South Chiswick Liveable Neighbourhood Update
14 February 2020
Following the close of the initial consultation, the project team at the council has been going through all the responses received. During the 8 weeks this consultation phase was open, over 2300 people visited the project website. More than 640 comments were placed on the map, and in total nearly 3500 “agreements” were left (clicking the thumbs up icon next to a comment). The top five issues commented on were; safety, traffic volume, cycling, traffic speed and pedestrian accessibility. While an average of 7 in 10 comments were negative, that’s not surprising given the nature of the project and the known issues that traffic is causing.
One thing we noted is that the consultation failed to generate much input from those under the age of 30. This is something we wish to address, to ensure a fuller cross section of the community has the opportunity to express their opinion and help shape the project plans. The council is therefore currently undertaking some additional engagement activity locally, including working with Chiswick School, to help capture this feedback.
A huge amount of traffic data has also been captured to establish the volume and speed of traffic on local roads, and the proportion of traffic using residential streets as a short cut. This data is currently being analysed and will be reported alongside the community feedback to set out the priorities of the project going forward. Due to the restrictions on council communications related to the upcoming London Mayoral election, this report will be released in May.
Prior to that, however, the council will be launching a consultation on the Grove Park Piazza in March. This is one of the more established elements of the Liveable Neighbourhoods project, and the council has been working on a detailed design in partnership with the local Grove Park Group. We are now looking forward to sharing this more widely, and will update the website once the consultation goes live in early March. April is a key month for the Barnes Bridge walkway, with further feasibility work due to complete that will inform the cost and time frames for that part of the project. More information will also be shared on that soon.
In other local news, two design options will be consulted on for a new pedestrian walkway under Kew Bridge, using one of the existing arches. This is a longstanding project, and while not funded through Liveable Neighbourhoods, providing step free pedestrian access was a popular comment made during our previous consultation. More information on this project will also be available in March.