Carshalton Pond railings by the edge of the Award Winning Grove Park in Carshalton

We have recently received this message from Transport for London who manage the maintenance of the railings by Carshalton Ponds, High Street, Carshalton in the heart of the Carshalton Village Conservation Area:

The maintenance of the structure and the posts has been an area that has been difficult to manage over recent years. The reason for this is that the posts and railings do suffer from vehicle strikes, and in the past, these have resulted in significant damage to the listed structure upon which they are attached. Consequently, the listed structure, the posts and the railings have been in a poor state of repair, and last year we made repairs to all of these as well as designing in solutions to mitigate against the damage caused by vehicle strikes.

Part of the design was to ensure that the infrastructure remained in keeping with its original character, in particular for the listed elements. The new railings, however, are not designed to restrain vehicles from entering the ponds except as a visual deterrent or under very minor impact. This is because stronger barriers, which would require fixing to the listed elements, result in significant damage to the structure when hit by a vehicle requiring costly and lengthy repairs. Therefore, we have purposefully designed the railings to sheer off at the base upon impact allowing for damaged sections to be replaced with less disruption and to prevent any further damage to the wall surrounding the ponds. The new system is therefore working as designed, as it allows our contractors to replace any damaged sections promptly and with less disruption to traffic in the area.

As such, we have already instructed our contractor to make the necessary repairs, and I am just waiting for confirmation of their schedule and will let you know.