Threat of new road on Hampstead Heath resurfaces
Warning of risk to walkers sharing path with trucks
Published: 01 July, 2010
by DAN CARRIER
THE spectre of a new road being built on Hampstead Heath has been raised again after a City of London report warned that a path used by cars and trucks to get to the Parliament Hill staff yard is putting walkers in danger.
The findings, due to be presented to the Hampstead Heath Consultative Committee next week, say there is a serious risk of an accident if cars and trucks continue to use the Highgate Road entrance.
The warning comes nearly two years after plans to radically alter Parliament Hill Fields met major opposition from critics who say every blade of grass on the Heath should be protected.
The plans included building a new café and introducing cosmetic changes to paths. Most controversially, a car-only road from the lido entrance in Gospel Oak, past Lissenden Gardens and then round the cricket pitch to the staff depot was proposed.
The masterplan was ditched in the face of opposition from neighbours and a refusal by the Heritage Lottery Fund to pay for the changes.
Heath superintendent Simon Lee has commissioned transport monitoring company MVA Consultancy to study how people and vehicles move around the Heath – and he said their findings warned of a possible accident.
There has never been an accident involving a car and a walker on the path between Highgate Road and the Parliament Hill staff depot, but Mr Lee said: “The report warns there could be and we do not want to wait for it to happen before we make this safer.”
MVA reviewed all the work the City of London had done when drawing up its plans, a scheme it dubbed the Parliament Hill triangle – land lying between Highgate Road in the east, Nassington Road in the west and Gordon House Road in the south.
Mr Lee said: “This is a major gateway into the Heath. We have now identified that the sheer number of people using that route and the number of vehicles mean it is a high risk.”
When quizzed on whether it would be possible to reduce the numbers of trucks on the Heath, Mr Lee said he had spent 10 years paring down the numbers of vehicles used.
Because of the Heath’s size and the complexity of managing it, there would always be some need for heavy vehicles to get access, he added.
Julia Dick, who helped run the successful “No To The Road’ campaign, said she was not surprised new proposals had been drafted.
She added: “Shared-use paths are safer and to be encouraged. However, we shall look at this new report carefully before making our views known.”
Lissenden Mansions resident Tony Edwards felt the report was flawed, as previously the City had failed to take into account the people who use the path from Lissenden Gardens, and also failed to log the children who use a back gate entrance into Parliament Hill and William Ellis schools.