Council officers reject plea for St John’s Wood traffic calming

Pleas to introduce traffic calming on a St John’s Wood road described by campaigners as a “rat run” are set to be rejected by Westminster Council.

A petition signed by 33 residents was presented to the council by Abbey Road councillor Cyril Nemeth earlier this year, calling for measures to be put in place to calm St Ann’s Terrace.

The petition claimed that the speed of traffic reduced residents’ quality of life while an existing 7.5-tonne vehicle weight limit is ignored by goods vehicles.

Campaigners called for the entrance to the road from St John’s Wood Terrace to be made “no entry”, the entrances to be narrowed so only one vehicle could enter at one time and an increased use of speed cameras.

But council officers have recommended that the measures should not be introduced. A speed survey carried out by police found that the average speed on the road was 22mph northbound and 20mph southbound.

The council says that the figures show “no justification for the introduction of any speed reducing measures”.

It also says that making the road one-way could divert traffic “to equally unsuitable parallel roads such as Kingsmill Terrace or Ordnance Hill” while it “could result in increased vehicle speeds”.

But officers do recommend that police carry out an enforcement exercise to ensure vehicles more than 7.5 tonnes adhere to existing weight restrictions.

Westminster’s traffic boss Martin Low said: “After giving careful consideration to residents’ concerns and the flow of traffic in this street, officers have recommended that the introduction of traffic calming measures would not be appropriate and may, in fact, result in adverse effects in the surrounding area.

“We recognise that there are still some issues around heavy goods vehicles using this road and have therefore recommended that the police are asked to carry out enforcement activity to help combat this problem.”