The plan is to replace the traffic lights of Broad Street/Church Road/Causeway with a roundabout as part of the general programme to reduce general road congestion – particularly an issue when the current lights back-up traffic to the bridge roundabout. 15 new parking spaces would be created in The Causeway as well as a pedestrian shopping area by closing one end of this road.

A study will soon be commissioned to see if the idea will be an improvement. If so, a public consultation will be undertaken to gauge the level of support for this idea. If given the go-ahead, this work would not take place this financial year.

Click for detailed plan

As a result of the All-In-One public feedback session, the Council is working on various ‘village action plans’ to create sets of activities and timescales that will attempt to tackle issues brought up by those who attended. One frequently mentioned comment for Teddington was the lack of parking, so a lot of thought is being given in this area. Expect more plans and further consultations for different scheme propositions in the near future.

The Teddington Society has for some time now proposed the pedestrianisation of The Causeway to create a ‘mini-town centre’ which could then be used to host events and attract shoppers in a similar fashion to Church Street in Twickenham. Another suggestion is to create free quick-turnover spaces to encourage shoppers in areas such as Church Road and around the high street in general.

140 world-class international cyclists will be speeding along the 140km long route that will be used during next year’s London Olympics. The Olympic organising committee has been working with Richmond Borough Council, TFL, the emergency services and Royal Parks to ensure the minimum of impact will be experienced by residents whilst racing fans can enjoy watching the event itself.

Tour de France in Kent

Since the initial letter was distributed, considerable discussions have taken place with Richmond Council to minimise disruption to residents and businesses. Roads will close on the Sunday from 4-6am and start to re-open at 11:30am – this is expected to impact on traffic over a wide area. Approximately 1,000 roads will be closed and 80km of barriers put up along the route.

Hampton Court bridge and Kingston Bridge will remain closed until approximately 3pm due to the race following this route on the return journey. Bushy and Richmond Park will closed to traffic as usual on Saturday night and not re-open until Monday morning. Pedestrians and race-watchers will be welcome along the route and in the parks – estimated to be passing through Teddington at 9:30am and returning to Hampton Court by 11am.

TFL Maps & lists of restricted roads & cycle route.

During the road closures there will be marshalled limited crossing points for pedestrians and traffic. Journeys usually made by bus or car should be made by alternative methods where possible on the day. Some bus routes will have diversions in place whilst others may not run at all. In addition to road closures, cars won’t be able to park on the race route roads themselves after 6:30pm on Saturday night (13th August).

If you wish to find out more information about this event, a drop-in session is being held at Teddington Train station on Tuesday 26th July 2011 (4:30-7:30pm).

Organised by the Teddington Society, the event has been going strong since 1973 and is not to be confused with Richmond Borough In Bloom which will be judged in July.

Map of the gardens:

View Larger Map
Or download the printable list.

Hundreds of people will be visiting the much-loved and well-pruned gardens around Teddington on the day whilst raising funds for local charities. The Mayor will be joining the garden tour at 2pm and will visit as many gardens as the she can – with 13 venues this year there’s a lot to see. Included on the day will be Collis School Nature Trail and St Mary’s Parish Church Flower Festival & Bell Ringing.

Refreshments and plants will be for sale in some gardens, entrance fee of 50p per garden. Proceeds to The Friendship Club at the Strathmore Centre, Home-Start Richmond and other local causes.

Here are the street parties and special events planned by businesses in the area (will be updated over the next week so check back nearer the time).

Even before the big day itself, Langham Road street party has won a competition! Pie Minister have awarded a huge trove of prizes including mouth-watering pies, sausage rolls, bunting, balloons and t-shirts.

Included for the expected 300-strong crowd is a fancy dress parade, bouncy castle, beat-the-goalie, face painting, an open-mic stage, local history quiz, limbo dancing, toss the bouquet contest and a hog roast!

This particular street party might start some healthy competition in Teddington – they have a planning group, regular newsletters and have been approached by local press, BBC, Sky, French Radio and also Japanese TV! Media around the world are now caught-up in Royal Wedding fever.

