As the secretary of the Hook Rise South Tolworth Residents’ Association, I feel I must strongly disagree with Mr Walsh (How many more projects are there that will degrade area?, July 11) and Mr Perham (Tree tragedy, July 11) on their comments about the Greenway.

Firstly, Mr Walsh complains of a lack of consultation on this project, but I do not recall seeing either Mr Walsh or Mr Perham at the consultation meetings.

We had considerable misgivings when the project was put to us, but the designers cleverly altered their designs to answer our concerns.

One of our concerns was that the walkway across the roundabout would be unsafe at night. 

I had the pleasure of catching a 281 bus from Surbiton station to Tolworth and proceeded to walk home using the greenway at nearly 1am perfectly safely. 

The designers have cleverly used timber to protect people on the walkway from a side approach and, at the same time, given the users excellent visibility of people on the roundabout.

We also expressed concerns that there was not sufficient room for both cyclists and pedestrians on the  Greenway – so the designers increased the width.

In our discussions with the police, they pointed out that there were low crime figures for the old subways but this is because, at night, they had been lightly used due to the history of muggings and sexual assaults in the Tolworth subways in the past.

Prior to the Greenway, people at night had been dodging traffic to cross the A3.

The Greenway is now working well since the motorists are now observing the 20mph limit.

As one who shops on the Broadway daily, I take great pleasure in seeing motorists courteously slowing or stopping to let pedestrians cross. 

The convenience and flexibility of the Greenway and the result of this courteous action, in practice, gives a  great feelgood factor for shoppers.

With regard to the trees – either the supplier, installer or whoever is responsible for maintenance must be liable and I am sure our council will sort this out.

Many readers may think that the Greenway was paid for by council tax, but it was paid for by central Government’s Transport for London, and we must look on it as a small compensation for having the A3 run through our borough.

Paul Durrant

Tolworth

 



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