Adelaide Road: Ten weeks of disturbance becomes 16

• HERE in Belsize Park we have all been misinformed by Thames Water on the water mains renewal project.

Adelaide Road closed 10 weeks and now being extended by six-plus weeks; same thing Eton Avenue and various other locations.

This disruption does not only affect road users, it affects all local business, especially with older customers unable to visit dentists, doctor’s surgeries, dry cleaners or shops because of rerouted buses up towards Hampstead and down towards Swiss Cottage; for 16-plus weeks at present estimate.

Residents living, working, or worse home-bound due to health reasons, and people at home, under Covid-19 self-isolation, are enduring non-stop heavy machinery when sites are actually being manned (but which for days and weeks often sit idle). In fact the prime Adelaide Road site appears all storage-related with little activity.

All residents and small businesses tell me that it is the inadequate consultation and therefore lack of respect that angers them most.

Nearly everyone understands need for utility renewal but 16+ weeks and counting is absurd. Residents feel betrayed by multi-million pound projects blighting the leafy area of Belsize and Primrose Hill.

What also really upsets residents is the knowledge that all of the water mains work is precursor of HS2 tunnelling operations which will cause considerable issues, especially along the immediate routing of Adelaide Road beneath Fellows Road.

That’s three tunnels each able to hold a double-decker bus at 30metre depth, through our London clay, passing beneath our houses and much of the Chalcots towers. Subject of future letters once more clarity is provided by structural engineers of HS2.

NIGEL RUMBLE
Representative and local concerned resident
Chalcots, NW3