Stites Hill Road closure to cut off Old Coulsdon for a month – Inside Croydon

There’s widespread concern among residents in Old Coulsdon about a set of road closures scheduled for the end of this month, which one residents’ association predicts will cut off residents or force them to take long detours on any journeys.

No through roads: the council is closing Stites Hill Road during roadworks on Coulsdon Road

Croydon Council plans to close Stites Hill Road at the same time as Coulsdon Road for what it describes as “traffic management”.

The Old Coulsdon Residents’ Association has been lobbying Croydon Mayor Jason Perry, their MP, the Hampstead-based Chris Philp, and Transport for London for some alternative solution. “No one seems to be listening,” OCRA said in a latest plea on social media last night.

This road closure (there are others in the area) is planned to last for a whole month, from July 25 to August 25.

According to Croydon Council, the Stites Hill Road closure is “to assist with traffic management for drainage works on Coulsdon Road”.

But the residents’ association posted on Twitter: “Great concern by residents that they are faced with long detours. There has been no council communication with residents or OCRA.”

It’s the second time in six months that there has been significant disruption to roads and bus routes between Coulsdon and Caterham, as Croydon’s cash-strapped council seeks to make improvements to drainage and make the area near Coulsdon Common more resilient against flooding.

In April, works began alongside Coulsdon Common with the objective of improving soakaways that had become ineffective, leading to deep, long-lasting puddling and flooding on the busy road.

Not listening: part-time Mayor Jason Perry

But as the excavations went down, the positioning of utilities piping meant that the new drainage measures could not be undertaken. The works were abandoned, the holes filled in, and plans laid for the contractors to return to the site to complete the works during the school summer holidays.

The time for those postponed works has now arrived, but with the additional road closure proposed by the council prompting genuine concerns of worse disruption than was endured before.

Meanwhile, this week has seen the start of another set of road closures in Coulsdon, on Placehouse Lane, just south of Grange Park, a road that normally links Coulsdon Road to Tollers Lane.

Placehouse Lane is closed for three weeks for sewage and surface water works.

Bus route 60 is diverted as a consequence. Towards Old Coulsdon the 60 will terminate at the 466 stop by the bakers.

When the Coulsdon Common works begin later this month, the 466 route will terminate at Old Coulsdon, with some buses continuing to Caterham via Hooley and Merstham.

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