Reclaim Our Roads!

Introduction

Roads are 80% of our urban space and our sense of well-being is closely linked to the environment around us.

Imagine your road without litter, slippery leaves, weeds or overgrown trees.

Imagine pavements without trip hazards, no potholes, no speeding traffic, and better air quality.

Imagine too that there are no blocked gullies and drains, no ponding or rivers of water running down your road. Imagine living at ease, without  road vibrations from large lorries shaking the foundations of your house.

That is ROaR's  vision for Merton:  clean, safe and green spaces for you and your family to enjoy a better quality of life.

Litter and decomposing leaves are depressing enough. However, the effect on our drainage system and the sub-structure of our roads is potentially far worse and more costly, especially as our climate changes and we face more frequent, heavy rain.

So the  'Reclaim Our Roads' campaign group has launched a plan of action for cleaner, safer, greener roads.

Together we can Reclaim Our Roads.

Please sign the petition here

Merton Hall Road - rubbish and detritus

30 December 2014

Merton Hall Road - rubbish and decomposing leaves

Reported to Merton Council 06 Jan 2015: Your reference for this form is:AF1166731

Heavy Lorries Cause Heavy Hearts for Residents

Bar the flooding, there are other serious concerns about our roads that is often overlooked.

Road vibrations.

Road vibrations are caused by heavy duty traffic going on roads that cannot properly accommodate them, due to the substructure being constantly eroded by leaky pipes and flooding. This can ruin residents' private property, as masonry can literally fall of your house as lorries or other large vehicles speed past.

Concerned residents have already approached us - with fallen debris from their house in hand - to try and find solutions to this upsetting problem.

Alongside this worrying issue, there is, of course the matter for public safety. As can be seen by the image below, if debris as sharp as some of the masonry we saw is falling from  great heights, it could cause serious injury to the public.

Dangerous - sharp pieces of masonry have fallen off in the Haydon Park Road area

To solve this problem, we believe that a multiple agency organisation needs to be set up, with  all the institutions (The Environment Agency, Thames Water & Merton Council) involved so that they cannot 'pass the buck' to one another. 

We believe also that greater transparency is required in the process of finding out when the council last inspected a road. This would allow residents to pressure the council with information that, currently, they do not have.
Read more about our 5-point action plan here 

Merton Underwater

Residents in Merton are left amazed by the small amount of rainfall it takes for the roads to flood.

Draft Flood Risk Management Strategy @Merton_Council nowhere near ready .,.and overdue. Have they seen what happens in Morden when it rains?
— Mabel Fonge (Miss) (@MabelFonge) November 17, 2014

Considering the heavy amount of rainfall that is meant to lash against Britain this winter, their concerns are  very well founded - unlike, it seems, the roads around us.

The problem is that the drains are under-maintained, allowing all sorts of litter and decomposing leaves to settle in them. Flooding causes residents' and businesses alike financial headache, flooding also causes great stress to our less physically able citizens

We hope that when this campaign's 5-points action plan is taken on, we won't see appalling conditions on such a regular basis, as we see below.

Kingston Road- flooding renders this crossing unusable for a lot of residents

Worple Road - slight rainfall causes a very irritating lake in the middle of the road

Russell Road - Flooding on this level is a mater of public health and safety

Remember - this is all easily preventable. A better maintenance regime, and a multiple agency organisation to determine who's responsible are 2 of many solutions that could prevent this kind of flooding in the future - especially as rainfalls worsen.

Bring Back Street Cleaning After Rubbish Collection

These pictures show why the Liberal Democrats proposed a motion to Merton council asking for weekly street cleaning after rubbish and recycling collection. We need a proper regime to end the waste problem, not the knee-jerk reaction we're seeing at the moment.

Crossway - litter left behind just after rubbish collection.
 A proposal to stop this sort of thing happening was not supported by Conservative or Labour Councillors

Richmond Road- decomposing leaves clutter the pavements - waiting to be washed into our drains

High Path - litter and ponding disfigure our environment

We hope you see these photos and reflect in the same way we do - as a dereliction of duty by our council.

Please continue to support our campaign so we can sort out this mess by Reclaiming Our Roads

Sign the petition to bring back street cleaning after rubbish collection here:
http://shassheehan.org.uk/en/petition/reclaim-our-roads-roarmerton

Breaking the Cause and Effect Chain

When Reclaim Our Roads was started, it soon became apparent that we weren't tying together random issues. We realised these issues were interconnected, and that an inevitable chain of events that arises from neglect turns seemingly simple problems into a financial headache for Merton.

These simple problems - such as a build up of leaves and litter in drains - are easily preventable and significantly reduce the chance of local flooding from occurring. We need to get to grips with the problems.

This flow diagram shows how the damage is caused.

How to solve these problems?

We believe there are a few solutions the council could enact to make our roads cleaner, safer and greener. Read our five-point action plan here

What we plan to do about it

Here’s our 5-point action plan:

There are a few simple actions that Shas Sheehan and local Lib Dems are calling for that would make a big difference.

1. Get serious about street cleaning.

Merton council should introduce street cleaning straight after refuse and recycling collections and monitor the quality of the work.

2. The council should publicise the schedule of inspection and maintenance of gullies and drain.

Information is key. Allowing resident's to know when their road is up for inspection allows them to hold the council to account when their actions are unacceptable.

3. A joint working group to be set up to include Merton council, Thames Water and the Environment Agency.

This agency would look holistically at the cause and effect of poor drainage and vibrating roads, allowing for problems to be resolved before they become a thorny issue for residents. 

At the moment residents are sent from pillar to post trying to find out which agency is responsible for problems in their road. This step would greatly decrease the amount of bureaucracy involved in finding out who is responsible. 

4.Merton council to implement 20mph default speed limit on most roads, without roads humps.

This would make roads safer, reduce air and noise pollution and mitigate vibration.

5. Enforce heavy lorry weight restrictions

This would further reduce vibrations and prevent damage to buildings in the immediate vicinity