West Wickham pavement widening

Please put it back to how it was before. There have been no noticeable advantages only disadvantages. Personally, I have been unable to just 'pop into' local businesses due to the kerbside clutter. In this day and age, it is important to help local businesses not hinder them.

Please remove the barriers. It would cause too many problems to have widening as a permanent fixture for traffic up the High Street. The High Street was fine before these measurements were put in place due to Covid, no need for this to continue

Get rid. Unnecessary for amount of pedestrians. Danger to cyclists. Restricted access to local business. Look awful. Lockdown nearly over now and wasn't needed pre covid

These barriers need to be removed, they were never maintained fully and often caused more of a problem than they were worth. The high street is a busy through route and suffers constantly from traffic build up. The pollution this causes at street and shop level is unacceptable.
Please don’t waste any more of tax payers money such as the ill placed electric charging bays in the high street, yet another restriction to traffic flow. These should have been placed in the high street car parks.

Please remove pavement widening and do not waste any more public money. It’s not needed, not wanted adding danger and pollution.
Covid restrictions are due to be lifted shortly let’s get life back to normal.

Please remove the pavement widening. It is no longer necessary
Thank you

The high street in West Wickham is a main road which already struggles with the volume of traffic it sees especially if cars are parked along it making it even more narrow - like the widened pavement does as well. The pavement widening scheme wasn’t really used by pedestrians and caused issues for both motor vehicles and cyclists. The pavement widening should be removed.

I would think that remove the pavement widening.
It gives an eyesore and not make West Wickham look good at all.

I would prefer the widening to be made permanent with a different material

Put the pavements back the way they were, then perhaps look at what is required in the fullness of time. Making permanent changes now is not sensible, and the widening currently causes more problems than benefits.

I’m a resident of West Wickham and I use the high street regularly.
I welcome the temporary widening of the pavements as it has helped residents to keep to social distancing.
As we are still in the grips of the pandemic, I would prefer for the pavement widenings to remain in place for the foreseeable future.
With very kind regards

remove the scheme, no longer needed

The pavement on the Swan side of the high Street atm does narrow but the opposite side is a very wide pavement. If you widening the pavement on both sides opposite each other this will cause more of a safety issue than you're trying to prevent putting pedestrians nearer an already congested road where lorries and buses regularly mount the kerbs and squeeze past these obstructions ie vehicles turning right into the Grove and turning left at the Swan.
At least , before the barriers , cars could park there and afford some protection to pedestrians .
Just a suggestion... could the Swan car park (high Street side) and the Swan smoking area (Station Road) be opened up for pedestrian traffic somehow ?, so it cuts off Swan corner and makes it a safer connecting route to shops and supermarkets (and the pub !)

Please widen the pavements.

The widening was useful at the time of uncertainty, but now we have learned to adjust, it doesn't give any greater security, and creates a new danger for traffic, pedestrians & causes pollution. They should all be removed and the old status quo reinstated.

Please remove the barriers. They may have served their purpose during Covid (for social distancing), but they are an absolute eyesore. The High Street gets quite busy and the number of cyclists on the road has increased. The narrowing of the road is way more of a problem then a social distancing benefit.

The temporary widening of the pavements adjacent to the Sainsbury’s shop at the western end of the High Street, one adjacent to Barclays Bank, one adjacent to bus stop H on the southern side of the High Street and one adjacent to Café Talis in West Wickham High Street should be removed as the increase the danger to drivers and cyclists by pushing them in towards the centre of the road closer to on coming traffic especially lorries and buses. They make it impossible to pass a parked vehicle safely and have removed valuable parking spaces. The expense is an unnecessary waste of tax payers money and is not supported by the ward councillors, the local Residents Association, shop owners or residents.
The slowing down of traffic increases pollution and congestion in a busy high street is noticeable . It will make entering and leaving Barclays customer car park very difficult as drivers will have to pull into the centre of the road more. The one near bus stop H causes problems to the bus pulling in and out and causes issues with passengers alighting from the bus. All cause congestion and are a waste of resources and should be removed without delay. They are not needed any more and due to difficulty going down the high street drivers are using side roads causing more congestion and problems with parking. Lorries loading and unloading and buses trying to get down the high street have become serious hazards to other road users and pedestrians. Please remove the barriers!!

With reference to the above proposal, I wish to offer my objections based on the following:
1. WW HIgh Street is part of the busy A232 and as such subject to heavy traffic congestion. Widening the pavement and hence reducing the road space will only add to this congestion and with it subject WW residents to an increase in pollutants from idling cars and lorries waiting for traffic lights and pedestrian lights. Your role should be to ease traffic congestion to make traffic flow more easily rather than more slowly. WW residents and especially their children should not be placed in greater danger from pollution - the recent Lewisham case establishing such a legal precedent .
2. If the intention is to introduce cycle lanes, as above you should consider the knock-on effect of vehicle congestion as a result. It should also be noted that your recent efforts to introduce cycle routes at the junctions near the WW leisure centre have proved remarkably ineffective and no cyclists I've seen have ever used them - probably because they view them as a danger to pedestrians.
3. Given the current Government debt due to Covid, all community expenditure using taxpayers money should be judged on a 'need to have' v. 'a nice to have' principle, with your proposal definitely in the latter category if at all. I therefore strongly urge you to reconsider your proposals

As a resident and regular user of West Wickham High Street its time for the barriers to be removed. They have served a purpose but are no longer required.

Please remove the pavement widening in West Wickham