Coaches Visiting Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
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Coaches visiting Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Proposals for arrangements for coaches after the implementation of the 24h cycle lane A briefing paper from The Kew Society, 26 February 2021 Executive Summary The proposals from Richmond Council for dealing with coach parties visiting the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (RBG Kew) will:- o Have severe consequences for disrupting the South Circular Road (A205) through traffic. o Provide too few parking places for the number of visiting coaches. o Are impractical for school groups. o Place a financial burden on RBG Kew when its finances are severely compromised by losses during the pandemic o Impact adversely on the World Heritage Status of RBG Kew, the Elizabeth Gate, Kew Green residents and the public amenity of Kew Green. We recognise that compromises must be accepted to arrive at a more acceptable plan which helps mitigate these problems whilst still keeping cyclists safe in the cycle lane. The Kew Society proposes:- o Provision of more sites for coach parking and identifies sites for this off the A316. o That in order to minimize traffic disruption on the A205 on Kew Green, coaches carrying adult visitor groups [25-30% of the total] should go around the west Green to drop and pick-up their passengers. o That coaches carrying school parties [70-75% of total] should drop and pick-up their passengers at existing TfL bus stops on Kew Road close to its junction with The Avenue where the segregated cycle lane is already interrupted. o That after drop-off on the Kew Road northbound lane, coaches should proceed via established bus routes over Kew Bridge, through Brentford and then, via the A310, to parking off the A316 in Richmond or Twickenham. Southbound coaches would proceed directly to Richmond Circus and the A316 after drop-off. 1 A map of the area under discussion can be found at https://www.google.com/maps/@51.482676,-0.2924567,15.55z] The Kew Society (TKS) • TKS is a non-political amenity society with a paid-up membership of about 750 local residents. The “Kew Union” was formed in 1901 and TKS grew out of it in the 1960’s. • TKS is a registered charity (#1173016) and as an amenity society is established for the public benefit. • TKS objectives are to promote high standards of planning and architecture in Kew, to educate the public about the locality and to enhance the environment and public amenities in Kew. • TKS is proud to have The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (RBG Kew), one of only four UNESCO World Heritage sites in London, as a neighbour. Many of our members are “Friends of Kew” and visit the gardens regularly. TKS policy on Kew Road, Coaches and Air Quality • Prior to the implementation of the 24h cycle lane, in peak season (March to July) 15+ coaches per day would visit RBG Kew and park on the west side of Kew Road. TKS has long recognised that extensive coach parking on Kew Road presents a danger to other road users. We first discussed the need for providing alternative arrangements for coach parking with the Director RBG Kew in 2014. Subsequently we wrote a Report, recording the problems and offering ideas for resolving them. The Report team was chaired by of one of our members, a professional traffic engineer. • The Report was submitted to Richmond Council (Mr Paul Chadwick, Director of Environment) in July 2017. We know from Mr Nick O’Donnell (Assistant Director of Traffic and Engineering) that, subsequently, the Council employed consultants to undertake surveys of Kew Road traffic and formulated plans to make the road safer, although this information was not made public. Apparently, these plans were abandoned when the 24h segregated cycle lane was introduced under COVID -19 emergency legislation on May 29th 2020. • TKS has been an active campaigner for promoting improvements in air quality. For example, (i) the Chair of TKS (a retired professor of medicine and biochemistry at Imperial College London) has given a number of lectures on air pollution and its effects on health to local groups in Kew, Mortlake, East Sheen and Twickenham, to promote public awareness, (ii) he has also gone into local schools to engage with pupils and teachers, (iii) TKS gave extensive assistance to Richmond Council in its Cleaner Air for Schools Campaign on 2017, supporting Council Officers in measuring air quality, identifying school air champions and planning local walk to school routes, acknowledged in the Council’s Report, (iv) TKS is a founder member of the Make Air Safe and Clean (“MASC”) alliance whose members campaign on air quality issues throughout SW London. • As clean