Many anti-LTN campaigners claim that a majority (or ‘the many’) support their views. Multiple research surveys show the opposite is true and last week in north London the electorate spoke. Indeed anti-LTN campaign platforms proved disastrous for local candidates. There were four by-elections in Hackney – two prominent anti-LTN & ‘Horrendous Hackney Road Closures’ organisers stood to become Councillors in two of these.
Standing in Hoxton East & Shoreditch: Niall Crowley, endorsed by Lawrence Fox, writer for Spiked online & opinion pieces such as ‘In defence of gentrification’ received just 7.8% of the total votes. In comparison; the Greens received 16% and the Labour winner 53%. Candidate Clair Battaglino, on Twitter as ‘Future Councillor’ and ardent campaigner to remove LTNs received a mere 3.8% of total votes. The Labour candidate elected received 63%.
In neighbouring Islington, anti-LTN candidates also failed spectacularly. In St Peter’s ward by-election, Jody Grabber, with the single policy of removing LTNs and who faces court charges of drug possession & violence next month, came last. Also in Islington, Bunhill ward anti-LTN candidate Martyn Perks came last. In Highbury West ward candidates of the parties promoting LTNs (Labour & Greens) received 73% of vote. Let the people decide!
Category: News (page 1 of 11)
Are you a new or returning cyclist feeling nervous about riding on Enfield’s roads? Would you like to ride a bit further or make a journey to work or elsewhere that you have not been able to before? Or are you a confident cyclist who would like to help another rider experience the joy and freedom of getting about by bike? Enfield Cycling Campaign has joined the Cycle Buddies scheme, pairing up experienced and novice riders to provide support and share expertise. If you, or anyone you know (experienced or novice), is interested in signing up, CLICK HERE for the form to complete.
You can read all about Cycle Buddies and the experience of people who have buddied already on the London Cycling Campaign website HERE .
Since Enfield’s first low traffic neighbourhood went in we have been following the air quality monitoring station at Bowes school. Some people were concerned that air quality would deteriorate due to more traffic on the A406 – this was a worry as the monitoring station is in the school grounds. We were confident this wouldn’t happen, but it seemed sensible to wait for the trial to progress before drawing any conclusions. However, in the recent opposition report, there was some ‘cherry-picked’ data to show that the LTNs had caused air pollution to go up. ‘Cherry-picked’ data because air pollution always goes up in the winter for various reasons* – so a month by month comparison isn’t particularly useful or valid.
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A man describing himself as ‘London’s happiest bus driver’ has written to the Islington Tribune to say: ‘Remember, drivers, these traffic scheme changes keep people safe.’
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Republished with permission from Palmers Green Community website, this article first appeared on 6 January 2021
Enfield Council has been allocated government funding totalling £1.55 million to spend on active travel schemes: £1.3 million to pay for two cycleway schemes and £160,000 for phase 2 of the Bowes low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN), which would use a “bus gate” to give relief to the long suffering residents of Brownlow Road. Additionally, the council is hopeful of obtaining funding from Transport for London in the next financial year for phase 2 of the Connaught Gardens LTN and is planning to start work on two further LTNs, in Upper Edmonton.
The Active Travel Fund
The money is Enfield’s share of the £175 million being allocated to councils throughout England by the Department for Transport (DfT), representing tranche 2 of what was originally referred to as the Emergency Active Travel Fund (EATF) but is now known simply as the Active Travel Fund. The EATF was earmarked for rapid changes designed to encourage and facilitate walking and cycling against the background of sharply reduced usage of public transport because of coronavirus restrictions. Consequently, councils were given very short deadlines (a few weeks) during which to engage with the public, design schemes and build them.
Tranche 2 money will be spent on schemes designed for the longer term. Government deadlines for implementation will be longer and councils will have to confirm that they have consulted all appropriate local stakeholders, including businesses, emergency services, and local MPs.
Enfield Council announced the news of its successful bid in a press release published this afternoon [6 January]. The full text is on its website here.
Bowes low-traffic neighbourhood, phase 2
£160,000 of the DfT funding will go to phase 2 of the Bowes LTN. Phase 1, implemented in late summer 2020, has created peaceful streets on either side of Brownlow Road but may have actually exacerbated the situation in the street which has suffered most from through traffic – Brownlow Road itself. For many years the volume of traffic has far exceeded the street’s capacity and residents have had to endure noise, fumes and danger. Queues of cars often stretch back along nearly the whole length of the street, waiting for the lights at the northern end, where priority is given to the North Circular Road traffic.
Phase 2, if it goes ahead, will bring to fruition the dreams of a group of residents who last year set up Healthy Streets Bounds Green, calling for, among other things, a “bus gate for Brownlow”. This is exactly what the council is proposing to do. A bus gate is a camera-controlled point which only buses, emergency vehicles, bikes and people on foot are permitted to pass. To prevent problems for other local roads, design and consultation will need to be closely coordinated with neighbouring Haringey Council, which has also received funding for LTNs in the Bounds Green area, and with Transport for London. In particular, the scheme might require TfL to allow traffic to turn right out of Bounds Green Road onto the North Circular at Hobart Corner.
