How changes to Pratt Street could look

I WILL have no time for anybody who objects to Camden creating this idyllic scene: grassy roadside beds, a narrow road simply for cyclists, a carefully positioned zebra crossing and lots of children pedalling away. An older gent is helped down the road with a man carrying his shopping bags, kids play, a woman has an unending scarf to make her friends jealous and nobody is lying in the middle of the road with their bone sticking out of their arm. Perfect.

This is the Town Hall’s plan for Pratt Street. Its consultation survey over the proposals ended last week and no doubt there will be some people – there usually are – ready with complaints about traffic flow and the restriction of their right to drive cars everywhere.

But, aside from all the benefits children at Our Lady’s School will get from having less traffic at its front gates, the attempt to make this backstreet prettier is also a victory for Gulliver and the pain your heroic journalists have to go through to see change.

Regular readers of my diary will remember that earlier this year I highlighted the deceptive dipping drain – positioned right in the middle of this artist’s impression – which had become an ugly trap for cyclists and scooter riders. Wheels get stuck in the groove and it’s an accident waiting to happen.

It’s not the only drain like it on our roads, so be careful. For my part, I used up half the Whittington Hospital’s morphine supply in January after going over this one and months later the bones are still not fixed and a certain percentage of my arm is a metal frame. So I’ve got skin in the game on this one, or at least there’s some still smeared on the tarmac in Pratt Street. Bring in the changes immediately.