Sunday 19 May 2019

Liveable Streets Bow - Deadline for comments Tuesday 21st May

An annotated map of Bow showing residents ideas to improve the "Public Realm" ie our streets.

Tower Hamlets Council's Liveable Streets Bow programme aims to improve the look and feel of public spaces in Bow. By creating a better environment, the council wishes to make it more convenient to get around by foot, bike and public transport.

You only have a couple of days to submit your thoughts.

Maybe there are areas you'd like to see turned into pocket parks, or you have ideas to reduce rat running, encourage more walking or cycling in the area, or you've pet peeves about traffic issues? Whatever, your ideas the council wants to hear them.

As you can see from the screenshot above, lots of comments and suggestions have already been put forward as part of the consultation process. Please take a few minutes to add your ideas/comments about a particular area of Bow, via the consultation page.

Some ideas that we've heard are:

  1. The blocking off to vehicles of Coborn Road at the railway bridge. This would reduce rat running along MEOTRA streets significantly by traffic "doing a left" at the corner of Tredegar Road and Coborn Road; or conversely by traffic using Aberavon/Rhonda/Tredegar and Coborn Roads to by-pass Bow Roundabout.
  2. CHEAP on-street cycle storage
  3. Making Holy Trinity's churchyard a permeable pocket park linking Lichfield Road and Morgan Street.
  4. Perpetrators of ASB currently feel they "own" the streets, Heavily graffitied streets discourage walking, especially of an evening. The council needs to adopt a zero tolerance approach to "tagging" and find ways to speed up removal, especially on walls to private-rented properties where the current process of waiting for an absent landlord to give permission take months.
  5. Turning the car park bound by Ford/St Stephens/Roman Roads into a pocket park and Village Green 
  6. Turn all of Bow schools into School Streets (ie a complete closure to motor vehicles at school drop off and pick up times) to reduce pollution and create a space for parents and children to socialise.


Of course, you can email info@meotra.org.uk as well and we will absorb these into our grouped suggestions to the council.


Friday 10 May 2019

TfL flesh out Hackney to Isle of Dogs Cycle Route

A map of Bow illustrating the proposed route of the TfL north-south cycle route

TfL has provided further info on the proposed Hackney to Isle of Dogs Cycle Route. Yours truly has work in the morning and so a detailed appraisal will follow at the weekend, but a quick assessment notes:

  1. Grove Road through Victoria Park will become cycle/bus/taxi only 7am-7pm
  2. They've got the Bow Liveable Neighbourhood area wrong! It should reach all the way down to Mile End Road and include the MEOTRA region too.
  3. No left turn from Mile End Road into Burdett Road (this will add to the Southern Grove/Hamlets Way rat run that has already led to a number of serious accidents). LBTH have been asked to sort this out.
  4. The right turn from Burdett to Mile End Road is reintroduced.Yippee! 
  5. Mile End Junction has its own page
  6. Removal of the loading bay on the south-east corner of the junction will have a massive effect on the Benjy's Tower development. This was, if I recall correctly, their main area for deliveries.
  7. The awful location of the bus stops near Mile End Station hasn't been looked at:  the westbound bus stop leaves pedestrians blind to oncoming traffic, whilst the eastbound bus stop has buses backing up right on to Mile End Junction especially when National Express buses are loading suitcases. This often blocks the movement of Grove Road/Burdett Road traffic.
  8. Widening of the east side of the Grove Road pavement (again!)
A detailed map showing the suggested changes to the Mile End & Grove roads junction


The detailed plans are here

It is great to see some joined-up thinking between LBTH and TfL so that our borough's Liveable Neighbourhood plans for Bow, and the TfL plans from Old Ford Roundabout to Mile End Junction are going to be looked at alongside one another.



Don't forget this Saturday at the Bow Idea Store, 1 Gladstone Place, Roman Road E3 5ES,  10-12 noon is your chance to meet those drawing up plans for how to spend the £3.3 million pound grant on encouraging active travel in Bow. ie More walking, cycling and public transport.