People living on and around Elizabeth Street have often raised concerns around traffic and road issues in the area. Cllr Gassanly, working closely with Knightsbridge and Belgravia councillors, helped to secure a number of measures to improve the situation.
The Council has now completed its formal consultation on a new traffic order that will include a ban on 7.5t lorries in Elizabeth Street and installation of yellow box junctions at the entrance and exit to the Victoria Coach Station arrivals hall to improve coach access and egress. Some residents are worried about possible traffic displacement and there is clearly an appetite locally to extend the lorry ban beyond Elizabeth Street.
Council officers had assured Cllr Gassanly that there will be ongoing monitoring of traffic levels in the surrounding streets pre and post-scheme.
Traffic counts will be used and the situation will be reviewed for any evidence of traffic displacement. If there is a displacement issue, the zone can be extended. The ban is to be implemented in March and the box junctions will be installed in May along with coordinated resurfacing works in Elizabeth Street scheduled for that month. The Council is also looking to create diagonal pedestrian crossing facilities at the junction with Elizabeth Street and Buckingham Palace Road.
