Gallows Corner – Council and Mayor of London Responses

Following the announcement that the Gallows Corner works were going to continue to Spring 2026, we wrote to the Council, TFL and Mayor of London asking a number of questions that we have received. Below are the responses from the council and the Mayor/TFL

Council response.

1. Can you advise us what are the plans to ease the disruption for the Harold Wood community.

• The Council continues to work closely with TfL and its contractors to minimise disruption. Measures include:
  • Maintaining an embargo on non‑emergency street works along diversion routes to prevent additional congestion.
  • Pressing TfL and Costain to improve traffic management and signage to discourage rat‑running through residential areas.
  • The council have also pushed for business continuity signage on the A12 and continue to review the operation of diversion routes.
  • Weekly operational meetings and high‑level engagement with TfL to accelerate progress and improve public communications and engagement with local businesses.

2. What are the plans to reduce traffic, pollution and help the local businesses.

• TfL have implemented a travel demand management (TDM) strategy to inform residents of the works and plan travel during this difficult period of disruption. Travel advice for roadworks at Gallows Corner can be found on TfL’s website here: Gallows Corner flyover works – Transport for London
• Additional measures include:
  • Traffic: The Council are pursuing the introduction of 20 mph zones in affected residential areas to improve safety and reduce the impact of diversion traffic.  This includes Church Road, Squirrels Heath Road, and the streets surrounding Redden Court School.
  • Pollution: Air quality monitoring is being carried out using the Council’s diffusion tubes alongside additional monitoring installed by TfL to provide robust data.
  • Businesses: While the Council does not have powers to offer direct compensation, we continue to lobby TfL and the GLA for support measures for businesses impacted by the works.

3. Are TFL or the council looking to make changes to the current school street scheme in Harold Wood and the lack of traffic control on the zebra crossing by kings park.

• No, however if there are any specific issues in these locations we would be happy to investigate further.

4. Will the Council or TFL open barriers or streets to allow flow of traffic

• The Council will not be opening barriers or restricted streets. This approach is necessary to prevent rat‑running through residential areas and maintain safety for pedestrians and local communities. We are continuing to work with TfL to optimise diversion routes and improve traffic flow through measures that do not compromise these priorities.

5. Will TFL get rid of the unnecessary cones on the approach to B&Q or Tesco. Which appear to be pointless and create further delays.

• The Council has asked TfL to review the cones on the A12 Colchester Road.  This has also been raised by Councillor Mugglestone. We are expecting a response on this shortly.

6. What compensation will be paid to residents.

• The Council does not have the legal authority to apply reductions in council tax or provide any other form of compensation for circumstances such as roadworks. Our focus remains on delivering practical mitigation measures to reduce disruption and safeguard residents’ wellbeing during these works.
• The Council has raised the issue of business support with TfL and the Greater London Authority. Any changes to property valuations or relief schemes fall under the remit of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and central Government. TfL is currently exploring opportunities for a temporary reduction in business rates with the VOA and are compiling a list of affected businesses based upon engagement to date. Please note that the outcome of the discussions with the VOA is by no means certain at this stage.

Mayor/TfL response 

Thank you for getting in touch with the Mayor of London about the work at Gallows Corner, he has asked that I reply to you directly on this occasion.

I appreciate the frustration amongst residents, businesses and amongst members in the most affected wards. We understand the concern and the frustration this disruption is causing. Whenever major works like these take place, there are inevitably businesses and residents that feel the impact.

As you will know, alongside our flyover renewal we have been coordinating with Essex & Suffolk Water (ESW), who are replacing an ageing water main at the same time. Given the complexity of this project, particularly with the amount of groundworks still to do, it is not possible at this stage to commit to a specific date when we will be able to re-open the flyover and roundabout. We did explore the potential for opening part of the roundabout early, however, when assessing the impact of re-opening part of the roundabout ahead of the flyover, this approach was shown to have a significant negative impact on local roads and bus services. Concerns were also raised about the impact this approach would have on traffic levels in Romford Town centre. It would also have made completing the works slower, and more difficult to manage. Given this, we decided not to pursue this approach. We will continue to explore any opportunities to reopen elements of the roundabout if this can be achieved without a significant negative impact on local roads.

Your suggestion to remove cones has previously been raised with us directly and we have looked at it in detail. The taper to a single lane starts around 600 metres from the Gubbins Lane junction and is within traffic management guidelines for the speed and type of road. There isn’t any space within this design to modify the arrangement at this location.

We are continuing to work to ensure both businesses and residents are supported in every other way possible during the works. We are doing this by working closely with Havering colleagues to support local road users and businesses with regular project updates, assisted delivery arrangements, business continuity messaging and ongoing engagement with local stakeholders, including you and other members. There isn’t a legal framework for traffic authorities to compensate businesses for loss of passing trade, and creating a one-off scheme would risk setting a precedent that couldn’t be applied fairly across London.

We have instead been engaging with the Valuation Office Agency. We have supplied them with information on our programme, the roads closures in place and have supplied a list of over 50 businesses, which includes Amber Cars, that we consider to be most affected by our work (TfL/Havering & Costain). They have advised us that they will review all the information we have provided and determine whether a temporary reduction in the Rateable Value is appropriate and if so, how much. They are aiming to be in position to conclude this review early in the new year and they will begin to contact businesses directly, including any more than the ones we referenced who they deem to be affected.

We have also raised with the council your suggestion to relax modal filters and other timed restrictions. They have said that they have seen that rat-running pressures are increasing across our network as a direct result of our closure of Gallows Corner.  It is their position that any measures which compromise the effectiveness of these controls, even with the intention of providing temporary access for local traffic only, are highly likely to result in confusing messaging and lead to a significant rise in through traffic and HGV’s using this route. Such an outcome would be neither acceptable nor appropriate for residential roads and the communities they serve.

Lastly, early in the new year we should have completed our additional groundwork to install new piles for the flyover foundations and ESW should have progressed with its micro-tunnelling which will allow us to potentially narrow the completion window down from spring 2026 to a narrower timeframe.