air campaigners TKS strongly supports the use of sustainable transport – walking, cycling and the use of public transport wherever possible. We know that carbon-fuelled vehicles on our roads are a major contributor to poor air quality, but we acknowledge that their use is not going to disappear overnight. In the case of 2 RBG Kew there are visitor categories which will depend on cars and coaches to get to the Gardens in the foreseeable future. These include the disabled and less abled, including the elderly; families with very young children; those coming in coach parties, e.g., gardening clubs and others from distant locations; some school parties for whom public transport is not an option. Coaches may be viewed as a form of sustainable transport since a single coach brings up to 50 passengers to a venue who otherwise may have arrived in many cars. Richmond Council’s proposals for coach visitors • The Council proposes that the narrow road around the west side of Kew Green should become a one-way system. Entry from the South Circular Road (A205) will be at the southern end, beside the Botanist Restaurant, close to the traffic light- controlled junction of Kew Road(A307) and Mortlake Road (A205). Vehicles will exit the one-way system from the northern side of Kew Green where the road junctions with the South Circular and becomes Kew Bridge. Please note that Transport for London’s current CS9 works on Kew Bridge include creating a right turn into Kew Green from the outer south bound lane at this point in direct conflict with the Council’s proposal! There is no traffic light at this junction, but there is a light controlled pedestrian crossing a few meters onto the bridge. Immediately south of this junction there is a bus stop and the South Circular also narrows abruptly to create an existing hazard for traffic leaving Kew Bridge. • The Council proposes that when going around the west Green, coaches stop at RBG Kew’s Elizabeth Gate to disembark their passengers. There is room for 2, possibly 3, coaches within the “carriage ring” immediately in front of the Gate and the Council proposes an additional coach drop off/pick up bay in front of nos. 53,55 The Green, adjacent to the carriage ring. The Council proposes a maximum stay time of 20 minutes per coach. • After drop-off, coaches will proceed to the junction with the South Circular by the Bridge, turn right across the main road in front of the northbound traffic and drive across the Green on the A205 to the junction with Kew Road. They will then proceed in a southerly direction along Kew Road to Richmond, the A316 and the Old Deer Park Car Park. • There is currently provision for 3 coaches at the Old Deer Park Car Park and the Council have given notice that they will provide a further 3 spaces. • For picking up, coaches will return from Old Deer Park along the same route and re- embark their passengers at the Elizabeth Gate on Kew Green. They would then re- join the South Circular by Kew Bridge, turning left to go north, or right to go south. In the latter case they would once again have to cross the northbound traffic on the South Circular Road. • The Council also propose a taxi rank for 4 cabs at the Elizabeth Gate. 3 Problems with Richmond Council’s proposals – (1) traffic congestion on the South Circular Road (A205) crossing Kew Green Data below on coach numbers is from RBG Kew’s document,” Impacts from loss of bus drop off on Kew Road”. • There is a Department for Transport (DfT) traffic count point where the South Circular Road joins Kew Bridge [https://roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/manualcountpoints/6758]. The data from this confirms that the road is extremely busy. Average daily movements for all vehicles were about 33,074 (AADFs) over 2015-2019. This includes, on average, 670 buses/coaches, 5346 light goods vehicles and 1160 heavy goods vehicles per day. A DfT manual count of pedal cycles passing this point in 2019 recorded an AADF of 1083. There are frequent jams getting onto the Bridge from the south and exiting it onto Kew Green from the north. Traffic here may well increase further when the new Brentford Football Club stadium and numerous residential tower blocks, some consented, some nearing completion, open on the north side of Kew Bridge. • Coaches coming to the Elizabeth Gate from north of the river will have to cross the north bound lane of the A205 opposite The Botanist and will then have to cross it again when they leave the Green by Kew Bridge to turn right to go to park in The Old Deer Park car park. Coaches coming from the south can turn left into The Green without problem at the Botanist but will have to cross the northbound carriageway of the A205 when they exit The Green to go to park at the Old Deer Park.