‘AGGRESSIVE RAT RUN IS NOW LESS THREATENING’
CLIMBER SAYS CHISWICK CAR SMASHES BROUGHT BACK NEPAL EARTHQUAKE TRAUMA OF BEING ‘SHAKEN LIKE A DOLL’
A SOUTH Chiswick resident who was a first on the scene of a serious car crash on an “aggressive ratrun” has said work to calm traffic has “massively improved” the area.
Mark Campbell, who lives in Sutton Court Road, has said walking in the neighbourhood has become “less threatening” and “more friendly” in the last few weeks as Hounslow Council is trialling ways to cut traffic levels in certain parts of the borough.
Mark – who used to commute to the Square Mile before working from home during the coronavirus pandemic – said the area has had its “fair share” of serious accidents.
“Over the years, I have arrived early onto the scene of three accidents at the junction of Fauconberg Road and Sutton Court Road involving cars overturning,” he said. “In one of these, on a quiet Sunday evening in early 2016 the peace was shattered at the fast lefthand turn into Fauconberg Road.”
Mark believed two cars had collided and called 999. Ambulance crews asked him to look inside the vehicle and he could see a woman trapped in one of them.
He said: “I had just survived the Nepal earthquake of 2015 at 5,000 metres. The massive bang felt like a helicopter crashing beside me and this and my call to the emergency services brought back all of the memories of my close shave in Nepal.”
Mark was trekking 5,000 metres up a mountain which was near the epicentre of the devastating earthquake in 2015 which killed nearly 9,000 people.
He recalls being “shaken like a doll” and the noise of collapsing all around him.
On the impact on his mental health, he said: “I would look up at buildings and feel like they were going to collapse on me.
“If I heard a vibration it made me very nervous. This accident was within that window of experience, in just nine months of that.”
In a devastating crash on the same stretch of road in 2010, a 17-year-old boy was killed after the car he was driving ploughed into the back of a parked car after a high speed police chase.
Eyewitnesses said the car, which was thought to be stolen, had been travelling at speeds of up to 70mph as police pursued it down the narrow street.
Since the 2016 Fauconberg Road crash, Mark says work has been done to smooth over the dangerous turning, but welcomes new plans to stop cars racing around the area. He also believes it is steering away from the mindset “car is king” and creating more balance between drivers and other road users.
“What I’m seeing is a much better reflection of that balance, we are all residents and we all deserve to be considered in these schemes,” he said.
The council had secured funding from the Mayor of London last year to transform the area as part of a ‘liveable neighbourhood’ scheme but the government’s guidance to authorities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic sped up the process to make South Chiswick a ‘low traffic neighbourhood’.
This means stopping drivers using residential streets to cut through to major roads, by closing streets and changing access to slash traffic speeds and volumes in the area. It is also hoped to encourage more active travel of residents to promote health and environmental benefits.
The scheme has also attracted criticism of road “chaos” from the changes, but Mark believes he is part of the “silent majority” who believe the move is for the better.
He said: “Until now, my neighbourhood – the narrow corridor from Sutton Court Road to Harvard Hill – was an aggressive ‘rat run’ for traffic coming over Chiswick Bridge (A306) and taking a series of shortcuts through the residential communities of Grove Park, Fauconberg Road and Harvard Hill for speedy access to the A4.
“Our narrow roads were never designed for this.
“The Fauconberg Road area has become an immediate beneficiary from reduced noise and traffic.”
Meanwhile, opposition has continued from Chiswick Riverside councillors who have warned that the measures threaten to “transform South Chiswick into an unliveable neighbourhood for many residents.”
The Conservative members wrote to council leader Steve Curran earlier this month calling on him to intervene on the introduction of the measures.
Cllr Gabriella Giles said: “As I have said before, we, residents in Chiswick Riverside, councillors and Hounslow Council, all agree that the main aims of a Liveable Neighbourhood in improving road safety, air quality and reducing car use in the local area are vital to creating a safer neighbourhood.
“However, with Covid-19 the council is using the guise of the government’s statutory guidance to rush through measures without the pre-agreed engagement, consultation and options that would form part of a proper process, and ensure that what is implemented works for all residents, are not half-hearted, rushed through designs that don’t get implemented properly, or even pass their own safety audits.”
To find out more about the scheme go to www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20053/transport/2181/south_chiswick_liveable_neighbourhood.