McGrath Road Green Links
We want to make changes to the section of McGrath Road between Keogh Road and Forest Lane to create a bigger and nicer public space for everyone to enjoy.
Our key priorities for the new public space are to:
- Improve the overall look and feel of McGrath Road
- Replace the existing wooden planters with new planting and trees
- Provide more space for pedestrians and cyclists
- Make the space more accessible for wheelchair users, those with buggies and people that are less able to walk
- Make it safer to cross the road
- Create a bigger public space by removing the underused parking bays
- Upgrade the road surface and improve the pavements
- Provide more opportunities for people to spend time outdoors and for children to play
- Increase biodiversity with a variety of planting
Early design proposals
We want to extend the section of McGrath Road that is closed off to traffic up to the junction with Keogh Road. This will create a new public space that is twice as long with new planting (including four new trees), new pavements with places to sit and a separated cycle lane.
This aims to complement the proposals to improve the modal filter at the junction of Keogh Road and Carnarvon Road, 90 metres to the west of this new public space, which was consulted on earlier on in the year.
Our early design proposals for the new public space on McGrath Road are shown on the plan below.
Next steps
We engaged with residents in June and July this year to find out their views on our proposals. This included a leaflet distributed locally, an online survey and a pop-up event at McGrath Road.
The feedback received from this engagement process will inform our final designs for the new public space.
Once we have prepared the final designs, we aim to start construction in autumn 2023. This is subject to approvals from the council as well as Network Rail, who own the bridge structure beneath McGrath Road.
We will keep residents informed and provide further updates on our website about the final design and construction timescales.