Improved transport underpins many efforts to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of Crouch End.

In transport terms, the centre of Crouch End is chiefly characterised by its location at the confluence of four major through roads: Tottenham Lane, Park Road, Crouch Hill and Crouch End Hill.

Crouch End’s crossroads nature leads to frequent congestion, particularly along the Broadway, which is exacerbated by the narrowing of Tottenham Lane’s carriageway from four lanes to two as it enters the town centre. Heavy congestion creates a polluted and traffic dominated environment, particularly along the Topsfield Parade stretch of Tottenham Lane, deterring shoppers and users of the cafes and restaurants.

The width of the road along this stretch of both Tottenham and parallel Middle Lanes also encourages acceleration, posing particular risk to parents and children crossing to Rokesley primary school. Similarly, Crouch End Hill narrows from five lanes to two, creating a traffic dominated entry.

For an inner London neighbourhood, Crouch End is relatively ill-served by public transport. The town centre itself lacks a fixed rail connection. The nearest railway station is Hornsey, which is a 15 minute for a healthy individual from the Clocktower. The closest Underground stations are further away at Turnpike Lane, Finsbury Park and Highgate.

Crouch End is served by several bus routes. The 91 service, which currently terminates in Crouch End but is due to be extended to the Heartlands area of Wood Green, provides a direct connection into the West End. The main ‘workhorse’ bus service for Crouch End is the W7, which provides links with Muswell Hill to the north and the Tube/rail interchange at Finsbury Park via Stroud Green to the south. The town centre is also served by the the 41, which provides east-west links with the Northern Line station at Archway in one direction and the Turnpike Lane and Tottenham Hale transport hubs, which are served by the Picadilly and Victoria lines respectively as well as mainline rail services. In addition, the W3 double decker bus service cuts through Crouch End, providing a service to Finsbury Park, Alexandra Palace, Wood Green and North Tottenham.   Crouch End is served by the W5 ‘hopper’ bus service between Archway and the Sainsbury’s supermarket in Harringay.

Crouch End itself contains little dedicated cycling infrastructure other than the shared bus lane along the bottom end of Crouch End Hill. The CENF area is also bisected by the London Cycle Network routes 6 and 7, which are marked cycle route along quiet residential streets. Lack of roadspace within Crouch End town centre creates an obstacle to plans by Transport for London for a north-south dedicated cycle superhighway between Islington and Wood Green.

Residents of Crouch End primarily tend to access the town centre facilities by foot. However many of the town centre’s pavements, particularly along Topsfield Parade, are too narrow to comfortably support high volumes of footfall.

Crouch End also contains a number of electric vehicle charge points.

POTENTIAL POLICIES

T1 WIDENING PAVEMENTS

This neighbourhood plan supports efforts to promote widened pavements along Tottenham Lane and the Broadway. Tottenham Lane includes the greatest number of vacant retail units and highest turnover of tenants within Crouch End town centre. Narrow pavements also offer little space for parking Lime bikes, adding to proliferation of street furniture, and impeding pedestrians, especially those using pushchairs or wheelchairs.

Widened pavements will provide a more attractive environment for pedestrians, particularly if the opportunity is taken to introduce more trees and other greenery, such as in planters and rain gardens. Wider pavements also potentially create opportunities for cafes and restaurants to introduce pavement dining and drinking, enhancing the viability of such businesses, which increasingly provide the town centre’s economic life-blood.

The neighbourhood plan also supports restrictions on-street parking during weekdays with a consultation to be undertaken by LB of Haringey for further weekend parking restrictions (see CIL appendix).

There is also an opportunity to create a new green gateway to the centre of Crouch End by extending the existing green and tree-lined approach from the top of Crouch End Hill outside Christchurch towards the centre of Crouch End,

This neighbourhood plan policy supports LB Haringey plan SP7, which refers to walking as a ‘zero carbon’ form of travel that relieves pressure on public transport infrastructure and Haringey’s roads.

This states that promotion of walking is an ‘essential element’ of Haringey’s approach to managing growth, besides supporting other local plan policies to promote more active, healthy lifestyles and create more active, vibrant streets and public spaces.

The transport break-out group at the Neighbourhood Plan consultation event in July expressed broad support for the concept of wider pavements and introducing more planters and trees in particular in order to create a more impressive gateway on the main northbound entry on Crouch End Hill.

This policy would support the vision, set out in LB Haringey’s Walking and Cycling Action Plan (WACP), for the borough to develop a reputation for being one of the best walking and cycling boroughs and reduce motor vehicles use for short trips. The policy also supports the WACP’s vision for walking to be the focus of our town centres and shopping area and for walking. In addition, the policy supports the plan’s policy for walking and cycling to be the ‘default choice’ of travel in Haringey and to seek funding to deliver changes to facilitate this goal.

T2 IMPROVING EAST-WEST BUS SERVICES

The neighbourhood plan supports efforts to enhance bus connections between Crouch End town centre and Highgate Underground station. The current W5 bus service uses a small, ‘hopper’ bus to Archway that does not go near Highgate Tube, meaning that many Crouch End residents use private motor vehicles to reach the station, fuelling congestion on the local road network.

This policy accords with the SP7 policy in LB Haringey’s local plan to support improvements to east – west bus routes within the borough as well as promote new east – west routes. This states that further development of orbital bus routes is required in order to provide an ‘effective and sustainable alternative’ to the car for journeys to the east and west of Haringey. This proposed policy also accords with Transport for London’s wider drive to improve the capital’s non-radial, orbital bus routes.

T3 RATIONALISING CENTRAL CROUCH END’S ROAD LAYOUT

Crouch End town centre’s road layout is currently highly incoherent. The legcy of a long-abandoned road widening scheme means, for example, means that Crouch End Hill expands to five lanes on the entry to Crouch End town centre.

Similarly wide stretches also exist along both Middle and Tottenham Lanes. This plan proposes that the road within central Crouch End and those leading into it should have no more than two lanes each. The decision by TfL to no longer terminate the 91-bus service in Crouch End, ending the need to park vehicles along Tottenham Lane, creates an opportunity to reduce to reuse the liberated road space.

Limiting use of road space by motor vehicles would discourage through traffic from using Crouch End, potentially leading to benefits in terms of reduced congestion and enhanced air quality. The roadspace freed up by the redundant lanes could be used to plant more trees and other greenery, further improving the appearance of the gateways leading into Crouch End town centre, while providing other benefits in terms of better air quality and mitigating the urban ‘heat island’ effect exacerbated by hard surfaces. Other uses for liberated road spaces could be dedicated cycle ways, provision of additional benches to help less physically able individuals to access the town centre’s facilities and additional electric vehicle charge points

Remodelling Crouch End town centre’s road layout could also provide opportunities to facilitate wider ambitions by the Greater London Authority to create a Cycle Superhighway in north London between Islington and Wood Green. Currently the constricted nature of the town centre’s road network means there is no opportunity to thread such a dedicated cycle route through Crouch End.

This policy also supports policies in LB Haringey’s local plan to promote walking and cycling. This policy also specifically supports the extension of current scheme for a dedicated cycle route along Tottenham Lane from Hornsey High Street, recently consulted on by LB Haringey, beyond the current proposed cut-off point at the junction with Church Road.

In order to improve bus flow in locations where roads move from four lanes to two, such as Park Road, phased traffic lights could be installed that give priority to cyclists and buses.

This policy to limit dedicated road space for motor vehicles would also support the WACP’s policy for LB Haringey’s cycle routes and facilities to be among the best in London.

The Forum is working on a series of policy options for the Neighbourhood Plan.