29 January 2009
Statement from the City of London Corporation on Safer Access
Routes on Hampstead Heath
Parliament Hill is the Heath’s major gateway, with an estimated
three to four million people passing through the area every year.
As part of the Heath Strategic Management Plan, the City of London
Corporation which owns and manages Hampstead Heath recognised the
need to improve the entrances and offer safe access routes to all
areas of the Heath, including Parliament Hill.
One area which was highlighted as being of particular risk to
visitors is the path outside of the Parliament Hill Staff Yard. It
is one of the busiest routes on the Heath with well over a million
pedestrian movements. It is also a busy cycle route and currently
provides access for motor vehicles into the Staff Yard. Following a
fatality in 2003 where a delivery vehicle hit a member of the
public in Golders Hill Park, the City Corporation was required to
implement measures which would better protect the public.
In order to do this, the new Strategic Management Plan
recognised the need to minimise vehicle and pedestrian conflict and
eliminate vehicle traffic from the Highgate Road entrance route to
the Parliament Hill Staff Yard. It is proposed that the main
operational functions of the Parliament Hill Staff Yard will be
relocated to Kenwood Depot where there is already direct access off
Hampstead Lane. This will substantially reduce the need for vehicle
movements into the Staff Yard.
Access to the proposed new Heath administrative centre at
Parliament Hill Staff Yard will be via the existing access route
from Gordon House Road past the Lido and a new route would be
constructed around the southern boundary of the cricket field.
Access onto the Heath for pedestrians would still be possible along
a new footpath.
The City of London Corporation’s works hard to make the Heath
safer for all users as well as to ensure that the day to day
operation of the Heath runs smoothly. Managing a site as large as
Hampstead Heath does necessitate City staff and external
contractors using motorised vehicles, the aim of this project is to
reduce the risks that have been identified.
Altering the layout of access routes to Parliament Hill will in
no way mean more vehicles on the Heath, but rather will ensure area
is made safer for all users.
Ends
For further details please contact:
Susanna Howard
Press Office City of London Corporation
Guildhall, PO Box 270, London EC2P 2EJ
Tel 020 7332 3450/ 07824 343 456
Email
Susanna.Howard@cityoflondon.gov.uk
Notes to editors:
The City of London Corporation, which provides local government
services for the ‘Square Mile’, the financial and commercial heart
of Britain, works nationally and internationally to maintain and
enhance the City as a world-leading international financial and
business centre. Its other special responsibilities and services to
London and the wider UK include the Barbican Arts Centre, the
Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, 10,000 acres of open
space including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest, three wholesale
food markets, two inner-London City Academies, the City Bridge
Trust, economic regeneration programmes in neighbouring boroughs
and acting as London’s Port Health Authority. The Lord Mayor of the
City of London (currently Ian Luder, an eminent tax accountant)
works extensively at home and abroad to promote the City.