A Hackbridge chip shop owner says a raised pedestrian crossing leaves his building shaking every day as buses, vans and lorries hit it at speed. Tolga Sen, who runs Equinox Fish Bar at 150 London Road, said HGVs and other large vehicles travelling over the raised courtesy crossing cause vibrations strong enough to rattle his windows and, he claims, cause cracks in the building.
"It shakes badly," Tolga told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). "You can especially hear it when you are upstairs." He added: "I could understand if it made the cars go slower, but it doesn't. It just shakes the road and affects us." Tolga believes the vibrations have contributed to cracks in the upstairs of the property.
Heavy traffic on A237 London Road
London Road, which carries the A237 through Hackbridge, carries heavy traffic throughout the day, serving the nearby Beddington Industrial Estate, Hackbridge train station, local schools and the New Mill Quarter housing estate. However, Tolga believes Sutton Council did not consider the impact on local businesses when redesigning the road. "No one told us why they changed the road layout," he said. "Maybe on the computer the design looked nice, but in reality it is not like that."
The LDRS also spoke to another business owner further down the high street, who raised similar concerns about what they described as a "poorly installed" courtesy crossing outside their premises.
Councillor pushes for redesign
Hackbridge Councillor Dave Tchil has been working with local businesspeople, including Tolga, to push for changes from the Liberal Democrat-led council. The Labour councillor explained how the vibrations were mainly caused by heavy traffic travelling over the "huge concrete humps" at speed. "The crossings don't slow speeding traffic on a busy A road and need redesigning," he told the LDRS. "Millions are collected in council tax and little has been reinvested. I want the council to invest into Hackbridge."
Cllr Tchil raised the issue at last week's full council meeting (July 13), asking Chair of the Environment and Sustainable Transport Committee Councillor Christopher Woolmer what plans the council had to revise the design and materials used for the "ineffective and noisy" courtesy crossings. In response, Councillor Woolmer said the council took pedestrian safety "very seriously" and carried out regular reviews of the borough's roads. However, he noted there were currently "no plans to revise this specific area".
Council says crossing not a priority
In a follow-up question, Cllr Tchil stressed the impact of the crossing, describing it as "noisy and very cumbersome". "You can imagine the noise and vibration it creates when a vehicle travels over that," he told Cllr Woolmer, arguing that Hackbridge had become "a testbed for ideas" where problems were left unresolved. Cllr Woolmer acknowledged the concerns, saying: "I understand that it's probably a very annoying noise," but added that the crossing "wasn't identified as a priority" in the most recent review. However, he said he would ask officers to look into the issue again.
Asked how he felt after the council said fixing the crossing was not a priority, Tolga replied: "It's not nice." He said he felt the council did not care about the area and believed the work to fix the crossing would not take long. While Tolga has since moved from the room above the shop, he joked that he had now almost "got used to it after all these years".
Council response
A Sutton Council spokesperson said: "The funding for road improvements comes from Transport for London (TfL). How this funding is spent on the road network across Sutton is decided according to clear local priorities and criteria, such as collision data, pedestrian crossing demand, and area-wide needs based on resident and councillor feedback. The council has not received any direct complaints from residents about noise, vibration or traffic speeds in the Hackbridge area and we encourage anyone who is concerned to contact the council. We are currently looking at opportunities to improve the cycling and walking infrastructure along London Road in Hackbridge as part of the council's wider plans to encourage more people to walk and cycle."
