Forum Topic

Emergency services and the High Road

Today we saw an ambulance unable to get round all of the traffic and traffic restrictions on the High Road. How can this be an acceptable position for us to be in where lives are being put at risk - surely no one at any level of authority can support this?

Ian Woods ● 2197d19 Comments

The traffic was particularly bad this morning as there was no right turn from CHR into Acton Lane as Thames Water were working there.

Stewart Jones ● 2197d

This is totally unacceptable how can the people concerned allow so many hurdles in such a small area, Steven Curran needs to reconsider his role he clearly isn’t fit for purpose! He is the leader of the council responsible for causing this chaos and couldn’t care less about the horrendous situation he is putting on the local community. The most inexperienced leader would do a better job, he forgets who pays his salary us!

Jayne Thorburn ● 2197d

Apparently on 5th October Chiswick Fire Brigade had a shout and headed towards Staveley Road and were greeted by the huge red and white heavy duty plastic barrier, so had to turn round and take a much longer route.Apparently LB Hounslow had not informed the Fire Brigade of the closure of Staveley Road...completely irresponsible by LB Hounslow, but no surprise there !

Loraine Pemberton ● 2197d

Acton Lane roadworks.

Carl Wynne ● 2197d

And they arrived to put these rediculous bollards on Stavely road at night as most probably they were afraid they would be lynched !!! At even more cost- A democracy ???

Helen Bamberger ● 2197d

According to the report on the front page the works are expected to continue until Tuesday which means there is no way to get from Chiswick High Road to the north of Chiswick other than by going around the north circular or all the way down to Goldhawk Road and back road again.Is there any good reason not to temporarily suspend the traffic restrictions on TGT and Fishers Lane so that emergency services vehicles can get to incidents?

Anita Blake ● 2197d

That's what I asked for when I reported this nonsensical diversion - that if people did follow the diversion signs and drive through TGT, and the ANPR cameras were on and issuing fines, the fines should be cancelled.  It's the result of departments not co-ordinating works together.  I bumped into Cllr Guy Lambert later on the High Road and raised it direct with him. He ticked me off for reporting the problem by email rather than by phone (I also sent photos, to verify my report). He said he had rung Cllr Hanif Khan (to whom I had also sent my reporting email - and to Cllr Katherine Dunne and the traffic department). I also told chiswickw4.com who added a note to the story. It does show what happens when there is a disruption on one road.  Emergency vehicles can use the cycle lanes if they need to get through - just as they can mount pavement if that's the only way to get through, or drive on the wrong side of the road.

Joanna Biddolph ● 2197d

Mounting pavements is now what frustrated car drivers and cyclists are doing so added to this pedestrians will also face emergency vehicles hurtling towards them. Their safety and health is being badly impacted; its so stressful walking around these streets with young children

Jane Kirby ● 2197d

Joanna, reading your post is terrifying it tells us that there is no procedure in place when there is an extreme situation in the local area that needs attention. When all the changes were being designed it should have been a standard part of planning to cover ‘what if’. An accident, burst water pipe, bad weather, flooding, emergency services need to race to an accident to save life,  etc will all happened. The CHR is a complete mess all of which was predictable. So why as part of planning the scheme were the contingency process not heavily advertised to at least forewarn local residents? We have not come across one local residents that supports the damage and mess that the councils are doing to our community. How can you or any other councillor have no teeth to stop this madness? you should all be pulling together regardless of politics as one loud voice at local and National level to stop this to support safer neighbourhood, community, support traders, improve our lives this scheme simply destroys all of the above.

Jayne Thorburn ● 2197d

Well said. It is a total shambles.

Elizabeth Price ● 2196d

It remains to be seen if either Hounslow or Ealing do implement any contingency procedures given what's happening. The unfortunate thing is that this happened at the weekend - the lesson must be that there may need to be an on-call response to so that the necessary authority can be made to make a decision even when most council staff aren't working.The police also need to take some responsibility. They have the power to direct people through access restrictions and you don't need to pay a fine if they do.

Mark Evans ● 2196d

Jo, how can emergency vehicles use the cycle lane if it is lined by poles?What a pity more people didn't protest in the months when many of us tried to stop this horrific waste of money. Perhaps if 10,000+ people had complained instead of the, still unprecedented, 5,000+, TfL wouldn't have found it so easy to ignore. How long will it be before someone is seriously injured or killed trying to alight from or board a bus and how much will have been wasted removing the much safer bus stops and shelters that have now been replaced by lumps of tarmac?The best that we can now hope for is that, when this has been proved to be a dangerous abject failure, it will be ripped out and the "old" infrastructure reinstated just as happened with the so-called traffic calming measures that caused accidents and pollution and encouraged speeding in the unaffected areas.

Charlotte Kasner ● 2196d

Believe me the local councillors have been trying in vain to get Hounslow Council to listen but they have ignored them - wrong party and Chiswick far too fat a cash cow.  Grant Shapps is their last chance - hope they've been battering his ears again - they've tried before but only received platitudes.  We should all bombard him ourselves, daily if necessary.

Jennifer Selig ● 2196d

A few weeks ago I needed an ambulance, it was straightforward. When I expressed anxiety about an ambulance getting through now someone said , no problem , the traffic will move to one side.  One side WHERE ????

Maureen Yakoubi ● 2195d

Maureen you couldn’t make it up, absolutely shocking state of affairs!

Jayne Thorburn ● 2195d

"Steven Curran needs to reconsider his role he clearly isn’t fit for purpose!"Same goes for Guy Lambert - Head of Highways and Litter.  Failed at both. The Borough is a mess!

Steve Taylor ● 2195d

It was blue lighting with siren going, so clearly an emergency, it was heading west to east and came to a halt near WH Smith due to bumper to bumper traffic and 2 double decker buses stopped almost adjacent to each other, traffic had nowhere to go so the ambulance was stuck for approximately 5 mins.When are the powers that be a LB Hounslow and LB Ealing going to realise that their extreme restrictions to TGT and Fishers Lane that it will only take one more north / south closure and in this instance, Acton Lane currently closed, that lives are being put at risk or do those Local Authorities simply not care ?It's an appalling state of affairs and both Hounslow and Ealing should be held responsible and act in their constituents best interests instead of focusing on the £'s they're getting from fining motorists through the restrictions on the aforementioned roads.

Loraine Pemberton ● 2195d

How are emergency services meant to use the cycle lane when: a) there are polesb) it is a two way cycle laneA fire engine would make mincemeat of the cycle lane poles and indeed any cyclist coming the other way.

Chris Blackwell ● 2195d

"surely no one at any level of authority can support this?"One would have thought so but the problem is that at Hounslow Council there are quite a few in short term authority who are not trained to use the authority to anyone's benefit except to stroke their own egos. 

Steve Taylor ● 2194d