News crews are already filming party preparations all over the country, but particularly in Richmond Borough which is no surprise because it has been named as the street party capital of London. The UK is having over 5,000 street parties in total with 800 in London alone.

[Update] Haymarket in Teddington were chosen to create the official Wedding Programme which is available to buy around London and also online.

For those worrying about clearing up after street parties, Richmond Council are apparently to send a street cleaner to every official street party in the borough. As there are so many bank holidays over these three weeks, they have also released an updated list of bin and recycling collection days.

Keep an eye out for last-minute additions to high street flags – there is a special Royal Wedding pizza on display at Canta Napoli and a themed cup-cake display in La Bottega.

Two women entered the building asking if one could use the WC urgently (feigning distress and pain to heighten the urgency). Whilst they were in the back office and staff at the front were distracted, items were stolen.

As with shoplifting and associated crime, business owners are being asked to keep an eye our for similar circumstances occuring. If any suspicious activity is seen then contact the police as soon as possible. Shop owners do have the right to refuse admission to their premises if they are suspicious of intentions.

Ironically at Wednesday’s business community meeting, the first concern raised by shop owners was that this type of crime happens in the area and how perhaps Teddington suffers because it is an affluent area and also considered a ‘soft target’. Police attending the meeting answered that this type of crime is no stranger to all towns and generally will be on the increase due to the current economic climate.

Constant contact between businesses and local police is key to help prevent or report crimes such as these and help warn others in the area about any patterns occuring.

Photo: Peter Denton

In a crime assessment document released today there is currently a spate of cash-point thefts across Richmond Borough using ‘Lebanese loop‘ devices that retain ATM users cards combined with seemingly helpful onlookers. In another ‘distraction’ type crime, they offer to help with their problem but are actually just looking to watch their PIN being entered by asking them to try it again.

This shorter course will start and end at Hampton Court to help promote London’s historical palaces to the huge audiences that will be watching the games next year from all over the world.

World-class riders will follow the 45km route through Esher, Sandown, Molesey and Teddington and although the race will be mid-week (1st August 2012), large crowds are expected for this free-to-view event.

The “Elite Men’s route” will include Kingston Road, Twickenham Road, Strawberry Vale, Waldegrave Road, Park Road and then onto Bushy Park for the final sprint towards the finish line.

The Olympic torch is also set to pass through Teddington on the day of the opening ceremony. The torch will be travelling down the Thames from Hampton Court on a river barge towards Stratford Olympic Park – passing through Teddington Lock on its journey.

Due to ever-increasing travel prices, healthier lifestyle choices and government programmes, the number of people using cycles on our roads has increased significantly in recent years. The Council is committed to supporting cyclists that live and travel through our borough through these designated cycle routes and off-road/quiet cycle routes.

Suggestions for amendments and corrections (to the routes and the maps themselves) will be collated and forwarded to “LBRuT Smarter Travel” by Teddington Society’s Roads and Transport group organiser – email brianholder99@aol.com in plenty of time before the Council’s 14th of February so that they can be taken into consideration before the final maps are published in March.

Draft maps:
Cycle routes
Bus routes

[Update 5th February 2011] Richmond Cycling campaign secretly launched their ‘Lighten Up’ event by Teddington Lock footbridge on Thursday Night. The aim is to stop cyclists and offer to fit lights for free to raise awareness of the importance of having lights when cycling in the dark.

15 sets of lights were fitted to bikes where existing lights were either broken, of poor quality or simply missing. Other events are planned in the borough this month at further mystery locations and dates. If you like to help out volunteering then contact info@richmondlcc.co.uk.

This new transparent service responds to criticism that people have recently lost confidence in national crime figures which seem to change their definition regularly. Similar statistics and maps have been available in the US for a while now and tend to show much more detailed information than the police.uk version.

