Greenwich Park road closure made permanent
The Royal Parks are set to make the temporary road closure through Greenwich Park permanent.
The organisation that manages the park made the announcement this morning.
The road runs through the park from Blackheath Avenue to King William Walk.
Closure
Closures were implemented in 2020. A year later the former Greenwich cabinet member for transport asked for the road to be reopened for vehicles though the Royal Parks declined to follow that request.
Other changes in Greenwich are also on the agenda. Last week plans for pedestrianisation of Greenwich town centre were again raised by Transport for London though funding remains limited.
Plans to alter the one-way system have existed for many years. I recently covered proposals.
As for the park, the Royal Parks state consultation responses show support for continued closure.
Tom Jarvis, Director of Parks said: “As custodians of some of London’s finest green spaces, we’re delighted to announce that the successful trials to reduce cut-through traffic in our outer parks will be made permanent. The decision is a key part of ensuring The Royal Parks is delivering on its charitable objects.
“We’d like to thank all those who have been involved in the project since it was launched in July 2020, particularly those who responded to our public consultations.
“We’re looking forward to engaging with our stakeholders and the local communities to see how we may repurpose the spaces available, now that certain roads are closed permanently to vehicles.”
That is good news. I only moved to the area just before the pandemic, so the idea of having traffic along that road seems crazy.
What closing the park will do is divert morning rush hour traffic to the a2 and Greenwich high st, together with denying access to the park for the less mobile or disabled and elderly. Meanwhile pedestrians can still be run down by cyclists and escooters with impunity. A better move would be to install chargers in the park to promote green motoring
I think the closure of this particular road to traffic was a no brainer. The traffic that used to go through the park was congesting Greenwich Town Centre and mostly was used as a shortcut. The park is a much more pleasant place now. Anything that discourages car use it surely a good thing. I understand that the less mobile might be affected and concessions could me made for them. However the vast majority of car journeys are completely unnecessary and are a result of habit rather than need.
I am a car driver and the road closure in general do make my journeys longer. But I found myself using the car less because of this. I walk, cycle and use public transport more and drive a lot less. Yes it is less convenient at times but so is cooking vs ordering take aways and we all know which one of those is better for you.
@ Jon Askers I have to agree with you. Unfortunately they still do not understand that the rules of the road apply to them too. Including stopping at red lights and at Zebra crossings etc.
I don’t understand why Jon says that closing the park to through traffic will mean “denying access to the park for the less mobile or disabled and elderly” – parking will still be possible inside the park at the top.
Regards
More importantly there should be speed bumps for these crazy cyclist that go 100MPH down the hill !
While we’re at it, can we have dog walkers putting their dogs on the lead when they’re crossing the road or using the one shared path cyclists are allowed on.
Signed, every cyclist who goes through Greenwich Park.
Prior to this closure now some years ago The Avenue became a serious rat run for commercial vehicles as well as for commuter traffic. COMMERCIAL VEHICLES are banned but no one was taking any notice. We have even had to endure mischief makers putting about plans to turn the Avenue into a A road with traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. At this point we would have lost the park to rat running altogether.
As for loss of access to disability persons Stop talking utter tosh. This closure means more access to such and greater freedom of movement.
Thank you to those who have seen the dangers that were ongoing and have listened to and implemented our petitions.
Its a 5mph limit so stopping for a dog shouldnt be an issue.
Nor do drivers, but as that doesn’t bother you I’ll make the point for balance.
Horrah for normal people. I’m sure some of the idiots that favour cars are the same fools that got liz truss into power then winged that kicking her out was the same as calling them complete idiots (true).
Car parking really must be restricted further so cars can enter the main gate and stop well before the small round about. Anyone enjoying a walk in any part of the park or kids on rolkerskates shouldn’t have to deal with a Chelsea tractors flooring the accelerator and then slamming on the brake all within 50yards.