therefore, we have referred the plans to both Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling  commissioner, and Brian Deegan, head of inspections at Active Travel England, for urgent review.

“The proposals are simply dangerous and will do little to improve the appalling safety record along this section of the Uxbridge Road.”

Speaking to EALING.NEWS, Ealing Green Party chair Neil Reynolds raised his concerns over Ealing Council proposals. He said: “These proposals do little to make West Ealing safer and more liveable. Labour is backtracking on its promises of a cycle lane down the Uxbridge road. The proposed one way streets may make rat-running worse in the adjoining residential areas that are now excluded from this project.”

He added: “The pedestrianised Leeland Road market is a rare and successful example of putting local people and businesses above the needs to through traffic. There should be much more ambition in the West Ealing scheme to build on the progress made there.”

Local campaign group Better Ealing Streets said on X (previously known as Twitter): “In Ealing, over two thirds of car trips starting in the borough are less than five kilometres long. Here, it appears that safe designs for an already congested and deadly junction are being compromised, in part because of this; too much motor traffic People in Ealing who choose to walk wheel or cycle should feel totally safe when they do so, wherever they are, and if they do, more people that might otherwise drive will join them. Fewer car journeys, safer roads, a better Ealing for all, including those that have to use a car. Let’s go.

Responding to campaign groups and community concerns over its West Ealing proposals, an Ealing Council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “The Live West Ealing scheme, which aims to make it easier to walk and cycle, is funded by Transport for London and has to adhere to TfL’s strict requirements for traffic and active travel schemes, including balancing the needs of all road users.

“TfL’s testing has shown that the introduction of segregated cycle lanes on the Broadway itself would mean the loss of a bus lane, slowing down buses and reducing their reliability.”

They added: “This is why we are instead consulting local people about introducing fully segregated cycle lanes on Leeland Terrace and Singapore Road, allowing safe cycle journeys parallel to the Broadway in both directions. We are also asking local people about improving the current layout of the Lido junction in a way that doesn’t impact on their public transport options. We are proposing better bus stop locations to manage pedestrian crowding and significant improvements to the layout of the junction to make it safer and easier for walkers and cyclists.

“We will continue to work TfL and other stakeholders to collect further evidence of how traffic works locally and we look forward to sharing the results of the resident consultation shortly.”