Lloyd Park and Higham Hill area improvements

Waltham Forest Council is committed to creating safe and attractive streets and neighbourhoods that encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport.

Over the past few years, we have delivered a number of highway improvements across what we refer to as the Lloyd Park and Higham Hill area, such as targeted road safety improvements and upgraded traffic calming measures. We know more is needed across the wider area to help reduce the impact of traffic and create safer, more inviting, and accessible streets for local people. 

This is why we’ve been working with local people to gather their thoughts on the next phase of highway and transport proposals for the area which aim to address some of the key ongoing concerns around the volume, speed and impact of traffic, while supporting more people to walk, cycle and use public transport whilst also improving the look and feel of the area.

This stage of the Lloyd Park and Higham Hill area improvement scheme includes the two following areas:

Series 1 - bounded by Billet Road, Chingford Road, Forest Road, and is also bounded by and includes North Countess Road, Priory Court and South Countess Road.
Series 2 - bounded by Forest Road, Higham Hill Road and is also bounded by and includes Queen Elizabeth Road, Blenheim Road and Blackhorse Lane.

In November 2022, over 5000 leaflets were delivered to addresses within the scheme boundary asking the local community for input and feedback on the latest plans for the area. 

The public consultation formally ran between 30 November 2022 and 23 December 2022, but the Council continued to receive feedback and engage with stakeholders during the first three months of 2023. The consultation was primarily hosted online via the digital engagement platform Commonplace, and hard copies were available upon request. 

Posters were displayed within the scheme area to raise awareness of the consultation of the two drop-in events which took place on 7 December 2022 and 10 December 2022. A total of 86 people attended the two drop-in events where they were able to view the plans, discuss the scheme with council officers and provide feedback on the proposals.

As part of the consultation process, we contacted key stakeholders including the emergency services, medical emergency services, medical practices and organisations, utility companies, businesses, religious institutions, councillors and schools; to make them aware of the consultation and gather feedback on the proposals, which have been worked into the final design.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the public consultation for scheme or came along to one of our drop ins. All the feedback received helped us finalise a scheme for the area which has now been progressed to the Statutory Consultation stage of the scheme.

You can find more information in the update leaflets and consultation report in the useful documents section at the bottom of this page.

The Lloyd Park and Higham Hill area scheme was introduced using Experimental Traffic Management Orders (ETMOs) which originally came into effect on 23 October 2023. However due to works being carried out by Thames Water and last-minute changes to some measures, the full scheme and updated ETMOs came into effect on 21 November 2024.

ETMOs last for a maximum period of 18 months, and before the 18-month period has finished we must decide on whether to make the changes permanent or not, considering any feedback received alongside the traffic monitoring we are carrying out regularly during the experimental period.

The first six months form the Statutory Consultation period, during which comments can be provided by the community on the changes under ‘live’ conditions. Therefore, to ensure local people had six months to comment on all ETMOs, the Statutory Consultation for the scheme was extended to 7 months and took place between 23 October 2023 and 20 May 2024. 

We are currently analysing all responses received to help us understand how the scheme is working on the ground, what local people feel about the scheme and what further changes may be needed to make the scheme right for the area, beyond those we are already working on in response to local feedback. 

Alongside the feedback received from residents, we are also analysing and continuing to collect valuable monitoring data such as traffic volume and speed, collision and personal injury data, air quality monitoring, bus journey times, crime and emergency response time data.

While we continue to collect and analyse this data and feedback, the scheme will remain in place as it currently is. 

We need some time to complete this current stage of analysis and review, but the aim is to write to the community with an update and next steps before the end of the summer. Where we are planning to make supplementary changes and improvements, we will continue to write to residents close to these locations to provide information and seek views on the changes as appropriate.

Although the statutory consultation period for the scheme has ended, residents can continue to share their experience of the scheme with us by email or post. 

For more information on the scheme please view our FAQs documents and area map in the useful documents at the bottom of this page.