Coppermill Liveable Neighbourhoods

In 2018, Waltham Forest Council was successful in securing initial funding from Transport for London (TfL) to develop a Liveable Neighbourhoods scheme in the Coppermill Area. This includes the area bounded by Forest Road and Blackhorse Road Station to the north, St James Street to the east, Argall Industrial Estate to the south/southwest and the Lower Lea Valley/ Walthamstow Wetlands to the west.

The scheme aimed to encourage residents, businesses and visitors to use more sustainable modes of transport in their day-to-day lives, so that together we can reduce congestion, tackle air pollution and improve the health and wellbeing of local people. 

Following extensive community engagement throughout 2018 and 2019, including an area wide consultation in June/July 2019, the scheme was approved for detailed design and construction, as detailed in an update letter sent to residents in the scheme area in January 2020. However, in July 2020, we sent a further update leaflet informing residents that Covid-19 had affected funding for highway and transport improvements in the borough and that TfL was unable to provide planned funding for Liveable Neighbourhoods schemes across London, including the Coppermill area scheme. Instead, TfL were providing replacement emergency funding for councils to deliver highway changes that prioritise active travel and support social distancing. 

Within the Coppermill area, the Council was able to secure funding from TfL to deliver a range of proposals during summer and autumn 2020, which were proposals that had already been developed and consulted upon in 2018 and 2019. These included improvements to Cycleway 27 (formerly Quietway 2) and various modal filters (road closures to motorised vehicles) on Edward Road, Low Hall Lane and Station Road, as well as a Bus Gate on South Access Road. 

Further funding was then secured in December 2020, and this allowed some of the other measures developed as part of the original Liveable Neighbourhoods scheme to be delivered. These included a range of public realm, pedestrian accessibility, road safety and sustainable drainage measures, as set out in a further update leaflet sent in January 2021. 

You can view all update leaflets sent throughout the scheme in the useful documents section as the bottom of this page.

• In July 2018 we launched a perception survey to understand how residents, visitors and businesses felt about the area and how they travel around it. 
• During the autumn of 2018 we piloted our first community comments signs, inviting residents and businesses to write their thoughts about seven key locations identified through the perception survey, and held a number of pop-up events in the area to speak with local people. We also hosted a led cycle ride and walk of the area.
• In April 2019 we held two co-design workshops with local residents, businesses and accessibility groups where participants were able give their views on initial concepts for improvements.
• On 24 June 2019 over 5000 leaflets were delivered to addresses within the scheme boundary, informing the local community of the public consultation and inviting them to participate. 

The consultation ran between 24 June 2019 and 14 July 2019 and was primarily hosted online via the digital engagement platform Commonplace, with hard copies available upon request. We publicised the consultation by a variety of methods such as flyers, local and social media; and during the consultation period we held two drop-in sessions for the local community to find out more about the scheme; 96 people attended the drop-in events in total.

Despite challenges with funding, we have been able to deliver a lot of the proposals to date, and in autumn 2023 received further funding from TfL to deliver permanent improvements in Station Road and the surrounding area.

In December 2023, we sent a leaflet to residents and businesses on and near Station Road and St James Street, with information about the final scheme for the area and invited local people to share their views as part of an informal consultation.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the final permanent scheme which aims to improve the look and feel of the area with rain gardens, biodiverse planting, pavement resurfacing, and public art, while also making improvements for people walking and cycling with new cycle parking and continuous footways. 

After carefully considering all feedback received, we can confirm that the scheme has been approved by Waltham Forest Council and will now proceed to the construction stage. 

We advertised the necessary Traffic Management Order (TMO) changes (changes to parking bays and yellow lines) that are needed to deliver the scheme. The TMO changes were advertised in the East London and West Essex Guardian on 15 February 2024, and street notices were placed in the area with details of the changes and how to comment.

Now the TMO process has been completed, construction of the scheme will start at the end of May 2024 and will be finished by autumn 2024. To help minimise disruption to road users during this time, the work will be completed in phases starting in Station Road and moving towards St James Station. Before the work begins, we will write to people located close to the works area with more information on the first phase of works and any associated temporary traffic management arrangements. As the works progress, we will have to suspend parking bays and restrict or close some traffic routes. These changes will be visible on site, and we will notify residents closer to the time. During construction, we kindly ask local people to plan their journeys ahead to avoid delays and to consider using alternative forms of transport to a private vehicle if possible.

Waltham Forest Council in collaboration with architects What If Projects and local Art Initiative Europa has developed a new art project in the Coppermill Area called ‘Signs for Birds’.

‘Signs for Birds’ is about navigating bird species toward the rich and diverse natural environments in the Coppermill area. The new signs are inspired by highway sign typologies and adopt similar instructions or directional information. The ambition is to strategically place these new signs along Coppermill Lane and through the adjacent ‘Ladder Streets’. The initiative was developed in conjunction with the local community to come up with creative ideas for signs for humans and birds. 

For more information, please see the scheme overview in the ‘Useful documents’ section.