‘Completely congested’: Residents call for morning ban on heavy goods vehicles using Victoria Park Road
Victoria Park Road residents protest against HGV traffic. Photograph: Julia Gregory
Residents are calling for a ban on heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travelling along a Hackney street in the mornings to help improve road safety and cut congestion.
They have asked Hackney Council to implement the ban on Victoria Park Road from 7am to 1.30pm.
They also want work done to unblock pedestrian crossings on Mare Street, which are “overwhelmed” with traffic every morning, and air quality monitored where queues build up.
Resident Christine Jackson brought a delegation to the council and said the road is gridlocked during morning rush hour.
She said it can be “a racetrack at all other times”.
At a meeting of the full council, she told Hackney’s elected representatives: “Over recent years we have experienced a steady growth in traffic levels, especially HGVs along our residential road.
“This results in the road being completely congested at two pinch points: the roundabout at Lauriston Road and at the junction of Victoria Park Road with Mare Street.
“Both areas witness long tailbacks of idling traffic for hours on end every day, with associated pollution, anger and frustration.
“As local residents, we are unable to open our windows due to pollution and noise from idling lorries in the mornings.”
She said the junction is the main crossing used by visitors, staff and patients of St Joseph’s Hospice.
“In the mornings, I regularly see parents holding their hands up to stop traffic encroaching on the crossing whilst taking their children to school despite them having the green man,” she added.
Jackson said a morning ban on HGVs “would ease congestion at pinch points, reduce pollution levels, and the road would become safer for cyclists”.
Christine Jackson speaks at full council. Photograph: Julia Gregory
Cllr Penny Wrout (Victoria, Labour), who supports the residents, said: “I’d particularly like all councillors representing wards in south Hackney to take careful note of their ideas, because I think they’re key to reducing the most polluting traffic along heavily congested routes like Hackney Road and, to a lesser extent, Graham Road.
“So, this is about improving air quality and safety for large stretches of our borough.”
She added: “Victoria Park Road has become the route of choice for concrete mixer lorries and dumper trucks heading for the City, Islington and Camden.”
Cllr Mete Coban, cabinet member for climate change, environment and transport, said the roads team would do a walkabout with residents.
He said there is a slight downward trend in the average number of vehicles using Victoria Park Road over a week – from 10,200 in 2012 to 8,700 in 2023. HGVs make up nine per cent of the total.
Cllr Coban told residents: “It would normally not be appropriate to apply a weight limit to an A-road of this nature.”
However, he added: “We really want to work with you on this.”
He said the roads team is looking at what improvements it could make and are talking to Transport for London about a review of signal timings at Mare Street and Hackney Road.
He added: “We have considered a larger box junction but are constrained by regulations regarding the size and layout of these markings.”
He said there needs to be further investigation.
Tower Hamlets resident Maria Sembello, who lives on a busy road, contacted the Citizen about the issue.
She said: “I feel this is a NIMBY effort to push unwanted traffic away from an affluent area in Hackney down to Tower Hamlets.
“Ours is a poorer borough, meaning residents will have less spare time on their hands to notice this or do anything about it.”
Too much time on their hands. HGVs are going about their jobs, which is essential for a prosperous city. They just don’t like them, and want to push it onto somebody else …very in keeping with Hackney generally!
Christine Jackson who used to run clissold park cafe? Aside from who it is with a name behind advocacy the divisiveness of pushing more and more traffic onto streets that were not designed for it needs to be addressed. I live on Graham Road it is an ‘A’ road but is not as wide as Richmond Road which is rated ‘B’ and none of the houses have off street parking here. I’m not calling for a ban on traffic but at least when the stupid idea of the inner London ring was floated we’d have had some decent post war modernist infrastructure to deal with it.
totally agree with Drew’s comment
why would she choose to live on an A-road in Inner London and rage each time a lorry goes by?
I’m nearby (off Well Street) and felt the need to comment on this one! Anyone still reading though..?
I thought Councillor Mete Coban did a great job at this council meeting and in this interview of immediately starting the process of sensitively managing the campaigner’s expectations downwards.
In Mete’s own words, “Victoria Park Road is designated as an ‘A’ Road as such it is designed to carry through traffic as well as heavy goods vehicles.”
This directly challenges his councillor colleague Penny Wrout’s remark at the meeting about how (implied: awful it is) HGV traffic use this road as part of their onward journey to access other areas of London. The definition of an A road being “to provide large-scale transport links within or between areas” and we have probably all driven down narrower and as-residential A roads as this one. But Penny, who lives locally there, seems especially concerned about his one.
For those not at the council meeting, various unsubstantiated claims were bandied around by the campaigner.
“Mile End Road is built to take this weight of traffic which Victoria Park Road isn’t and nor is Wick Road” – and – “the very infrastructure of our road [A106] is collapsing!!”.
But according to the data Hackney Council Highways hold, neither of these claims of this road’s fragility are true – there was some surface tarmac repair done in the last few years but Highways have confirmed the A106 infrastructure is certainly not “collapsing” in any way.
The safety angle was also brought in at the meeting “pedestrians are unable to cross safely” (junction with Mare Street) but Hackney Council’s Report It webpage states: “We have checked the last 3 year injury collision data, as reported to the Metropolitan Police and I can confirm that the current collision record at this location does not support its prioritisation for further traffic calming measures.” But to be fair to the complainant, I have noticed that junction was a bit chaotic for a time; it is actually better now the yellow waffle is there, which rather eliminates this complaint point now.
Even if this isn’t a ‘NIMBY effort’ as the article states, a more likely outcome than TFL agreeing to restrictions on an A road – is that Wick Road (a B road) might benefit from those proposed HGV restrictions, thereby increasing the HGV traffic to Victoria Park Road!