• FINCHLEY Road is a nightmare for pedestrians.

The pavements are an obstacle course of dumped rubbish, cracked and uneven paving, abandoned hire bikes, and bins.

It is difficult to navigate with a buggy – impossible with a wheelchair. For years residents have told us that the pedestrian crossings are dangerous.

Many do not have a dedicated time for pedestrians to cross, particularly at Arkwright Road, Frognal Lane, West End Lane and Platts Lane.

Pedestrians must pick their moment to run across, hoping that a car doesn’t turn off Finchley Road into their path at the same moment.

Recently a Frognal resident was hit by a car at West End Lane. More accidents are likely to follow unless something is done. But more than “something” or “anything” – the right thing.

That’s why Frognal’s Conservative councillors have funded a feasibility study to look into installing green man crossings at these accident hotspots.

I had a productive meeting with Transport for London on site last week and the results of the study are likely to come out in the next six months. If feasible, I hope funding the works will have cross-party support.

This is a direct response to residents’ long-term concerns. Finchley Road has been neglected by London mayor Sadiq Khan and Camden Council, but when they’ve intervened before, it’s been for the worse.

Sadiq Khan’s decision in 2020 to create a bottleneck by reducing northbound traffic to a single lane caused traffic from the O2 Centre back to Lord’s Cricket Ground.

This bottleneck was backed by Camden Labour, and was only overturned after a campaign by Conservative councillors.

Now the mayor and Camden want to recreate that farce and reduce Finchley Road to gridlock by introducing a 20mph speed limit, even where it’s a dual carriageway, when all residents want are some pedestrian crossings that they and we have been begging for for years.

CLLR ANDREW PARKINSON,
Conservative,
Frognal & Fitzjohns ward