Enfield Cycle Campaign and Better Streets for Enfield are running a Try-a-bike session in September as part of the Enfield Climate Festival. Are you new to cycling and want to give it a go? Perhaps you want to try a different type of bike, or find out how much easier it is to ride an electric bike? Do your children want to try a new bike or are new to cycling? There will be lots of different children’s bikes to try. Ever wondered what it is like to ride a delivery cargo bike? Want to see if you can take your kids to school using a ‘tag-a-long’, tandem or a ‘bakfiet’? This is your chance to give it a go. It kicks off at 1100 on 19th September in Hazelwood Recreation Ground and finishes at 1500.
Volunteers needed
Maybe you are already a cyclist and would like to help show people bikes? We need volunteers to help with the event, including:
Meet and greet people as they arrive and direct them to the relevant section of the tennis courts.
Helpers to match people up with a bike and get them going. It may be necessary to adjust saddle heights etc.
Supervisors to stand in the middle of the circuit (everyone cycles round them) and keep an eye out for any issues – mechanical problems, risky behaviour etc.
If you can help with this great initiative to encourage people to cycle please email enfieldcyclingcampaign@gmail.com
July 2, 2021 / admin / Comments Off on Counts reveal big increases in walking & cycling on Fox Lane
It’s not just the numbers that are surprising – it’s the diversity of people now able to walk, cycle and wheel
There has been a more than fivefold increase in walking, and an even bigger increase in cycling, on Fox Lane since it became part of a low traffic neighbourhood (LTN), according to counts in 2018 and 2021.
May 12, 2021 / admin / Comments Off on Let’s vote on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
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!
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 .
February 2, 2021 / admin / Comments Off on Monitoring air quality around low traffic neighbourhoods
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.
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
Phase 2 of the Bowes LTN will install a “bus gate” at some point on Brownlow Road to prevent its being used as a through route by motorists. Click on the image for a larger version
£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.
A flyer produced by residents’ group Healthy Streets Bounds Green
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.
The LTN would prevent drivers using Connaught Gdns area as a short cut
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!
As 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.”
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.
