Kenley’s Big Splash!

Getting around Kenley will be easier, safer and healthier under new plans from the ‘Connecting Kenley’ project.

The Connecting Kenley Programme is a series of projects intended to improve pedestrian road safety, transport, air quality, support spaces and the appearance of streets in Kenley. It is directed by the Kenley Community Advisory Group (KCAG), a group made up of residents, residents association, churches and schools in Kenley.

Projects have been designed in line with residents’ priorities from the Kenley Community Plan and Kenley Transport Study. The Connecting Kenley Programme is funded by Croydon Council and the Greater London Authority (GLA) Good Growth Fund, with supporting partners.

On Thursday 13th July, from 3pm until 8pm, the community hub at Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church will host ‘The Big Splash’ an exhibition designed to celebrate the work completed so far to improve the facilities, services and infrastructure in Kenley, and let residents have their say on the next round of improvements.

Additionally, the opening of the Old Lodge Lane Community Hub will be celebrated with an opening ceremony at 6pm.

Croydon’s Spatial Planning Team and the KCAG have been developing plans to deliver improvements in air quality, regeneration and ‘healthy streets’ in accordance with the funding criteria. The Big Splash event will showcase these ideas and ask residents what they think of the proposals.

Projects include wayfinding, parklets (which are ‘mini-parks’ to add some greenery to the street scene), and crucially road improvement schemes to make getting around the hills of Kenley easier and safer. And this is where we need your particular input - changes to roads affects traffic flow, pedestrian and cycling routes and so it’s important that residents have the opportunity to give their views on the options:

Ideas for road interventions to create safer, healthier streets include:

1. Signage to make it clear that kenley Lane is a no through road
2. Several options to introduce speed reducing measures at the aerodrome
3. Options to introduce interventions to enhance pedestrian safety at the very narrow bit of Hayes Lane just before it meets Park Road.

I am sure that intervention 3 will provoke much debate and its important that views of residents are heard. Following this initial consultation, a further engagement event will be organised by KCAG later this year.

If you are unable at attend, but would like to respond to the consultation, information will be made available at https://www.getinvolved.croydon.gov.uk/connecting-kenley

The team from the council have also been consulting widely on the designs for wayfinding signs, parklets and murals, including workshops at the local primary schools of New Valley, Hayes and Kenley to get the children’s ideas on what these could look like.

A consultation session was held in April to get ideas back on the proposed parklet at the Old Lodge Lane parade of shops. This was well attended and feedback from residents is guiding the design focus. Council officers also held a co-design workshop at New Valley Primary School with 16 students (aged 7-11) to understand what local children wanted. They suggested:

• Graphic treatment to pavements: treasure trail and games such as hopscotch.
• Multi-functional play elements
• Seating and covered spaces to serve the bus stop
• Biodiverse planting
• Vegetable patches
• Insect hotels
• Soft play surfaces for younger children
• Info board/ Community noticeboard

Now officers are collating this information and working with a design team to progress a design that reflects comments.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing the new designs at the Big Splash and love the involvement of the children in all of the street scene improvements.

So what’s been done so far?

Several improvements have already been achieved. These include:

1. Development of Community Hubs at Kenley Memorial Hall and Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church. These are valuable additions to our Kenley area designed to coordinate services across Kenley, especially for the most vulnerable residents, but also to provide cost-effective spaces to hire for parties, sports events and similar activities.
2. A new cycle hub at Kenley station
3. Flood alleviation and improvements to the junction of Kenley Lane, Welcomes Road and Valley Road. This includes making the junction easier for pedestrians, planting of 4 trees, seating bedding plants and a new bin will be sited there as well. Ongoing work is taking place here as well on flood alleviation.

Additional electric vehicle charging points are planned to be installed in several locations in Kenley, following the completion of an official consultation period.

The story so far

I wanted to take a moment to give you a bit of background about the Connecting Kenley progamme. It is project managed by the Regeneration Team of the Spatial Planning, Growth Zone and Regeneration Service.

In response to residents’ concerns regarding development, work was undertaken in partnership with residents, businesses, community organisations & visitors across Kenley to produce the Kenley Community Plan (KCP) 2020.  The KCP sets out priorities for investment in facilities, services & infrastructure to support good growth. The Connecting Kenley Programme responds to the priorities identified through the KCP and aims to support community cohesion, build connectivity, provide rejuvenated public realm and improve services for Kenley’s growing population, particularly for the young & the socially isolated.

The programme is funded by GLA Good Growth funding as well as Section 106 agreements, which is a charge agreed with a developer to mitigate the impact of new developments on the local community and infrastructure.

Since the inception of the programme the Kenley Community Advisory Group (consisting of Ward Cllrs, Resident Associations’, churches, schools and other community representatives) has steered the direction and delivery of the programme, which has been invaluable. 

The ‘Kenley Big Splash’ engagement event is scheduled for 13/07/23 and is a joint council and KCAG event to enhance the community’s awareness of the 2023/24 Connected Kenley programme and seek view on aspects of the programme.