Please click here to see the document sent by Camden Council regarding widening the pavements of Kilburn High Road by the end of week ending 16th May 2020. Please send your comments to safetravel@camden.gov.uk
We welcome the proposed changes but have the following comments to make:
- No intervention planned between Netherwood Street and Iverson Road. This stretch of the road has very limited useable width of pavement, with one major supermarket ( Hilal Food stores) with permanent queues outside not allowing 2 meters distancing, a bus stop and very narrow pavement between 328 and 338 Kilburn High Road, not facilitated with permanently illegally parked vehicles. The pavement on this stretch of the High Road should also be widened.
- Major concern about the statement about Brent Council predicting that as the lockdown eases that the side of the Kilburn High Road that belongs to them will be less congested and that thus people should be encouraged to use the west side of Kilburn High Road. This statement is very misguided as the west side of the Kilburn High Road between Bronsdesbury Villas and Kilburn Square is permanently congested by the post office queue and the bus stop. Furthermore the west side of the Kilburn High By Rayan Supermarket, the bus stop and Priory Park Road is also heavily congested. Further up the useable pavement width between Priory Park Road and the Terrace is barely 1.5 meters wide, while there is always a queue in front of Santander Bank. In the same fashion there are queues in front of Day Lewis Pharmacy and Kings Pharmacy further up the Road and the space by Brondesbury Station is heavily constrained by the bus stop.
- Concern that the pavement is not enlarged next to bus stops on the East side of the Kilburn High Road. We have been reporting for years for example the encroachment of Norwest Trading at 106 Kilburn High Road on the pavement, with no action by the Council. At this location there are queues for the bust stop, Llyod’s bank and Wenzels. The Pavement needs to be enlardged by the bus stop and enforcewment action needs to be taken against Norwest Trading.
- No enlargement of pavement in front of 92 to 98 Kilburn High Road. The loading for Sainsbury’s is done in West End Lane so there is no reason why the pavement should not be widened at this location.
- No widening of pavement in front of Aldi. This is unacceptable as the space, presumably reserved for Aldi deliveries is permanently occupied by illegally parked vehicles. On this part of the High Road, there are 4 traffic lanes so removing one lane should still allow for Aldi deliveries to take place while giving more space for pedestrians.
- There have been 3 serious road accidents in the last 2 weeks. (one involving a delivery scooter and Mercedes , 1 being a car driving into the 02 shop frontage, 1 destroying the bus stop in front of the Black Lion). Vehicles are driving at speeds that are above 20mph as Kilburn High Road still is a 30mph Road. This makes the road unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists. We would welcome a more ambitious programme to reduce the number of traffic lanes and to possibly remove all motor traffic vehicles between 8am and 10am and 3pm and 8pm on all days except for buses, emergency vehicles and motorbikes.
- The High Road is a carpark in the evenings and at weekends. Please extend parking restrictions at weeekends to be the same as during the week and extend them to 8pm on all nights. This would allow traffic and buses to flow better and also would make space for pedestrians and cyclists.