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2. On behalf of IKEA, Pell Frischmann has undertaken a review of the ‘Meridian Water

Masterplan IKEA and Tesco Access Study’ report prepared by Arup on behalf of the London

Borough of Enfield (LBE) (Final Draft, dated 26 July 2018). The purpose of the Arup report is

to set out the proposed junction designs and “some initial junction modelling work” related to

proposals for The Causeway east-west route through the Meridian Water Masterplan site. The

Causeway is a proposed new road between Glover Drive and Harbet Road.

3. Based on the information received to date whilst IKEA is keen to work with LB Enfield and

their consultants to resolve the concerns we set out in this note we currently cannot support

the HIF bid or support any forthcoming planning application in relation to the Causeway as it

has not been demonstrated satisfactorily that there will not be a significant impact on the

5. It continues and states that, “The opening of The Causeway will result in some changes to the

existing access strategy for Ikea and Tesco. A number of access options have been

considered, supported by preliminary design and junction capacity modelling work, that

endeavour to balance the delivery of the objectives of Meridian Water with the customer and

business access requirements for Tesco and Ikea.”

6. The Arup report considers the potential traffic impacts of the proposed Causeway, which at it

its western end would meet Glover Drive to the immediate north of the existing IKEA store.

From this point, The Causeway continues eastwards through the existing IKEA surface car

park (which is situated to the north-east of the IKEA store building), across Pymmes Brook to

the east of the car park, and towards the River Lea.

north-west; and a significantly larger surface car park to the north-east.

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Figure 1: Existing Highway Access Routes

7. As illustrated in Figure 9 of the Arup report (reproduced in Figure 2 below), the Meridian Water

highway proposals will include severing the existing surface car park to the north-east of the

IKEA site from the IKEA store building and other car parking areas, by The Causeway which

will run east-west as a continuation to Glover Drive.

8. The proposals also include, as shown as in the preferred option, a new elongated roundabout

immediately in front of the IKEA store building; and a realigned north-south road running

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Figure 2: Elongated Roundabout Options

9. As set out in Figure 12 of the Arup report, it is indicated that The Causeway will be a route for

buses, pedestrians and cyclists, with limited access for general traffic. It is noted however that

the LB Enfield AAP states “The Causeway should be accessible by vehicular traffic between

Glover drive in the west and Harbet Road in the east”. Clarification is sought as to the definitive

10. The LB Enfield Meridian Water Area Action Plan (AAP) indicates that the high density of

development proposed at Meridian Water is predicated on the masterplan achieving a

significant increase in the Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL) rating, from its current

levels of 0 (‘Worst’) - 1b across the majority of the site, and 2 (at the western end of the site

nearest the existing railway station), to between 4 and 6 (‘Best’).

11. In order to achieve such a significant improvement in PTAL similar to levels achieved in central

London it is assumed that the extent and frequency of bus services in the area will need to

significantly increase. This suggests that level of bus service frequency along The Causeway

will also be very high, however there is some discrepancy with the proposed mode share for

buses in the Meridian Water Strategic Highway Modelling report which shows at Table 45 Bus

mode share reducing from the 2011 Census mode share (26%) to 24% in the 2031 forecast

year.

Glover Drive.

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13. The Arup report contains various drawings showing proposed changes to Glover Drive and

public highway creating separation between the car park and store. At the IKEA Reading store

issues occur with customer trollies interacting with the tactile paving causing purchases to fall

into the carriageway from the trollies. The necessity for tactile paving is a legal requirement

on adopted highway and the rules are inflexible with regard to their extent and layout. There

are also issues with customers not appreciating that they do not have priority over vehicular

traffic at the crossing point which can create a safety issue. As the crossing would be in public

highway IKEA has no control over the nature or treatment of pedestrian crossing facilities or

the ability to give priority to customer pedestrian traffic over vehicular traffic.

15. It is also noted that a two-way cycleway is proposed along The Causeway and Glover Drive

adjacent to the carriageway; with the AAP stating that “The profile of Glover Drive will be

weekend. IKEA customer footfall and trade varies significantly throughout the year, depending

on a number of factors including whether it is term-time or school holidays, a bank holiday

weekend, in the run-up to Christmas, Easter and other major events, etc. It is noted that the

football World Cup also took place during June 2018, which it is considered could have

significantly impacted on the number of visitors at IKEA at various weekends, and the weekend

of the survey may have been affected.

17. We therefore request further information as to the details of the June 2018 counts, and we

may further request that a sensitivity test exercise be undertaken if the survey weekend is

shown to have been on a weekend with below peak trading in terms of numbers of visitors

and traffic generation.

junctions further from the IKEA store already operate over capacity, it is unclear what happens

to these junctions further away in the future if other traffic redistribution occurs as a result of

the proposed network changes.

20. It is noted that within this latest modelling report only four local junctions have been tested;

two on Meridian Way and two internal site junctions, as part of a limited network. There has

been no allowance made in the recent modelling for any potential reassignment of journeys

either to or from the wider highway network as a result of the proposed changes. It is possible

that with ether simplified network, with less junctions Glover Drive might actually become more

attractive to through-traffic following its proposed realignment.

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21. A further point to note is that all the tests have been undertaken with existing traffic flows, no

we are concerned that very little detail has been made available with regard to the design and

interaction between the alignment and the IKEA store and existing operations.

• Clarification on how the manual traffic reassignment (of through-traffic) has been

undertaken. We suggest the use of a microsimulation model may provide a better

degree of confidence in the output.

• AutoCAD drawings detailing the proposed design for both the reconfigured Glover

Drive, new roundabout, the Causeway, including the proposed cycle lanes, pedestrian

crossing points and reconfigured IKEA car park.

• Details of the potential impact of the full Meridian Water masterplan, including

proposed mode share / trip generation, and impact on Glover Drive.

24. Whilst IKEA is keen to work with LB Enfield and their consultants to resolve the concerns we

have highlighted above if at all possible, our current position is that we cannot support the HIF