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Far from streetwise on safety
• FOLLOWING last week’s correspondence about Talacre, I enquired how the new road, 4.8 metres wide and with no pavements, managed to survive a road safety audit.
The developer (Findon Urban Lofts plc) and Camden Council seem to agree that having such an access route for vehicles controlled by marshals is unique and, therefore, untried. Once the 55 flats have been built, the options for improving safety will be limited, so it is particularly important to have a safety audit.
Unbelievably, no road safety audit has been carried out. It seems that objectors at the public inquiry in January were told that one would be commissioned, but they have been ignored, even though the inspector conducting the inquiry recorded that the proposed road “does not accord with its own Unitary Development Plan standards”. There was a safety audit of the proposed changes to Prince of Wales Road, but not of “New Dalby Street” itself.
An audit of “New Dalby Street” would need to take a lot of special features into account.
The roadway is 4.8 metres wide, which is wide enough for cars, but not goods vehicles or buses to pass. For the larger vehicles, a bollard under the control of the marshals has to be lowered. This road has a seven-storey building up against one side and the railway on the other side.
It has no pavements (footpaths), and will be like a ramp in a multi-storey car park. Any passengers who decide to avoid hold-ups and complete their journey by foot will be in jeopardy.
The underground car park for the flats comes out half-way along it.
The road safety audit that was carried out on the changes to Prince of Wales Road was, in any case, quite unsatisfactory. It reported a problem of inadequate visibility at the New Dalby Street junction with Prince of Wales Road, which is a mere two metres from the bridge where two buses have recently been decapitated.
Any audit should be carried out by a totally independent, competent organisation and the council should commit itself in advance to accepting its recommendations.
KEITH BILTON
Queens Crescent, NW5
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