Scarborough Road Area Traffic Reduction Transport Scheme

In 2018 and 2019, Waltham Forest Council consulted on and introduced road safety and traffic management measures in response to concerns from residents on Scarborough Road and Cavendish Drive. The measures included restricting the left-turns into Scarborough Road and Southwest Road from Grove Green Road between 7am and 7pm each day.

Whilst this has significantly reduced the amount of traffic using Scarborough Road and Cavendish Drive to travel Northbound between Grove Green Road and Hainault Road, the Council has continued to receive concerns from the local community about the volume, speed, and impact of traffic in Scarborough Road and Cavendish Drive, as well as some parts of the surrounding area including Bulwer Road, Southwest Road, Drayton Road, Avebury Road, and Hawbridge Road.

A set of further proposals were developed to help address some of these concerns and discourage non-local vehicles from using Scarborough Road and Cavendish Drive as a cut-though. 

The proposals included the following:

• Introduce a modal filter/ road closure at the southern junction of Scarborough Road and Cavendish Drive to stop motorised vehicles from travelling through the junction while maintaining access for emergency service vehicles and Council services such as waste collection. 
  Residents would not be exempt from this restriction but all properties in the area will remain accessible for motor vehicles from either Hainault Road or Grove Green Road. 
• Remove the 7am to 7pm left-turn restriction from Grove Green Road to Scarborough Road to ensure access is maintained for all properties (residents and businesses) in the section of Scarborough Road between Grove Green Road and the proposed modal filter, the current 7am to 7pm left-turn restriction from Grove Green Road would be removed. 
• Introduce a modal filter on the junction of Hawbridge Road and Bulwer Road to further reduce any through-traffic in the area. The installation of this modal filter would be considered after monitoring the impact of the Scarborough Road and Cavendish Drive restrictions. The monitoring would include traffic surveys to measure the traffic flows and vehicle turning movements.

You can view a map of the scheme in the useful documents section at the bottom of this page.

In November 2022 we wrote to residents within the area, inviting everyone to share their thoughts on the scheme as part of the public consultation. 

The public consultation took place between 7 and 28 November 2022 and a total of 66 people took part, equating to 10% of the engagement area.

Thank you to everyone who took part and shared their thoughts on the scheme. The results from the consultation show that of those who responded to the consultation 31 (47%) were positive to the overall proposals, 5 (8%) were neutral to the overall proposals, and 30 (45%) were negative. 

In December 2022, the scheme was approved by Waltham Forest Council and progressed to the Statutory Consultation stage. 

In March 2022, the traffic reduction scheme was introduced using experimental traffic management orders (ETMOs). ETMOs last for a maximum period of 18 months, and before the 18-month period has finished we must decide 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. The Statutory Consultation period for the scheme took place between March 2023 and September 2023, thank you to everyone who took the time to write to us about the scheme. 

All traffic monitoring data and feedback from the community has now been analysed and on 7 July 2024 Waltham Forest Council decided to make the scheme permanent. Following this, the traffic management orders (TMOs) required to make the scheme permanent were advertised on 1 August 2024.

• Scarborough Road: Map, Feb 2022
• Scarborough Road: Statutory consultation letter, February 2022