Transport for London (TfL) has been forced to apologise after the company used “fabricated” data to justify a multi-million pound upgrade to a major roundabout.
Sadiq Khan’s transport authority insisted Chiswick’s Hogarth Roundabout needed “more space for pedestrians and cyclists” to meet the mayor’s aim of eliminating “deaths and serious injuries” on the capital’s roads.
An online consultation revealed that the £5m worth of work – which includes reducing the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph – was necessary due to a high number of motorcyclists being injured at that spot on the busy A4.
According to official documents, TfL statisticians found that in just 18 months – from January 2022 to June 2023 – there were 25 minor and five serious motorcycle accidents at the roundabout.
Penny Rees, Head of Healthy Streets Investment at TfL, told the consultation: “These proposed changes will help reduce the danger on the road at Hogarth Roundabout, particularly for motorcyclists.”
Chiswick residents were surprised by the suggestion that nearly two motorcyclists were injured each month and filed Freedom of Information Act requests for accurate data.
They found that TfL had overstated the number of motorcycle accidents by a factor of ten, completely misjudging the time period and the number of motorcyclists involved.
Instead of 25 slightly injured and five seriously injured motorcyclists, there were in reality only five slightly injured and one seriously injured person at that roundabout.
And instead of the six motorcycle accidents happening over an 18-month period, they happened over a 36-month period. So that’s double the time span.
That meant the actual number of motorcycle collisions was 0.17 per month, not the 1.7 TfL had claimed. TfL updated its online consultation with the correct data and apologised for the “error”.
The consultation period has now been extended by one week, until 12 September. After that, a decision will be made on whether the plan will be approved.
A ‘scandalous’ mistake
Jack Emsley, Conservative councillor for Chiswick Homefields in Hounslow, said the error was “disgraceful” and had “undermined confidence” in TfL.
The councillor said he fully supported the measures to make the roads safer, adding: “However, this means we must be able to rely on the information TfL gives us when we are consulted on issues like this.
“It is a real scandal that TfL has so incredibly misrepresented its figures for this consultation and has apparently only corrected them following a request under the Freedom of Information Act from Local Government.
“Unfortunately, incorrect statistics now appear to be a pattern in a number of TfL consultations, and this is undermining confidence in the organisation.
“I don’t know how TfL arrived at the original figures, which were so inaccurate as to be almost made up, but I do know that it is now questioning the reasoning behind the original proposals.”
Errors with ‘floating’ bus stops
In June, TfL was forced to apologise and launch an official safety investigation into the dangers cyclists pose to pedestrians at ‘floating’ bus stops after a review of the data revealed ‘clear omissions’.
TfL had initially claimed that between 2020 and 2022 only four pedestrians were injured – two of them seriously – at bus stops where a cycle path runs between the stop and the pavement, and where a zebra crossing has been installed in the hope that cyclists will give way.
However, analysis by The Telegraph and the National Federation of the Blind in the UK found that there were actually six collisions, three of them serious, at the city’s floating bus stops.
Referring to the ‘errors’ at Hogarth Roundabout, TfL’s Ms Rees told The Telegraph: ‘We are committed to making London’s roads safer and it remains the case that the danger at Hogarth Roundabout, which is in the top 10 per cent of junctions in the capital for road safety risks, must be addressed urgently.
“The decision to consult on the programme was based on this analysis, and not on the figures published in our consultation materials.
“We apologise for publishing incorrect figures and have informed everyone who responded to the consultation of this.”
Case study: St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
For over 600 years, St Nicholas Church has been the first choice for weddings and funerals for many parishioners in West London.
But now the church in Chiswick, just yards from the banks of the Thames, is in danger of losing its status – and even its congregation – over proposals to force wedding cars and hearses through an almost impassable hairpin bend.
Fr Simon Brandes believes Transport for London (TfL) plans to renovate a roundabout will make access to his church “so extremely difficult” that only an “old fashioned Mini” could make the turn with ease.
TfL plans to close Church Street to St Nicholas Church as part of a plan to create more space for pedestrians and cyclists and make the Hogarth Roundabout on the Great West Road safer.
“We are the oldest church in Chiswick in a beautiful location,” Fr Brandes told The Telegraph. “What worries me is that people will go somewhere else because there are so many people driving here and the bend is so steep and dangerous.
“Vehicles such as hearses or wedding cars are simply too long to make the proposed turn in one go. They will have to negotiate a four-point turn. I fear we will lose many funerals and weddings.”
Father Brandes, who is 62 and has been a priest at the listed church for 17 years, is also concerned that many of his flock will “go somewhere else” on Sundays because they drive to church.
Opposition from local groups
The Old Chiswick Protection Society will also oppose TfL’s plans, particularly as the existing Church Street route is better protected from flooding than other roads.
The association is expected to warn that TfL’s plans for the roundabout, near the Fuller’s Brewery, will cause “unacceptable harm” to the community and the natural environment.
Russell Harris KC, chairman of the association, said: “We believe the plans are unworkable. We have had a roads consultant look at it and they have come to the same conclusion.”
He added that flooding from the Thames makes some roads impassable for up to 150 days a year, leaving Church Street as the only way into the area, something that city planners realised centuries ago.
“Closing Church Street is our biggest problem,” Mr Harris said. “There is no justification for it. The alternative hairpin bend has not been properly tested and will not be suitable for hearses and refuse vehicles.”