Hi All... Some details of developments below. Everything seems to be going in the right direction...

I am pleased to relay that TFL put up multiple data cameras on lampposts on Battersea Bridge and its access points over the weekend. These will gather numbers of pedestrians and monitor the general directional flow people take.

This data is all part of TFL's "safety audit" that will help it devise the right solution for this crossroads. It will also establish the effectiveness and viability of the One Way System that was enforced on both paths as a response to the Government's social distancing restrictions since Covid (I accept that this was installed with good intentions, but I have challenged its suitability because it creates confusion and a bottleneck of pedestrians at the bridge's most unsafe crossing point at the north junction).

In other news: TFL held a consultative meeting this morning with representatives from two associations (Chelsea Society & Cheyne Walk Trust) directly concerned with this part of Chelsea. I was not at this meeting, but a TFL officer told me that there was a constructive exchange of ideas.

The basic hope for such meetings is that they will enable TFL to come up with the most positive design ahead of public consultation and, most importantly, head off likely objections that may come from residents (such as the mooted introduction of two No Left Turns - into Cheyne Walk and Beaufort Street - that would create untold traffic chaos locally).

I have again been assured by TFL that new crossingS WILL emerge at the crossroads. The current timeline plan is to open public consultation in May and begin installation by the autumn/winter this year. I have been pushing hard for a speedier timetable, although I have been told that this is actually very quick compared with existing practices.

On one other, separate point: I have also suggested that the current island crossing at the southern end of the bridge be up-graded to a Belisha/Zebra Crossing. This would match the approach to Albert Bridge. This would make crossing immediately safer and (in my layman's view at least!) would in no way materially affect traffic flow. TFL has responded well to this idea and has already asked senior figures at Wandsworth Council to look into it. This idea in no way impinges on the other, more important, matters in hand. Photo attached. (RM/8/2/202)