Hackney Council wins £10m to revamp four notorious Mare Street and Amhurst Road junctions – including Pembury Circus
The Pembury Tavern on Pembury Circus. Amhurst Road, on the right of the picture, would be blocked to rat run traffic and the crossroads would be 'simplified', the council said. Picture: David Holt/Flickr/Creative Commons licence CC BY 2.0 - Credit: Archant
Transport bosses have awarded Hackney Council £10million to make four lethal junctions safer – including the notorious Pembury Circus – and encourage people to get out of their cars.
A protected two-way cycle lane would be built in Mare Street under the proposals. Pictured, the existing road layout has no dedicated cycle space. Picture: Ken Mears - Credit: Archant
There have been 58 collisions at Pembury Circus alone, where Amhurst Road, Pembury Road and Dalston Lane all criss-cross, in the last seven years.
And 124 people have been injured in just three years in the area covered by the plan – Mare Street’s junctions with Morning Lane, Graham Road and Amhurst Road, and Pembury Circus itself. That includes six crashes where people were killed or seriously injured.
“Pembury Circus, which is currently a dangerous and confusing five-way junction, would be simplified into a crossroads,” said a town hall spokesman, “with reduced road widths, better, more direct pedestrian crossings, and improvements to the public realm, including more trees.”
The Mare Street cycle track would link in with Quietways 2 and 13 at the town hall. Picture: Ken Mears - Credit: Archant
The town hall has yet to consult on the scheme – whose funding was today announced by Transport for London as part of a £42million package to create “liveable neighbourhoods” across the capital.
But if it goes ahead as planned, it would see Amhurst Road effectively blocked off to traffic using a gate somewhere between Pembury Circus and the Overground station.
Buses and bikes would still be able to get from one end of the road to the other, but no other vehicles would be allowed.
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The council reckons that would get rid of 80 per cent of traffic in Amhurst Road.
A two-way protected cycle lane would also run from the top of Mare Street as far as the town hall, where it would link in with Quietway 2 and Quietway 13.
Transport boss Cllr Feryal Demirci said today: “We’re thrilled to be able to transform Hackney Central with this funding from TfL.
“By redesigning Pembury Circus and removing 80 per cent of through-traffic in the area, encouraging walking, cycling and the use of public transport, and making three of the borough’s most dangerous junctions safer, we can make Hackney Central truly a space for everyone with better air quality, improved accessibility, protected cycle lanes and more green space.”
