Harringay Ladder traffic improvements = bumper to bumper in Crouch End?

[Mark Crouch End]

People may know this stuff already, I don't think I did.

Haringey council have commissioned a study into improving the traffic in the Harringay Ladder area. 
They're currently seeking further feedback.

The more far reaching proposals are contained in this doc - Wightman Road Ladder Area Package 

The thing that stands out for N8 is that at least three of the proposals (one of which is to close Wightman Road to through traffic, others to make it one way) will clearly have a knock on effect. The document identifies this, and as people know from the roadworks on Wightman Road last year, extra traffic would be displaced onto Tottenham Lane/Ferme Park Road/Crouch Hill etc.

I find myself asking why the consultation for this is confined only to people living on the Ladder - surely residents across a much wider area should be involved? 
Meanwhile, some of the Ladder residents are lobbying for the Wightman Road closure option, not unsurprisingly as it would transform their streets for the better. Alas, the traffic will go somewhere else. If it can get past the cement mixer lorries.

The impact map from the report -

[Mark Crouch End]

And this is what happened to journey times on the 41 bus when Wightman Road was closed in 2016...   if you were thinking of using it to come home at 5.30pm (M-F), I shouldn't bother.

[Adrian Essex]

Why only today I was looking at a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), published by the planning department, which contains the words:

1.2.1  From shops, services, transport infrastructure and parks we use, to the businesses where we work and the homes we live in, are all the result of planning policies and decisions.

which is very nearly a sentence, and almost makes sense, (though, of course it isn't true - shops result from shopkeepers, homes result from speculative builders, in very large part). I mention it because the list contains transport infrastructure, which includes roads, no? So the SCI is relevant to the Wightman Road shortlisted options.

The SCI also says, under the heading "Ensure consultation is Transparent –":

"By ensuring the aims, purpose and scope of the consultation, and the issues involved, are clearly expressed."

BUT  the consultation paper is headed "These are conceptual options only and would require more detailed development prior to potential implementation; they also remain subject to council decision-making processes, funding availability and consultation." which is about as thorough a list of caveats as its possible to devise. Add to that the further proviso "many of these options have been developed based on suggestions made by stakeholders, and do not necessarily reflect Haringey Council policy at this stage." Does this give us any clue at all to the aims, purpose and scope of the survey? Perhaps we can infer that the reason we have not been consulted is because they don't need to distract us with some pie in the sky nonsense about traffic movements just now.

The distraction certainly seems to have worked for Harringay. HoL probably has many discussions on the topic, but the one I looked at runs to 7 pages of carefully thought out arguments written, presumably at some length, by people who might otherwise be questioning the other perfidies being visited upon by Haringey.

The Existing conditions report is simply a mass of data - it has no summary, nor conclusions. I guess you can't disagree with that, there are existing conditions.

I'm bemused

[Mark Crouch End]

Indeed, two rounds of consultation without any consequences. Any worse and it would move into the realms of neighbourhood planning.

[Adrian Essex]

The more I look at it the more it seems like a sop/distraction/displacement tactic to take Harringay minds off the hell that will result when the Wood Green Mall/library/Victorian terraces are demolished, the High Road closed and the hundreds of construction vehicles / concrete lorries make their way up and down Green Lanes/Wightman Road/Turnpike Lane . And LBH plan to steal the Ducketts Common Crossrail station for their own , which might have been a boon to ladder residents.

Now they can say "don't worry chaps, you'll be a pedestrian precinct one day, just be patient"