Burglaries in TW11

Crimes are broken down into six categories: burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other and anti-social behaviour. Sex crimes have been included in the “other” category, along with crimes such as theft and shoplifting, to help prevent victims at geographic locations from being identified.

Another aim is to provide confidence for witnesses and victims of crime that their evidence given has resulted in recorded crime that may help prevent further incidents and help catch the criminals involved. Charity Victim Support have stated that it is important that victims of crime have consented to whether information about their particular crime is released – some are not included in these maps.

Vehicle crime in TW11

The site also includes a wealth of useful local police information & crime-fighting information. Local police contact details, neighbourhood policing team names, local events (drop-in surgeries etc), CCTV and photo identification request and also tips and tricks to help prevent crime including preventing burglaries, staying safe from robbery, keeping vehicles safe and how to report different types of crime (including anonymously).

Perhaps most importantly the maps themselves show that even in what residents consider to be a safe town such as Teddington, crime is no stranger to the area and we can all help to prevent it.

To coincide with this new website, a new initiative to distribute regular updates on crime trends and incidents directly from local Safer Neighbourhood Teams. This is so that residents are generally better informed and in response to information requests. Updates such as these will be distributed through email and will detail emerging crime trends in the borough.

One of the objectives of the lottery-funded Bushy Park restoration was to generally reduce the impact of cars within the park – a move welcomed by general users, dog walkers and deer alike! This particular car park was actually removed from the official map back in May 2009 but since this time, the new Pheasantry Cafe has attracted more visitors to the park in general and also drawn visitors away from the main fountain car park with the lure of the new cafe – potentially leading to a squeeze on spaces first highlighted earlier this year.

The replacement car-parks at the Pheasantry Cafe (B) and Clapperstile area (C) contain roughly as many parking spaces as will be lost here (A) but the cafe, general increased park use and changing preferences within the park look like they will now lead to an over-subscription in this area. Local groups are also keen to point out that not all of the NPL buildings in the Clapperstile area were demolished as planned (due to the newly constructed laboratories not being able to perform all the planned tasks) so the not all potential spaces were created.

Despite the lack of signposting at its entrance from Queens Road, currently the Clapperstile car park is slowly starting to be used by general park-goers but is sometimes full during sports club matches – any additional cars looking to visit the park may now add to parking pressure on surrounding roads.

If you are concerned by this issue you can make your comments known by writing to bushy@royalparks.gsi.gov.uk

[Update 02/11/2010] this closure has now been put on hold to enable the Partnership Steering Group to consider the issue in more detail. Royal Parks would like to point out that the amount of parking would have actually increased overall after this removal. Although much of the recent correspondence has called for retaining this car park, previous comments had conversely called for its removal because this busy area affects visitors experience in the park.

[Update 24/12/2010] As a compromise ‘mid-term solution’ it has been decided that the car-park will now remain in place to be open at weekends and public holidays as an overflow space at peak times. Car-parking visitors to the park will be encouraged to use the newly created space near the NPL entrance which is currently under-subscribed (although also not well sign-posted from nearby roads) and the contested car park will eventually be turned back into parkland.

This particular work-around hasn’t officially been listed as one of the available options for the impending proper works but may be preferable to the other two options as it keeps at least one bus routes alive on Kingston Road.

It will see 281 buses diverted along Sandy Lane/Park Road and 285 taking the route underneath the lower bridge on Lower Teddington Road presumably along with general road traffic.

Click on this map for PDF

[Update] Network Rail are under scrutiny again – this time for making last minute changes to the plans that were announced just days before the public meeting – the 10 week closure plan has now been extended to 15 (including 7 weekend closures).

Which ever method is chosen, it is almost certain that the 281 bus route will be diverted along Sandy Lane because closing one lane under the bridge would only allow single-decker buses along this ‘angled’ road shape.

There is concern from Hampton Wick traders about the full closure option – particular concerning general trade loss as well as deliveries. A partial closure during the week then full closure on some weekends is expected to cause much confusion with motorists but may bring the least disruption in general.