Ealing Council says no plans to pedestrianise parts of central Ealing

At a full council meeting on Tuesday (13 December 2022), Labour-run Ealing Council confirmed to a question from opposition party Liberal Democrats that there are no plans to pedestrianise three streets in the town centre. But other traffic calming initiatives may still be considered.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Jon Ball asked Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate Action, Councillor Deirdre Costigan if they had completed any consultation on pedestrianisation.  The question came after pedestrianisation was mentioned as a idea in a transport topic paper presented to the council. It highlighted Bond Street, High Street, and Springbridge Road as possible areas for no cars.

Councillor Costigan said: “There’s no plans for pedestrianisation of Bond Street, High Street, and Springbridge Road so therefore we have done no work on it. It was an old idea that is no longer a policy. The transport topic paper is a lot of ideas that people might look at, including the ‘pedestrianisation of high streets’ as a potential for transport interventions in the future.”

She added: “This was one potential transport intervention discussed out of many options including traffic calming, reducing the number of lanes, widening pavements, timed restrictions, restrictions on general traffic, bus and taxi-only routes and full pedestrianisation.”

Councillor Costigan further revealed: “We have now consulted on travel in our Ealing charter which means what we do now is, we go to local people and we ask them for their ideas, and what their ideas are in the local area and we work with them to co-produce our schemes and interventions that will make a difference to air quality and to travel in our borough.”

Ealing Council’s draft new 15-year local plan which covers travel, housing and other aspects of living in Ealing is now inviting comments until 25 January 2023.