New pedestrian barrier at Osborne Road

rikki

Last year there was some discussion about the possibility of pedestrianising the Osborne Road stretch in front of Blossom White and the Granny's TakeAway.

Haringey Council were apparently considering it, and speaking with the shopkeepers there it seemed there was definitely support for the idea.

Of course, nothing happened

The road is an unnecessary cut through, and having cars parking and often idling while they pick up from the coffee and food shops just adds to the horrific levels of pollution and surely affects footfall along this stretch - imagine how inviting it could be as a little pedestrianised enclave at this corner.

Today I noticed that, far from 'pedestrianising' the area, it looks as though the council is trying to 'depedestrianise' it! For some purpose I can't begin to fathom, they've extended the low railing with two new bollards and a new section of rail right across one of the gaps between raised flower beds. So instead of two pedestrian access points (either side of the Stroud Green bus stop), it's now reduced to one.

I've written to the council for an explanation, but would be interested to hear if anyone has any idea why this was done?

editrix

Re the new bit of railing across the gap - whodunnit and, more importantly, why???

LukeG

The local councillors have made it clear to me several times that they are on the fence about LTNs and pedestrianisation efforts.

Unfortunately the efforts made in these areas are in the east of the borough, so hopefully we are way down the list in the west of the borough.

I'm not voting for labour as they're not exibiting any forward thinking on these issues.

rikki

This railing looks to me like totally backward thinking. Will wait for response or chase up with council as to what the purpose could be.

rikki

Well at least we've created a bit of a Twitter flurry now
(TWITTER:@StroudGuardians) - with a promise from Cllr Chandwani to look into it.

rikki

A week and half later and there's no further response from Cllr Chandwani, and no-one at Haringey Council has responded to my email inquiry.
This council is not fit for purpose.

rikki

Well we finally got a response (a couple of tweets, but no answer at all to my emails) from Haringey Council.

They claim they have no record of the work being done on Osbourne Rd!

They believe it might have been done in error by Islington Council.

So in the last day or two they've taken taken away a whole section of old and new barrier, but they still left one of the new posts which partially blocks the pedestrian cut through.

All in all this has been a particularly bad example of council incompetence from all concerned.