Decision Day For Richmond Park

Well done for putting the environment first! He stood up to the car lobby, who were backed by the unholy alliance of the Conservatives in the form of Tony Arbour (leader of Richmond council) and the LibDems in the form of Susan Kramer (MP for Richmond Park).

June 05

Story as at Nov 2004

Decision Day is approaching for Richmond Park. For nearly 10 years a debate, sometimes a row, has been raging. On the one side is the car lobby, which believes that Richmond Park should be used as a rat-run for cars. On the other side are the friends and supporters of the park, who believe that traffic should be confined to those vehicles that are actually accessing the park.

The Royal Parks Agency, who manage Richmond Park, have been running a trial where the Robin Hood Gate was shut to motor traffic. A decision will shortly be made as to whether the gate will remain closed.

The effects of the closing Robin Hood Gate are significant. Traffic in Richmond Park has fallen by 15%, which is evidently to the good as far as the park is concerned. At the same time, there is no evidence of traffic problems outside the park as a result of the closure. So the closure of the gate has been a resounding success.

Friends of the Earth's position is clear. Richmond Park is one of the finest parks in England and is a National Nature Reserve. Parks and nature reserves are for people and wildlife, not rat-runs for cars. Robin Hood Gate should remain closed to traffic. Furthermore, the success of the scheme should be built upon by aiming, in the longer term, to remove all through traffic from the park.

Richmond Park (Acknowledgement to Royal Parks)

Here is a letter we have written to the Chief Executive of Royal Parks, William Weston:

Dear Mr Weston

We would like to express the strongest possible support for keeping Robin Hood Gate closed to traffic. The experiment has been a great success, with traffic in the park reduced by 6-8% and consequent benefits for people and wildlife in terms of pollution, noise and danger. We consider it essential that these benefits should be retained.

It would be entirely inappropriate to re-open the gate, which would simply encourage and support more car traffic. This would go against national and regional policies which seek to discourage evermore cars and which seek to protect the local environment, promote biodiversity, reduce pollution and so on. In short, it would be an utterly regressive step.

A Royal Park (and National Nature Reserve) is palpably not intended and not suited to supplementing the hundreds of miles of roads that exist in the borough and which are already managed for the express purpose of supporting general-purpose traffic. The roads inside the park should be used only for access to the park - not as a 'rat-run'.

Links

Transport introduction
Biodiversity introduction

(Updated Jun 05)