Plans to move pedestrian crossing just 50 yards for £650,000 labelled a ‘sham’
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London councillors are up in arms over TfL’s plan to move a pedestrian crossing and install a new one around 50 yards away. TfL revealed plans last month to relocate the junction in Streatham, south London, some yards further south across the A23, a busy dual carriageway with a central reservation.
![[Liberal Democrat Donna Harris who has spoken about the Streatham High Road junction and pedestrian crossing plan.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233532201-ca3b-e1734447466717.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
However, local leaders have criticised the plan, saying the £650,000 could be better spent on something else. It comes after the area between Woodbourne Avenue and Gracefield Gardens has become a hotspot for crashes between pedestrians and drivers. TfL said ‘collisions involving pedestrians have increased in the area.’.
In the ten crashes involving pedestrians in recent years, those on foot are thought to have been crossing the A23 ‘informally,’ TfL said. Donnal Harris, a Liberal Democrat councillor and the leader of the opposition in the Lambeth borough council, argued that it was TfL, with local support, who removed the barrier stopping people crossing the road in the first place.
The idea was to allow people to cross where they wanted because Streatham is ‘a town centre rather than just a dual carriageway for motor traffic,’ she told Metro. Councillor Harris said on social media locals are ‘becoming exhausted’ with consultations like TfL’s.
Over the last decade, there have been 68 crashes near Gracefield Gardens and Streatham High Road. Of them, 38 resulted in injuries to pedestrians, with six serious injuries, the TfL consultation letter to councillors said. In the three years ending December 31, 2023, there were 21 crashes near the the Gracefield Gardens junctions. Eighteen of them involved vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders. Three of them left casualties with serious injuries.
