Very well!STEVENTON ROAD SAVED - TFL DEFEATED - RESIDENTS WIN BATTLEIn an email from Chris Bainbridge, Transport officer at H&F Council, residents were today informed that the proposed bus route which TfL have tried to force down Steventon Road W12 in opposition to residents wishes has finally been consigned to history.Residents of the street, which already has buses going to the same Westfield destination at both ends of the road, objected to the new bus primarily on safety grounds. The new bus route would have required traffic calming measures to be ripped up in order to fit a new bus through. This would have inevitably led to major increases in road traffic who already use the route as a rat run to avoid the Uxbridge/Old Oak Road junction in spite of existing traffic barrriers. TfL ran a "consultation" excercise with minimal publicity and with questions such as "do you want the new bus, yes or no" which were standard questions in all other such consultations deliberately removed in favour of the question "would you use it if it was there". TfL's "consultation" unsurprisingly produced the results they wanted, but was slammed as unrepresentative and ill-informed by residents and community leaders from all political parties.H&F Council, although initially slow to react, responded to the residents campaign which involved a petition against the bus signed by over 500 local residents by halting TfL in their tracks. A subsequent H&F led consultation, which actually asked residents whether they wanted the bus route or not, produced the accurate response that Steventon Road as a route was deeply unpopular. This route is now off the agenda.Residents stood up for their area, and against the might of TfL, and won. But how many other communities has Transport for London, who will willingly produce misleading "consultation" excercises and disregard local views, blighted? From the outset this campaign has been run by local people who use public transport every single day. The new alternative route is one which local residents involved in the campaign suggested to tfL personally and by writing but were ignored. TfL had to be forced to stop and think again. Investing in public transport and adequately consulting local people are not opposites - they go hand in hand. A lesson which TfL would do well to learn. And learn fast. NOTESEmail from H&F to residents:From:Bainbridge ChrisSent:09 January 2009 13:34:27To:Dear Sidonie and ChrisThank you for your response to the Council's consultation exercise on proposed bus route 228.We have now analysed the results of the exercise.57% of respondents supported route 228 in principle, and over four times as many respondents preferred the Uxbridge Road/Bloemfontein Road route (Route B) over the originally proposed route via Steventon Road (Route A). We received many more objections to Route A than to Route B.The Council will not therefore be pursuing Route A and will not undertake the highway engineering works necessary to enable buses to use Steventon Road.London Buses will start running the service via Uxbridge Road/Bloemfontein Road from Saturday 17 January on a permanent basis.Yours sincerelyChrisChris Bainbridge Head of Transport Planning Highways & Engineering Division Environment Services Department London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham Town Hall Extension King Street London W6 9JU
Chris Underwood ● 5943d