Phase 1 of the Bowes scheme is currently operating as a trial with formal consultation running concurrently and due to end in February. Depending on feedback received and after reviewing data relating to the effect on other roads, bus running times, emergency services and other considerations, the council may decide to abandon the scheme, to amend it, or to make it permanent. If amended, the trial and formal consultation period will be extended. A possible way of amending the scheme would be to change it around so that residents and visitors access the streets from the Bounds Green Road direction, rather than from the north.
More low traffic neighbourhoods in prospect
The press release also states that the further funding from TfL, anticipated at the start of the new financial year (April), will be prioritised for the Connaught Gardens quieter neighbourhood. Phase 1 of this scheme, a small one-way system in Palmers Green (Windsor Road, Osborne Road, Lightcliffe Road and New River Crescent) is currently being trialled.
Initial engagement on phase 2 – which would prevent rat-running to the east of Green Lanes – has finished. Residents for the Connaught Gardens LTN, a group campaigning for implementation of the scheme, was set up last month and can be contacted at ConnaughtGardensLTN@gmail.com.
New cycleways
The bulk of the new money allocated to Enfield will be spent on cycling infrastructure (low traffic neighbourhoods are far cheaper). There are two projects – more construction of cycle lanes along the A1010 (Ponders End High Street) and work on a cycleway linking Enfield Town and Ponders End. The original plan to put cycle lanes along Southbury Road has been abandoned and the cycleway will instead use streets further south.
Two further walking and cycling routes are currently being built. The first provides a link between the A1010 cycle lanes and the North Middlesex Hospital via Pymmes Park and will eventually join up with the Tottenham to Old Street section of Cycleway 1. The other, Angel Walk, runs between Edmonton Green and the new Meridian Water development.
This weekend is your last chance to comment on the council’s plans for Enfield Town centre as a Liveable Neighbourhood with funding from the Mayor. Please have your say by midnight on Sunday 15 November!
Continue readingAs the issue with emergency service access to low traffic neighbourhoods has been rumbling on for a few weeks now, we have asked for a formal response from the council. Councillor Ian Barnes has responded with the statement below. It puts in writing that the council have consulted with emergency services.
The council have previously told us that they would not progress with these schemes if the emergency services had any remaining concerns with the final design. If the council had gone ahead despite an objection from the emergency services, this would be easily discovered in a Freedom of information (FOI) request. Therefore as Better Streets for Enfield we have decided to put in an FOI to confirm this information.
A fuller statement from London Ambulance Service’s Khadir Meer is here:
“We are working incredibly collegiately with local government partners across London and with GLA partners. We are not aware of any LTNs that have led to any patient safety concerns or any significant delays. We are monitoring it closely but we are also keeping working very closely, collegiately and collaboratively with both our emergency services but also our health and care partners across London. [So as Heather said] we prioritise patient safety and we prioritise our response times above anything and everything else, we’re not aware of any significant issues at the moment and we are keen to continue to work collaboratively to work through any implications of any LTNs.”
Hal Haines with a foreword by Viola Rondeboom
Last Monday we returned from a long summer escape in Utrecht to find our peaceful North London neighbourhood suddenly up in arms. Groups of upset neighbours had taken to the streets to protest, and this went on for a few days in a row. What caused the mayhem? The Bowes and Bounds Green area is one of a few neighbourhoods in Enfield about to get a Dutch style, area-wide low-traffic scheme intended to remove through-traffic from residential streets and redirect it back to the main roads.
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There has been a LOT of discussion in our Facebook group about the council’s low traffic neighbourhood plans for the West Bowes / Bounds Green area, announced on Monday.
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This piece by Basil Clarke first appeared on the Palmers Green Community website on 9th July.
[Original article]
Enfield Council’s revised plans for the Fox Lane quieter neighbourhood, which were published today, will dramatically reduce traffic and associated pollution, noise and road danger over a large area of residential streets stretching from Palmers Green to Southgate. Subject to approval by the deputy council leader, the proposals will be implemented on a trial basis for six months starting this summer.
The trial will also serve as a 6-month formal consultation period, during which the council will also carry out monitoring of the effect on roads outside the area. Depending on the results of both, the scheme will either be discontinued, modified or made permanent.
Leaflets showing the new scheme were today distributed to homes in the neighbourhood, and more detailed information has been uploaded to the Let’s Talk Enfield website, along with an explanatory video
Dramatically reduced traffic in the area
By preventing drivers from cutting through the area, the scheme will lead to falls in traffic of 75 per cent or more in the busiest streets, such as Meadway, Amberley Road, Greenway and Old Park Road, while Fox Lane itself could experience a reduction of 90 per cent or more.
