Penrhyn Avenue Rain Gardens

Background

Waltham Forest Council is committed to creating streets and neighbourhoods that are safe, attractive, and actively encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport. Creating pleasant streets and spaces that support and enable active and sustainable travel, particularly for local journeys, is a fundamental part of the Council’s 15-minute Neighbourhoods approach and Climate Action Plan. 

In recent years we have made a number changes to the Lloyd Park and Higham Hill area to meet these aims. We introduced a range of traffic calming upgrades and pedestrian safety improvements, such as the new zebra crossings at the Winns Avenue/ South Countess Road junction, throughout 2018 and 2019, and School Streets around Hillyfield Primary Academy and The Winns Primary School in 2021. Most recently in October 2023, following consultation with the community, we introduced an experimental traffic reduction scheme in the Lloyd Park and Higham Hill area. You can read more about the previous changes in the area by visiting Lloyd Park and Higham Hill area Improvements 

In the perception survey conducted in 2019 and the latest public consultation for the Lloyd Park and Higham Hill scheme in 2022, residents said they wanted to see more greenery and safer roads. Some of the key issues raised were the volume and speed of traffic, the impact of pavement parking on pedestrian access and opportunities for more greenspace and planting. Unfortunately, when we introduced the Lloyd Park and Higham Hill scheme in 2023 we were unable to include a more detailed set of potential improvements for Penrhyn Avenue, where a number of these concerns have historically been raised. However, we have now developed proposals to introduce rain gardens to make the road more attractive while meeting the objectives set out in the Council’s Climate Action Plan to make the borough greener and more resilient.

Proposals

We are proposing to introduce a series of rain gardens to protect existing trees and improve drainage on Penrhyn Avenue. The rain gardens will include attractive, wildlife-friendly plants, which boost local biodiversity, and provide food and habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies. Rain gardens are low maintenance, and once plants have been established, will require less watering than other types of greening. 

The rain gardens have been positioned at locations to protect existing trees from vehicles and ensure their roots have room to grow. It is vital we protect established trees, as they provide shade cover to keep the environment cool, make our borough beautiful, and generally absorb more carbon and water than younger trees. Rain gardens also include Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) to reduce pressure on the drainage network and slow down the speed at which water enters Thames Water’s infrastructure. For trees that cannot be protected by the new rain gardens, we will introduce Flexipave around them, which is a flexible pavement material which does not crack and allows water to filter through the surface to the tree roots. 

To create the space needed to build the rain gardens, we are proposing to remove around 15 parking bays. As part of this proposal, we conducted a survey to understand parking usage and availability. Results from the survey showed after the removal of parking spaces, there would be enough space to cater for the existing parking demand on the road. 

We know some residents were concerned about pedestrian safety and accessibility as a result of the current footway parking. We have considered moving all of the footway parking onto the road, but our investigations showed this would result in more significant parking reduction, and there would not be enough spaces left for residents to park their cars. To see the plans, see the ‘Useful documents’ section below.

We ran a public consultation from 15 July to 12 August 2024 to understand what people thought of the plans and how they might be improved. 

Now the public consultation has ended, we will analyse the responses received and finalise the designs based on feedback from the community. We’ll aim to write to residents with more information on the results of the survey and the next steps in autumn 2024.