A three-day sell-out music festival due to take place in Crystal Palace park on September 10th, 11th and 12th is set to cause major traffic chaos in the area.
Road signs have already gone up in various side roads off Anerley Hill, Anerley Road and Belvedere Road saying that only residents will be allowed to access those roads in their vehicles.
Another sign placed on Church Road says the same thing. Even though Church Road is a MAIN road. (Although it could apply to Milestone and Patterson Roads which are the first side road on the left of Church Road where no sign has been placed).
And another sign on Westow Hill*, just before the Westow House pub, says Anerley Hill will be closed in an easterly direction from 8.30 pm to 11.30pm on the three days – which means this sign is either very badly-worded or NO buses or any other traffic will be running up Anerley Hill during these hours.
Yesterday (Tuesday) News From Crystal Palace emailed festival organisers with the following:
We are emailing you to raise major concerns about traffic management regarding the Festival.
(You will need a road atlas of the area to follow some of this)
Signs have gone up in the Crystal Palace area saying that certain roads will be resident access only on 10th 11th 12th September.
That’s understandable but (because neighbouring Croydon council are hellbent on introducing a Low Traffic Neighbourhood into the adjacent area) major concerns have previously been raised by residents and businesses in the area some of which apply equally to your festival:
CONCERN ONE: There are no times listed on the boards as to when the roads will be residents’ access only. Please state what times this would apply to. Why don’t the boards list them?
CONCERN TWO: The signs state that leaving the park traffic will only be able to turn down Anerley Hill. Fair enough. But anyone wanting to travel towards say Mitcham or Croydon will not be able to go the obvious route which is via Hamlet Road. Because that’s got resident access only signs on it as well (again, no times listed)
This means that – in theory – traffic will have to go down Anerley Hill / Anerley Road, turn left into Thicket Road, go along to the end, turn left up Crystal Palace Park Road then go back onto the Parade and into Church Road.
We say in theory as we haven’t checked to see if Thicket Road is resident access only as well.
CONCERN THREE: A sign on Church Road says this will be residents access only. Was this placed there by mistake? Should this just apply to Milestone / Patterson Road which is the first turning on the left off Church Road?
There is absolutely no way this can apply to Church Road as it is a MAIN road with at least four bus routes serving it: 249, 432, 417, 450 plus the 322 which starts running on Church Road again at the end of August.
How will these road closures be marshalled? Will cyclists be allowed in even if they’re not residents? If so, why?
How will any of the following (all non-residents) be treated:
Food delivery drivers on motorbikes?
e-scooters (which are illegal anyway?)
social workers / health workers making emergency calls?
electricians, plumbers etc who may be on emergency call-outs?
Who is organising these traffic arrangements?
Who will be marshalling them?
Have the emergency services agreed to them?
If so, did they raise any reservations?
Many Thanks,
News From Crystal Palace
(*News From Crystal Palace only noticed the sign on Westow Hill this morning, so we have yet to ask festival organisers to clarify).
- Wireless Festival 2021 is scheduled to take place at Crystal Palace Park in South London this year. Their website says: “Unfortunately we couldn’t make it work in Finsbury in September but we can in the beautiful Crystal Palace Park!”
NEWS FROM CRYSTAL PALACE 
you really hate the idea of anyone enjoying themselves don’t you you miserable tit
THE EDITOR REPLIES: Thank you for your delightful comment. This is not about stopping people from enjoying themselves. This is about badly-worded road signs which say Anerley Hill will be closed eastwards on the days the festival operate. Which is completely bonkers. Wot? No buses?
This is about Hamlet Road being closed to through traffic after the event. Which is also completely bonkers.
And possibly Church Road. (Unbelievable)
This is about there being no times on the road signs on those roads which are resident access only. Which is also completely bonkers. Will takeaway delivery riders be able to deliver?
As we said in our article there is no indication of how these road closures are going to be marshalled – if at all. One of the many signs warns of major delays. Whoever worded the signs / organised the road closures has clearly not thought it through.
Festival organisers have still, at the time of News From Crystal Palace responding to your post, responded to our questions.
News From Crystal Palace hopes everyone coming to Crystal Palace enjoys their visit to the Festival and the surrounding Crystal Palace area. So there. Got it???????????????