Table: Estimated effect of scheme on traffic flows*
(If the table is not displaying properly, click here)
| Existing (2019 survey) | Estimated post-scheme | % reduction | |||||||
| 7AM-7PM | AM Peak Hour | PM Peak Hour | 7AM-7PM | AM Peak Hour | PM Peak Hour | 7AM-7PM | AM Peak Hour | PM Peak Hour | |
| Bourne Avenue (N) | 1600-1700 | 200-300 | 100-200 | 500-600 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 65-75% | 85-95% | 80-90% |
| Parkway | 200-300 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 100-200 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 35-45% | No change | No change |
| The Ridgeway | 100-200 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 100-200 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 0-10% | No change | No change |
| Greenway | 2000-3000 | 200-300 | 200-300 | 500-600 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 75-85% | 85-95% | 85-95% |
| Fox Lane (W) | 5000-6000 | 500-600 | 500-600 | 700-800 | 200-300 | 200-300 | 80-90% | 55-65% | 50-60% |
| Amberley Read | 3000-4000 | 300-400 | 300-400 | 600-700 | 100-200 | 50-100 | 75-85% | 50-60% | 75-85% |
| St George’s Road | 1100-1200 | 100-200 | 100-200 | 300-400 | 100-200 | 100-200 | 65-75% | No change | No change |
| Craniey Gardens | 500-600 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 400-500 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 15-25% | 60-70% | 60-70% |
| Burford Gardens | 600-700 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 500-600 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 10-20% | 60-70% | 60-70% |
| Caversham Avenue | 800-900 | 100-200 | 50-100 | 400-500 | 50-100 | 0-50 | 45-55% | 45-55% | 60-70% |
| Fox Lane (E) | 5000-6000 | 600-700 | 500-600 | 500-600 | 100-200 | 100-200 | 85-95% | 85-95% | 85-95% |
| Devonshire Road | 600-700 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 300-400 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 40-50% | 60-70% | 60-70% |
| Old Park Road | 1700-1800 | 200-300 | 50-100 | 400-500 | 100-200 | 0-50 | 70-80% | 35-55% | 60-70% |
| Groveland Road | 1100-1200 | 100-200 | 100-200 | 400-500 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 55-65% | 45-55% | 80-90% |
| Lakeside Road | 500-600 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 400-500 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 15-25% | 60-70% | 60-70% |
| Denvent Road | 600-700 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 400-500 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 25-35% | No change | No change |
| Ulleswater Road | 600-700 | 50-100 | 50-100 | 500-600 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 10-20% | 60-70% | 60-70% |
| Conway Road | 600-700 | 100-200 | 0-50 | 400-500 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 25-35% | 80-90% | No change |
| Selborne Road | 1600-1700 | 100-200 | 100-200 | 500-600 | 100-200 | 50-100 | 65-75% | No change | 45-55% |
| The Mall | 2000-3000 | 300-400 | 300-400 | 600-700 | 100-200 | 0-50 | 70-80% | 50-60% | 85-95% |
| Oakfield Road | 400-500 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 400-500 | 0-50 | 0-50 | 0-10% | No change | No change |
| Meadway (S) | 3000-4000 | 500-600 | 400-500 | 300-400 | 50-100 | 100-200 | 85-75% | 65-75% | 35-45% |
*The numbers shown in the table indicate the total number of vehicles on the road – both with a local origin or destination, and traffic cutting through the area
Impact on surrounding roads
While estimating the effect on traffic volumes within the area is relatively easy, forecasting what will happen on surrounding roads is much less straightforward. There is ample evidence of “traffic evaporation” following the introduction of low-traffic neighbourhoods elsewhere. This reflects the fact that traffic is not an uncontrollable elemental force of nature, it is the result of human behaviour, and schemes such as this are designed to change behaviour, to encourage less driving and more active travel – walking, riding bikes, using public transport – and to move longer distance travel back to the strategic roads where it belongs and which it would have used before satnav made it easy for drivers to navigate complex routes designed to shave a small amount of time off their journeys, to the detriment of people living along the routes.
With streets inside the area being quieter and safer, and with cleaner air, some residents will walk to destinations outside the area when they previously would have driven, thus removing traffic. Some of the drivers that currently cut through the area will use completely different routes that may not go anywhere near Palmers Green or Southgate. Given time, new patterns of travel will emerge. There’s no reliable way of forecasting what they will be – a sufficiently long trial is the most effective way to find out
Next steps
Council officers are currently drafting a formal report that sets out the details of the design, including all the previous engagement and feedback received. This report will then be submitted to the deputy council leader, Ian Barnes, who is the primary decision maker for this neighbourhood project.
Subject to formal approval a trial of this design will commence over the summer. Any trial would take place using a process of experimental traffic orders. It is at the point of the start of a trial where formal consultation opens for a period of six months, with residents able to provide comments once they have had the opportunity to experience the trial working in practice. At the end of the 6-month review period, a decision will be made on whether to remove the trial, make changes or make the project permanent. This decision will be informed by the community feedback collected throughout the consultation during the trial period.
Once the formal report has been approved, it will be published on the project page. The council will then send a letter to all properties within the area to inform people of the decision.
If the trial is going ahead, this letter will provide more information on specific timelines and further detail on how additional feedback can be provided as part of the formal consultation process.
To find out more visit: letstalk.enfeld.gov.uk/foxlaneQN
Links
Let’s Talk Enfield: Fox Lane quieter neighbourhood
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