Cycling in Copenhagen, 2015

The CS9 saga has been running for a couple of years now, and we’re finally beginning to achieve some clarity in the plans for Hammersmith.

CS9 has been renamed CW9 “CycleWay 9” to distance it from existing Central London Superhighways, and provide a facility serving a wider demographic than those installed to date.  The image being promoted is shown in TfL’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner’s Tweet, left, although we feel obliged to point out that despite the wording, the photo is not London at all – this was Copenhagen in 2015.  Nevertheless we believe this more inclusive vision is an appropriate aspiration for our borough’s roads.

Together with other members of the community, we have been successful in persuading H&F Council that TfL’s CS9 plans were flawed, now two different cycle routes are planned:  a fast commuter route using the somewhat underused paths alongside the A4, and something closer to a “Quietway“ plus urban realm improvements (greening) in King Street and Hammersmith Road. More on the council website, where an online debate has started.

We expect to be part of the planned residents consultation as we are concerned about potential negative impacts on pedestrians and retailers, significantly slower buses/traffic/increasing pollution, for which there is evidence from schemes such as Winchmore Hill and Waltham Forest.  TfL’s own CS9 Air Quality Report predicts only walking-speed traffic along Hammersmith Road at Olympia, and no overall improvement in air quality.  A council meeting is planned for 9th Sept, which you should attend if you are interested in this scheme (see our diary)…

CS9 – Chiswick section

A critical meeting is scheduled for 3rd September where opponents of TfL’s modified CS9 plans are to put their case to Hounslow council, with officers recommending approval of the scheme.  Their concerns are centred on further damage to the already suffering retail landscape, particularly as shown at Winchmore Hill, and elsewhere, and similar concerns to those we list above.  We remain concerned that TfL’s revised CS9 plans, while offering some improvements in pavement space outside the Church of Our Lady of Grace, are otherwise largely unchanged, and do not appear join up with the current Hammersmith plans for the A4 and quieter King Street scheme, despite ours and other’s efforts.

Former CS10, Wood Lane to Notting Hill Gate

We have been in active discussion with local Residents Associations and the Kensington Society over the former CS10 proposal recently consulted on, which caused a public war of words between the Mayor of London and Kensington Council after they refused TfL’s plans in June. Rather than greening, the plans had involved quite the reverse: rather a lot of concrete and roadworks, and the cutting down of 27 trees to create a narrower central reservation in Notting Hill Gate, quickly garnering a petition of 11,000 signatures. 

K&C had refused the eastern portion of CS9 along Kensington High St. in 2013, and continue to pursue their own local quietway plans.

We do not yet know H&F’s position on Hammersmith’s part of this route, but we continue to work with the council, TfL and other interested parties where we can to improve the plans for a more joined-up, equitable, cost-effective, and less disruptive outcome.