Grove Park 'Piazza' Plan Moves Closer to Realisation
Makeover for area in front of shops will see reduction in parking
A visualisation of Grove Park Road after the proposed changes from an earlier design. Picture: Hounslow Council
November 5, 2023
Plans for a new ‘piazza’ area in front of the shops on Grove Park Road are a step closer to realisation with the council moving forward with implementation.
Following the public consultation earlier this year, approval is now being sought to complete the detailed design of the project and undertake a statutory consultation.
The project will see the repaving and kerbing of the footway to provide a significantly wider footway alongside the shop frontages on the north side of the street.
The central area and the surrounding pedestrian crossing locations are to be raised and pedestrian crossings are to be provided at key ‘desire lines’ with improved visibility. There will be narrower carriageway widths which will it is hoped will slow traffic and reduce pedestrian crossing distances. Tactile paving will be provided at all crossing points to assist the visually impaired.
More trees will be planted in the area with grass verges extended and there is potential for the inclusion of rain gardens for sustainable drainage. Addition fixed seating will be installed as well as a space for table and chairs or street trading.
The latest design envisages the reduction of the number of ‘pay by phone’ parking bays near the shops by four rather than the two stipulated in the original consultation. In addition, restricted parking hours in these bays will be extended from the current 10am to noon to 8am to 5pm with the free half hour period retained.
The council argues that these changes will benefit the shops in the area as the longer hours of restriction will mean that there will be a higher turnover of use of the bays as the current hours of operation have not been effective in reducing long stay parking. Also, a number of shared use bays in the area will be converted to ‘pay-by-phone’ with the aim of increasing short term parking space in the area. Longer-term parking would remain available in the surrounding roads where the existing CPZ operates between 10am and noon with no controls on parking outside of these hours.
Grove Park Road as it is currently. Picture: Google Streetview
133 people responded to the consultation in March after the council says it sent out letters to nearly 6,000 local addresses. 40% of respondents said they walked through Grove Park Road every day and 26% drive there or are a passenger in a car. 9% said they cycle daily and 4% take the bus every day.
The council says that its analysis showed that respondents were largely in favour of the design element of the scheme although some said that the proposals were a waste of money as there was no problem with the existing layout.
A visualisation of the extended pavements proposed in front of the shops.
Around 30 of the respondents objected to the loss of parking spaces, the loss of shared bays and the extension of restricted hours but the council said that the public realm improvements offered by the scheme could not be achieved without the loss of some on street parking. Other responses said the council had not gone far enough in removing parking.
It is being proposed that some of the funds from the borough’s capital programme in its 3-year Local Implementation Plan for projects from 2022/23 through to 2024/25 be set aside for the Grove Park Road scheme. £386k of funding has already been approved in principle with Transport for London of which £50k will be used to progress the detailed design. The anticipated total cost of the scheme is £600,000 although the actual cost will be determined once the detailed design is completed.
If the borough cabinet rubber stamps the proposals, then more funding will be sought and a further report will be presented approving implementation of the proposals.
Full details of the proposals are on this link.
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