High Street pedestrian scheme set to be made permanent

A temporary scheme making Croydon High Street a pedestrian zone is set to be made permanent after the proposal was supported by the council’s Traffic Management Advisory Committee.

The site has already hosted Street Live, a free programme of music, dance and theatre performances, as well as a play street and screenings of Wimbledon.

A temporary experimental traffic order restricting vehicles from driving along the road between the junction with Park Street and Katharine Street was made a year ago but would have ended in April.

Two eye-catching pieces of street art were created on both ends of the road. Croydon School of Art graduate Adam Halliday used bold colours and images in his designs to celebrate the town’s skyline.

As part of the pedestrianisation of High Street bus routes were altered to go through Katherine Street and St George’s Walk. The taxi rank was moved to Park Street.

The permanent closure of High Street will begin in April. This will allow the road to temporarily reopen for traffic rerouted by the closure of St George’s Walk for the R&F Queen’s Square development.

This reopening will take place over two weeks in the middle of April, during the Easter holidays, and will preserve bus routes through Croydon.

Signs with details of the reopening will be displayed on High Street nearer the time.

The scheme is part of Croydon Council’s £525m infrastructure and development programme delivering improvements across central Croydon in partnership with Transport for London and the Greater London Authority.

A motion recommending the cabinet member for environment, transport and regeneration makes the experimental order permanent was approved by the Traffic Management Advisory Committee on Tuesday 5 February.

“There has been a fantastic array of performances and events entertaining scores of residents, shoppers and visitors over the past year.

“It has been a pleasure to see this public space grow and evolve and I’m looking forward to seeing the future events it will host.”

Councillor Stuart King, cabinet lead for environment and transport

2019-02-07T15:58:29+00:00 February 7th, 2019|Recent news|