Richard Wilson

I’ve received notice from the Council that Streetcar are planning to put 3 new cars into Stroud Green.   This is excellent news as I know lots of residents are making very active use of the car club and are keen for new sites.

The proposed locations are:

• The Oakfield Road Bridge (when the current engineering works have finished)
• Nelson Road, near the junction with Ridge Road (see photo)
• Osbourne Road, near the junction with Victoria Road

The formal consultation is planned for February, but if you have any views on these locations then please get in touch and I’ll pass them on ahead of then.  I’m pleased that they have responded to resident’s suggestions of putting car club bays in the roads inside the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), such as the Oakfield Road bridge, rather than on the clogged roads just outside the CPZ (see previous post).

The new cars should be in place by June.

Everything seemed to have gone a bit quiet on the Streetcar front – so I asked the Council for an update.  The consultation on the sites for cars ended at the beginning of February (see my previous post: Streetcar comes to Stroud Green – at last).

I got an update from officers a few days ago.  The good news is that the Council has listened to the many residents that suggested moving the proposed bay for 2 cars from Stapleton Hall Road to the Oakfield Road bridge.

The bad news for those keen to use the car club is that the Council won’t even start consulting on the alternative Oakfield Road site for months yet.   This means that only the Denton Road and Victoria Road bays will be installed this year – cutting by a third the number of cars that will be available in Stroud Green ward.   The Denton and Victoria cars should be in place from mid June.

As a result of the Council’s slowness it could be another year before we have Streetcar bay in the centre of the ward – if the Oakfield Road site is approved.   But the reason for this delay may be economic:  Across the Borough about half the proposed Streetcar sites have been dropped - allegedly because the recession has hit car club use.