The temporary pedestrianisation of Northcote Road has been approved for 2022.

During yesterday's (Wednesday February 23) Finance Resources and Climate Sustainability Overview and Scrutiny committee meeting the pedestrianisation of Northcote Road was approved.

It was stated that a key learning experience from the pandemic is that the temporary pedestrianisation of many streets in the borough "demonstrated clear economic benefits in terms of business turnover and jobs".

The Council's view is that this learning should be incorporated into a permanent arrangement going forward.

With this in mind it has been proposed that an additional capital budget of £2.481m is approved to put in place permanent street closure arrangements.

In the long run this would make the closure much more cost effective.

The style of closure seen each weekend for the last two summers (2020/21) requires significant costs of £10,000 per weekend.

A more permanent solution to this will be designed imminently and relies on the approval of Wandsworth Local Fund - NCIL.

If approved it will lead to a more detailed implementation plan for the scheme during 2022.

Based on the preliminary designs, this would include a combination of traffic management products.

Due to the implementation time for the permanent solution, this summer (2022) temporary barriers will once again be used.

The Council estimates that assuming the period of closures commences at the Easter weekend and runs through until the end of September, this will lead to an estimated maximum cost of £285,000, if approved.

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