Keeley Street Consultation - Safe and Healthy Streets

Overview

We are seeking your views on changes proposed on Keeley Street as part of Camden's Holborn Liveable Neighbourhood Project. We're proposing to  restrict motor vehicles on Keeley Street at the junction with Wild Street to create a small public space with seating and planting.

Visualisation of proposed measures on Keeley Street

We want our streets to have more safe space for everyone to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely and healthily, for businesses to be able to flourish, to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles and for you to be breathing cleaner air.

We want our communities to be prepared for the changing climate and provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, and healthier travel with streets resilient against the impacts of climate change.

In line with our Camden Transport Strategy, Climate Action Plan, and Clean Air Strategy and Clean Air Action Plan, and to continue supporting safe, healthy, and active travel following the pandemic, we have been making changes across Camden as part of our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme.

As 69% of households in Camden do not own a car we know that safe and easy walking, cycling and scooting routes are more important than ever. Supporting and encouraging those who are able to walk and cycle, by creating safer streets will ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

We want to transform Holborn into a place for people with attractive, healthy, accessible, and safe streets for everyone. To do this we're creating ideas for transforming the area through changes like widening pavements, making some areas car free, improving cycle routes, adding public spaces and plants and trees. Our proposals for Keeley Street are one of our STARter projects which are ones we want to deliver first. For more information on the Liveable Neighbourhood project and to get involved you can visit our website.

About the proposed changes on Keeley Street

As part of our Holborn Liveable Neighbourhood Project, we're proposing changes on Keeley Street to create a small public space with seating, plants, and a cycle route by restricting motor vehicles on Keeley Street at the junction with Wild Street.

On Keeley Street we are proposing to:

• Restrict motor vehicle access on Keeley Street at the junction with Wild Street to create a public space with seating and greening (such as rain gardens).
• Install droppable bollards at each end of the proposed public space while allowing two way cycling through the area. Emergency Services vehicles would be able to drop the bollards for access if needed.
• Making changes to waiting and loading to restrict access for motor vehicles into the public space including:
  • On the northside of Keeley Street approximately 25 metres of Single Yellow Line and 7.5 metres of Double Yellow Line would be removed.
  • On the south side of Keeley Street approximately 6.5 metres of Double Yellow Line and 12 metres of Single Yellow would be removed.
  • One Pay By Phone Parking bay would be removed and one Blue Badge parking bay would be removed (please see proposal below for a new location for a Blue Badge Parking bay). 

We are also proposing to improve pedestrian access to the proposed public space from Wild Street by installing an informal pedestrian crossing. This proposal would be delivered in collaboration with Westminster City Council (WCC). We propose to:

• Widen the pavement on the western side of Wild Street to shorten the pedestrian crossing distance across Wild Street. Resident permit holder parking and motorcycle parking bays on Wild Street will be realigned. 0.5 metres of resident parking bay would be removed.

On Keeley Street between the proposed public space and Kingsway we are proposing to make the following changes:

• Install a Blue Badge parking bay, on the south side of Keeley Street, by replacing 6 metres of Pay by Phone Parking on the south side of Keeley Street. 
• Install a 10 metre long Dockless E-scooter and cycle hire bay, on the south side of Keeley Street, which will improve access to shared mobility, increasing the bay network and add capacity to an area of high demand for hire vehicles. This proposal would replace 5 metres of Single Yellow Line and 5 metres of Pay by Phone Parking.
• Between the proposed Blue Badge Parking bay and the proposed Dockless E-scooter and cycle hire bay Double Yellow Lines with double kerb markings (no parking/waiting at any time) would be installed. This would replace 9 metres of Pay by Phone Parking. 
• On the northside of Keeley Street approximately 75 metres of Single Yellow Line would be replaced with Double Yellow Lines with double kerb markings (no parking/waiting at any time).  
• The existing car club bay on the south side of Keeley Street, near the junction with Kingsway would remain.

The proposed design is available to view by viewing the 'Related' information at the bottom of this page.

The Keeley Street public space would have road safety benefits by reducing through traffic and traffic speeds, making it safer for people to walk and cycle through the area. Encouraging more people to walk and cycle, would improve air quality, and improve public health.

Why your views matter

Your views are important in providing feedback both on the proposed scheme as a whole and elements of it, and we would therefore welcome your responses on the pages that follow. 

To view the plans and find out more about what each proposal would achieve, click on the links in the Related Section at the bottom of this page.

After the consultation, a decision report will be produced and published online via our website. Local residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome and the next steps. The report will consider a broad range of information including officer observations, consultation responses, relevant policies, and other data/information.

For information on how we will use data collected from this consultation read our privacy statement: Data protection, privacy and cookies - Camden Council

What happens next

After the consultation, a Decision Report that considers a broad range of information – including consultation responses, relevant policies, Officer observations and relevant data will be published on our website. Residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome. Please note that all plans and visualisations in this booklet are aspirational and subject to change in the scheme’s final design.

Next steps for the scheme will be shared after decision report.