Introduce measures to reduce car and truck numbers on St Ann’s Terrace, say residents

DISGRUNTLED St John’s Wood residents are campaigning to try to stop people using their quiet residential road as a ‘rat run’.

A petition, signed by 38 households on St Ann’s Terrace and calling for traffic calming measures, was delivered to Westminster Council at the last full council meeting.

It is the second time the street’s residents have resorted to such measures after successfully campaigning against Tesco delivery vans using the road as a loading bay two years ago.

Neil Merritt, one of the petition organisers, says he hopes traffic calming measures will stop three problems with drivers on the road.

“Firstly there’s an issue of the volume of domestic traffic using the street as a rat run to avoid Wellington Road,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a phenomenon where the traffic seems to go one way in the morning and the other way in the evening.

“Then there is a problem with trucks using the road. The council has helpfully had this arrangement for Tesco delivery lorries not to use the road and Tesco has been extremely cooperative.

“But there seems to be no way of stopping truck traffic from other companies. The signs are there but they are ignored.

“The third issue is the speed of some vehicles using St Ann’s Terrace, particularly at weekends and in the evenings.

“The high speeds are not only intimidating to residents with young kids but very dangerous.”

He says residents don’t have any particular plans they want to see introduced but he hopes they can sit down with the council to discuss solving the problems.

“There are a number of different options they could take,” he said.

“Maybe some form of stopping entry into St Ann’s Terrace from either end, or preventing right or left turns out of the road.

“As far as the truck traffic, the council may wish to do the occasional purge to stop and fine drivers.”

The successful 2009 petition saw Tesco agree to move their deliveries from the quiet street to the front of the store on Circus Road while a ban on lorries larger than 7.5 tonnes was imposed in St Ann’s Terrace.

A survey conducted by the Abbey Road Safer Neighbourhood Team last year found more than 1,000 vehicles a day use the road.

The latest traffic calming petition was delivered at the council meeting by fellow St John’s Wood councillor Cyril Nemeth who said: “It might be helpful if they made the road one-way.

“It has always been a problem to get through and it must have got worse recently.

“We are going to have a meeting with the traffic people and the residents to see what can be done.”

Westminster Council was unavailable for comment.