Elthorne Park Road and Leighton Road
Making Elthorne Park Road and Leighton Road safer and more pleasant for residents
Ealing Council is exploring ways to improve neighbourhoods across the borough, and has selected 6 locations, which have issues with traffic or safety, or could be improved with urban greening, to develop plans to:
- make people’s streets more attractive and enjoyable
- help make walking, cycling and wheeling safer and easier
- take positive action against climate change
There are no plans to close Elthorne Park Road or Leighton Road to vehicular traffic.
Why has the council selected Elthorne Park Road and Leighton Road?
These roads are a well-known ‘cut-through’ between Boston Road and Northfields Avenue, and average daily traffic is around 2,700 vehicles on Elthorne Park Road and close to 3,000 on Leighton Road – 4 times greater than nearby Hessel Road.
At current traffic levels, this road cannot be considered a safe neighbourhood walking or cycling route. Department for Transport guidance states that on roads with more than 2,000 vehicles per day, many people will not feel safe or comfortable walking or cycling.
As a result of the high volume of traffic, there is also significant congestion and noise. This, in addition to residents’ long-standing concerns over road safety and increasing reports of aggressive and threatening driver behaviour and vehicle damage, gave the council a strong rationale to focus on these roads.
Working with residents to make improvements
In line with the Travel in Ealing Charter, the council is looking at better ways of working with residents, and using more data, to develop proposals.
The council would like to work with the residents throughout this project to develop proposed improvements. All proposed changes will be communicated to residents every step of the way until they are implemented.
All residents in the Northfield area received a letter from the council in early November, explaining our plans for collecting data and engaging with residents, and residents were also informed about the data collection through notices placed on lamp columns, which included a link to this webpage. Residents were invited to in-person drop sessions on 14 and 16 November 2024, where they heard from the council about the data collection, and shared their views on traffic challenges in the area. All responses from the survey, and comments received in-person and by email, are currently being reviewed.
Sharing your views
Residents had the opportunity to share their view on proposals in January and February 2025.
The proposals were also shared at an in-person event on Monday 27 January.
The event was a 'drop-in’ style session, with the proposals displayed on boards with council staff present to answer any questions. There were not any formal talks or room-wide discussions.
Proposed improvements to Elthorne Park Road and Leighton Road
There are several opportunities where improvements could be made to address the above issues:
- review the design of the current width restriction
- pilot increased tree planting and rain-gardens
- review of footway conditions and safety at side road junctions
- de-cluttering and improved signage
- create a more valuable public space at the Northfield Avenue ‘triangle’ (by The Forester Pub)
The proposals do not include closing the road to through traffic and resident parking will not be impacted.
How much will it cost?
The budget for the entire improvement programme (6 locations) is £1.3m and covers the scoping, engagement, data collection, design and installation of the schemes across the borough.
£250,000 is available for improvements to Elthorne Park Road and Leighton Road. This is in line with similar residential schemes of this size.
Traffic monitoring
Data was collected in early December to assess the amount of through traffic and local traffic within the study area.
Report outlining baseline levels of data
The locations of all the traffic monitoring points can be viewed on this map
The cameras being installed for traffic monitoring were not used for any enforcement purposes and were removed shortly after the data collection period ended.
At the drop-in events, residents asked that we include Raymond Avenue, Woodstock Avenue, and an additional counter on Salisbury Road, in the data collection, and these were added to the study area.
Data collected from before and after the improvements are implemented helps the council understand how traffic moves through the area, and whether it changes following the improvements.
Monitoring traffic counts with Telraam sensors
At the engagement events in November, some residents expressed an interest in installing Telraam sensors in their windows to monitor transport data within the study area. Several residents are now hosting Telraam sensors in the local area.
Timeline
- November 2024: two initial resident engagement events
- December 2024: traffic data collection
- December 2024: responses from the resident survey will be analysed, and the council will begin to develop plans based on the information collected.
- January 2025: all-day drop-in session to share traffic data results and possible scheme options with residents.
- February/March 2025: plans will be developed based on resident feedback from the in-person events, survey results and data collection
- April 2025: results of data collection published
- spring/summer 2025: the final designs will be shared with residents before proceeding to statutory consultation and installation
- 2026: post-scheme implementation data collection. This webpage will be updated throughout the engagement, consultation and implementation period
Engagement results
Ealing Council worked with ECF, who are engagement specialists, to support at the in-person events and produce a report with the results of the engagement and surveys
What else is happening in the area?
- better cycling opportunities on Boston Road:
- the council is proposing a number of improvements to Boston Road and Lower Boston Road to improve cycling opportunities
the consultation took place from 25 September 2024 to 18 October 2024 , including drop-in events on 8 and 10 October 2024 and consultation results will be published in December 2024
- the council is proposing a number of improvements to Boston Road and Lower Boston Road to improve cycling opportunities
- scoping a possible School Street Scheme on Fielding School:
- there are no finalised plans for a School Street scheme for Fielding Primary School
for efficiency, data collection to determine the feasibility of a School Street will be taking place in early December 2024 , at the same time as the traffic monitoring for Elthorne Park Road and Leighton Road
- there are no finalised plans for a School Street scheme for Fielding Primary School
If a School Street is considered possible, there will be a consultation with local residents, in line with the agreed process for implementing School Streets. This will take place separately from the consultation on the neighbourhood improvements.