2018 is turning into a busy year for Kingston’s Mini-Holland (Go Cycle) schemes. Since our last update in April:
- Main works have finished on the Surbiton links and the Kingston Vale ‘quietway’;
- construction has continued at Kingston Station and Wheatfield Way; and
- works have started at Kingston High Street.
Kingston High Street – construction has only recently started (in May) but already a huge amount of progress has been made as the council plan to finish main carriageway works in time for Ride London on 29 July 2018. As we’ve said before, this scheme is a natural extension of the very successful Portsmouth Road scheme and will allow cyclists to be segregated along Kingston High Street until just North of the roundabout with Kingston Hall Road. In the future, we would like the council to consider reducing motor traffic on the North part of Kingston High Street – the recent High Street works showed what a pleasant route this could be for pedestrians and those on bikes if motor traffic was restricted here.
Kingston High Street works
Kingston Station – construction has made swifter progress recently and the extended paving outside the station is almost complete. Works have now moved across to Richmond Road (outside Tesco Express) to add new carriageway paving. Although we are pleased to see that the motor traffic lanes have been narrowed and the station plaza is now much larger, we are still disappointed that so much of the mini-Holland budget (as well as so much of the Council’s efforts) have been spent on public realm enhancements whilst not making substantial improvements to walking or cycling directly outside the station.
As the Kingston Station scheme continues, we look forward to the Richmond Road works being completed as this will include relaying the 2-way cycleway with a new surface under the railway bridge. We also look forward to the (hopefully imminent) introduction of the 20 mph limit on the one-way system outside the station which was part of the original consultation and could help to calm motor traffic through the area.
In other changes in the area, the shared pedestrian/cycle bridge over the one-way system at the junction of Wood Street and Kingsgate Road was successfully removed in April ready for a much wider bridge to be installed. We also understand that the design and planning of the 250 space cycle hub at the station continues to progress.
Wheatfield Way – construction has continued from College Roundabout and is almost complete up to the junction with Brook Street. Work now continues from Brook Street towards the Orchard Road junction.
New 3m wide 2-way cycle track being installed on Wheatfield Way
What’s next?
As above, Kingston High Street works are being completed quickly and should be finished over the next few months. Wheatfield Way works will continue over the course of the year, as will the Kingston Station works. The next two schemes we are looking forward to starting are the Kingston Vale (main route) and the New Malden to Raynes Park (mainly) off-road route. We understand that the Kingston Vale design is being finalised and construction could start later this year. On New Malden to Raynes Park, planning permission has now been granted by both Kingston and Merton councils so subject to Thames Water approvals, meeting the planning conditions and any final Transport for London approvals required, construction could also start later this year.
After agreeing the minutes of 2016, John Dunn (JD) talked us through his Treasuer’s report, then he and Roger Mace (RM) gave an overview of how the rides have been in the past year.
Kingston Cycling Campaign 