Improving road safety
The area around Connaught House School is being made safer for families with a 20mph speed limit, part of a wider trial focused on the areas round schools including Hampden Gurney and others in Marylebone. This is in response to residents’ concerns about road safety in the area and complements the improved signage the council put into the Seymour Street/Connaught Square junction this summer. The trial will bring 20mph roads to areas surrounding 38 schools across Westminster, including Gloucester Terrace, where speeding has been a major problem as motorists head to and from the A40.
In the trial, over 70 sensors will help us evaluate the impact on speeds and traffic flows, and inform our subsequent consultation with schools, residents and businesses. Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) will remind drivers and riders to adhere to the speed limit and if motorists are going too fast, they can be set to flash at either 20 or 30mph. The 38 schools included in this trial will also be receiving a tailored road safety education programme. The 20mph trial and data collection will last for a year. The results will be used to consider the future rollout of more of 20mph limits across Westminster’s roads.
Wider traffic flow and parking initiatives across the ward
As well as improving road safety with the 20mph trial and on Sussex Gardens, we have put in new double yellow lines on a number of corners to help protect pedestrians and improve traffic flow. Further measures to make the Hyde Park Square/Connaught Street area safer are being examined. There are now three new pedestrian crossings in Sussex Square and Brook Street created in response to very helpful input from local residents. We are also working to reduce Bayswater Road traffic hold-ups.
New phasing on the lights has improved the flow a little, but we are gathering residents’ views via the Hyde Park Estate Association, South East Bayswater Residents Association and Paddington Residents Active Concern on Transport as we continue to lobby Transport for London to modify its handling of this important junction. Changes to bus routes have been made which have reduced the traffic volumes slightly. However, Transport for London have yet to publish the data on the impacts of the scheme and we will go on pressing them to do so as we seek to minimise the effect on our area.
Supporting a unique Hyde Park event
Anyone who knows our area well will have noticed our two riding stables in Bathurst Mews, which offer lessons to horse lovers from all over London. They are the legacy of the centuries when horses were a central part of London life. For visitors and residents alike, the horses are part of what makes this area of London special. So your councillors were delighted to support the 50th Horseman’s Sunday this year with a ward budget contribution. We have also put in signs to make it easier for riders using Brook Street.
The service at St John’s Church started as a way to celebrate the mews which were increasingly under threat from developers during the 1960s. It has continued as an annual event highlighting the continuing presence of one of horses in a mechanised modern world.
Thanks go to Veolia – the contractors who collect your rubbish twice a week, and recycling once a week on WCC’s behalf, as well as cleaning our streets. Veolia provided a manure clean-up after Horseman’s Sunday at no extra cost to council taxpayers.
We hope everyone who came to this or previous ceremonies enjoyed the event – including the spectacle of your councillors more or less staying in the saddle – and felt part of an unusual and distinctive Hyde Park tradition.
Photo: Rev Antonio Garcia Fuerte and your councillors listen to Rev Stephen Mason at Horseman’s Sunday at St John’s – with help from staff and volunteers at Ross Nye Stables and Hyde Park Stables.
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