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This page is currently being updated, the latest information will be available shortly. Below is the statement put out in 2000 in the run-up to the second public inquiry. For photos of the current situation in 2006 visit http://hometown.aol.co.uk/tootingcom/index.html
We can be contacted at tootingcom@aol.com
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FRIENDS OF THE TOOTING COMMONS
Welcome to the new web site of the Friends of the Tooting Commons. Our aim is to protect and preserve this vital and beautiful open space between the residential areas of Balham, Streatham and Tooting.
At present the common is under threat from Wandsworth Council's plan to run a north-south cycle track along existing footpaths through the heart of the common from Cavendish Road in the north to Furzedown Road in the south.
Along the popular Chestnut Walk, which runs alongside the lake, the large playground and the tennis courts there would be obvious dangers to children and pedestrians - and indeed to cyclists. The Chestnut Walk would be ruined as a safe and peaceful place for you to stroll and play.
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You have until July 7 2000 to object to this disastrous proposal. The council is going through the formal process of applying for permission to convert these paths to allow them to be used for joint use by cyclists and pedestrians. To object write without delay to:
Director of Technical Services,
Town Hall,
Wandsworth SW18 2PU
Ref: DTS/ES/TMO 380
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The plan is opposed by the Tooting Commons Management Advisory Committee, the Balham Society, The Friends of the Tooting Commons, the Ramblers and the Open Spaces Society. The support of individual residents and common users in opposing the scheme is vital. The local community must speak out to protect the common for ourselves and future generations.
BACKGROUND.
In 1996 a public inquiry was held on the issue of widening paths where necessary along the proposed route. The inspector said in his report that the Chestnut Walk should be avoided and that Wandsworth Council should devise a route avoiding it. The council has gone ahead regardless, disregarding the inspector's demands.
REPLACEMENT LAND.
The council has stolen land from the common for path widening. The inspector, in allowing the paths to be widened, took into account promises by the council that replacement land would be given because land was being taken away from the common to create a highway across it. He was gravely misled. The council now says that it does not have to replace common land because such land has no commercial value. It appears to be trying to set a dangerous precedent for the future of common land. It is an established principle that if common land is removed it has to be replaced. We are demanding that the council gives back land taken from the common.
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APPEARANCE OF THE CHESTNUT WALK.
The council's plan for the route involves a "white tactile" separation line down the centre between cyclists and pedestrians, bollards, barriers and a profusion of signs. The present pleasant rural aspect of the Chestnut Walk will be lost. The space will be urbanised.
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CYCLING ON THE COMMON.
Our present starting point is that according to the common by-laws cycling is illegal anywhere on the common. In practice the council has failed to police this by-law and has further encouraged a cycling free-for-all on the common by stubbornly refusing to put up any clearly visible no cycling signs. Before any cycling route is discussed the council needs, and is legally required, to carry out proper surveys into present and projected numbers of cyclists, and pedestrians. And it needs to investigate the nature and purpose of cycling on the common to determine where the best route for any cycle track should be, if one is deemed to be necessary. All this the council has signally failed to do.
Please e-mail us with your comments and suggestions. The e-mail button is at the top of this page. We look forward to hearing from you. Let us know if you wish to be kept informed of Friends of the Tooting Commons activities and campaigns.
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