Proposals

About This Scheme

Stub roads (also known as dead-end roads) in Westminster City Council have been identified as underutilised spaces with potential to increase greening opportunities. We know that increased greening is linked to better mental wellbeing and through an overall increased network of greening, encourages more active travel, physical activity and community cohesion. Stub roads have the potential to be transformed into greener, more attractive spaces that help reduce flood risk, support local nature and wildlife, and provide improved spaces for the community to enjoy.

Stub roads have historically been either the dead-end of a street, or a street where traffic has been 'stopped up' or closed by a physical intervention such as bollards.  

Greening on stub roads is where greenery such as additional planted areas or introducing new trees is added to small, short dead-end streets called “stub roads”, transforming an underutilised part of the highway into green public space. This often includes pocket parks, Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) such as rain gardens and tree pits, or other urban greening features, to improve the local environment through increasing air quality, reducing the urban heat island effect through cooling and providing shading opportunity, and enhance biodiversity and visual appeal of our kerbside.

We are looking to pilot this greening and flood risk initiative and invite you to share any stub roads in your area that you believe could benefit from such improvements. Your input will help us identify suitable locations for this initiative and help us better understand the appetite and demand for stub road greening. Click here to access the questionnaire.

There are many potential benefits of stub road greening to support environmental resilience of the area, including:  

• Enhancing biodiversity by providing habitat for local wildlife species in urban environments, helping tackle the ecological emergency; 
• Management of rainfall by storing it and slowing its flow, contributing to the broader reduction of flood risk, particularly flash flooding incidents; 
• Improving water quality by using natural processes to store and treat rainwater, reducing water pollution in the local downstream environment; 
• Improving air quality by filtering pollutants or mitigating against urban heat island effects; 
• Creation of visually appealing spaces that enhance the overall aesthetic of urban areas, contributing to improved physical and mental wellbeing of residents and visitors; and 
• Economic benefits such as an increase in property values, creation of jobs (for the people delivering and maintaining the greening) and attracting businesses and residents to the area. 

Please note that suggesting a location does not guarantee it will be selected for the pilot. We will prioritise locations based on specific factors, including their potential impact on flood risk management, the current level of green space in the area and air quality.

Next Steps

Once this early engagement period concludes, we will review each recommendation and decide which stub road location we will pursue this pilot with.  Following the selection, we will launch a consultation period to share detailed proposals for the chosen locations and gather further community feedback before finalising any improvements.

We will produce a report summarising the early engagement exercise and the key themes raised in the stakeholder feedback. This will be publicly available on Commonplace in Winter 2025.  

The Design Team will identify a shortlist of feasible sites based on the feedback received and will apply the Environmental Justice Measure (EJM) analysis to assess suitability. A separate report will be prepared to present the outcome of the EJM analysis and the shortlist of recommended sites.