Frustration at Putney Junction Redesign Continues to Grow
Residents and businesses appear unanimous in calling it 'a disaster'
Congestion on Putney High Street is believed to have worsened since the redesign. Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon
January 23, 2026
A £1million redesign of roads leading up to Putney Bridge has been described by frustrated residents and businesses as a “disaster”.
Locals said Wandsworth Council’s overhaul of the junctions of Putney High Street with Putney Bridge Road and Lower Richmond Road, by Putney Bridge, had made congestion in Putney worse in its bid to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists.
Residents told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the redesign had left Putney Bridge Road and Lower Richmond Road persistently gridlocked, and pushed traffic onto side roads. They said that although Putney had long-standing issues with congestion, which had worsened with the closure of Hammersmith Bridge to vehicles in 2019, the redesign had made the issue far worse.
Locals spoke of the havoc it was wreaking on their daily lives, leaving people late for work or school, others reluctant to leave their homes and potential visitors avoiding the area. They felt the saga had been drawn out by the Labour-run council’s initial unwillingness to admit the redesign had not worked as hoped.
The scheme was first put forward under the council’s old Conservative administration and adopted by Labour when it took control of the authority in 2022. It was completed in late 2024.
But the data used to model the redesign was collected just before the end of the Covid-19 lockdown in July 2021 and incorrectly assumed Hammersmith Bridge would reopen by 2026.
The works saw a new cycle lane and bus lane added, new traffic lights installed to allow cyclists to cross a few seconds before vehicles, some pedestrian islands removed and others made bigger. The approach from Lower Richmond Road to the bridge was reduced from two lanes to one, while only one lane of traffic can turn onto the bridge from Putney Bridge Road.
While the changes were meant to have a neutral impact on traffic, a council report admitted in November they had resulted in unexpected congestion, following an independent review, which had left the authority “extremely concerned”. This is despite data showing the volume of traffic using Putney Bridge was lower in 2024 than in 2018, before Hammersmith Bridge closed.
The report revealed the council had already spent £100,000 on top of the approved £835,000 budget for the redesign, and expected to fork out another £250,000 on adjusting it.
Locals had been complaining long before the review that the scheme had left Putney worse off, even coming together as an action group to demand change, with Conservative councillors raising their concerns in meetings.
The council began making adjustments to the junctions in a bid to ease the situation earlier last year, and it is working with Transport for London (TfL) to complete bigger changes. But residents are sceptical these measures will be enough.
Kieren McCarthy, who lives in Putney and stood for the Liberal Democrats at the last General Election in the local constituency, told the LDRS he felt the council had taken longer to move towards solutions as it was reluctant to admit the redesign had not worked as hoped. He said the changes had been an “absolute disaster” and “caused havoc from day one”.
Mr McCarthy said: “Rather than [traffic] getting better, it got worse. It’s absolutely down to the redesign which has just not worked, and now they are doing so many things to try and make the junction work and the question is whether once they’ve done all of them it’s still viable.”
He was concerned the council would want to avoid making drastic enough changes to the extent “that they may end up justifying a bad situation”.
“That will just effectively write off Putney as the bad traffic zone,” he added.
Changes to the redesign made by the council include adjusting traffic lights to allow drivers more time to pass green lights, giving vehicles more space to ease the impact of stationary buses and painting double yellow lines. Bigger changes it is bringing forward include reviewing bus stop locations and driver changeovers and assigning lanes to slash delays caused by stationary buses.
Mr McCarthy told the LDRS he expected the changes would not go far enough.
He said, “It’s very frustrating because it’s literally impinging on people’s daily lives… it’s been awful. People are late for work, people are late for school, elderly people don’t want to leave the house, the impact of it has been appalling.”
He added, “At a certain point, if it doesn’t work, you have to say ‘why did you spend a year making lots of small changes when we said the junction design is terrible?’ If it does work, then everyone will be like ‘OK good, and by the way that was horrific and you should learn some lessons from this’.”
Residents said that even adjustments the council had made were not working as hoped.
Although the council moved bus stop P further along Lower Richmond Road, they reported buses were kept waiting by its original position and causing traffic to pile up. Bus drivers waiting to switch at the stop for longer than needed caused more chaos, they said, as this was often at the same time as drivers changing over at bus stop P on Putney Pier.
The report in November also confirmed new signal timings at the junctions were not matching what TfL had approved.
Michael Wilson, 73, was another local who described the traffic as “murder, especially with the cycle lane… it’s crazy”. He told the LDRS the congestion had become much worse since the redesign.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the time it’s chock-a-block right the way back up there,” he said, pointing towards the bridge.
Michael Wilson, 73, on Putney High Street. Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon
Toofan Baz, 28, works at a shop on the high street and raised concerns about the impact of the traffic on people’s health. He said he felt Hammersmith Bridge needed to reopen to vehicles to ease the congestion.
Toofan Baz, 28, on Putney High Street. Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon
Graham Morrow, 74, who runs Morrows with his son on the high street, said the redesign had increased journey times and pushed more traffic onto side roads as drivers tried to avoid congestion. “The consequence has been a disaster,” he said.
He added: “The money that has been spent has not been good value public expenditure. To the contrary, it has created more problems than it has solved.”
Mr Morrow told the LDRS the congestion had impacted his business, which had seen customer numbers fall by 25 per cent in 2024 compared to the year before.
He said: “From a business point of view, people do not want to come to Putney to the same extent that they used to because, one, it’s a nightmare to drive here; two, they’ve got to find somewhere to park; and three, they can go to other places where they do not have that problem.
“We can demonstrate that year-on-year, the number of customers that we have reduces.”
While the redesign prioritised cyclists, Mr Morrow said he often saw cyclists not bothering to use the new cycle lane and running red lights.
He also felt the council had been reluctant to acknowledge major problems caused by the redesign and that they needed to go further than the changes planned.
Mr Morrow added, “In life sometimes events supersede the position that you’re in and the time has come for them to just take a deep breath, stand back and say ‘this is a problem, what are we going to do about it’, because the residents of Putney and the businesspeople of Putney have had enough.”
Graham Morrow, 74, at Morrows on Putney High Street. Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon
A Wandsworth Council spokesperson told the LDRS: “We continue to listen to resident feedback, and we are working closely with Transport for London (TfL) to reduce traffic delays at Putney Bridge. We have implemented a number of important changes with TfL to improve traffic flows and will continue to take further measures.
“In December 2025, we published an update on our website to keep residents informed about recent changes, and we will shortly be sending out further letters to those in the Putney area providing further details on the planned improvements to the Putney Bridge junction.
“As a listening council, we will continue to take resident feedback onboard while working closely with TfL to assess and improve the situation.”
A TfL spokesperson added: “We’re committed to supporting London’s boroughs in making local roads safer and more efficient for everyone who depend on them. We recognise the impact of congestion on local residents and businesses, and have been working collaboratively with Wandsworth Council throughout construction and since their scheme was introduced to monitor performance of the road network.
“Through weekly working groups, the team has used their collective expertise to design and deliver efficiency improvements that have resulted in shorter queues on Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road, with further changes planned to improve the flow of traffic on Putney High Street by TK Maxx. Our priority remains keeping people safe and ensuring the transport network operates reliably for everyone who uses it.”
Charlotte Lilywhite - Local Democracy Reporter
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