A BSfE View on the ‘Demand for Access’ Petition (Bowes LTN)

BSfE has reviewed the recent petition entitled ‘A Demand for Access’, as presented to Enfield Council’s Scrutiny & Oversight Committee (February 2025) by some residents calling themselves the ’13 Roads’ of the Bowes LTN Quieter Neighbourhood (QN).

In summary, we conclude that the petition’s claim to ‘unique’ conditions
that deny ‘reasonable access to premises’ cannot be sustained; and that
the petition’s ‘demand’ to drive through additional junctions would create
circumstances likely to increase traffic, reduce safety, create inequalities,
and undermine the goals and integrity of the Quieter Neighborhood.

The petition’s ‘Demand’ is that all drivers living in this part of the Quieter Neighbourhood be given special exemption to drive through the ANPR-monitored junctions at Warwick Road (South) and Maidstone Road without incurring any fines. At present, only specific categories of exempted drivers can pass through: Blue Badge residents in the zone, registered carers, the emergency services, the dial-a-ride bus, and certain Council vehicles, e.g. for rubbish & recycling.
BSfE believes that the demand for special access rights is not persuasive; furthermore, that if implemented, it would be a regressive step for traffic volumes and safety in the area, challenging Enfield’s overall reputation for high-quality schemes that incentivise modal shift towards more sustainable travel choices (especially for shorter journeys).

The reasons for BSfE’s conclusions are summarised below:

1. The claim by the petitioners to a ‘unique geographical position’ is belied by the reality that vehicular access to surrounding roads outside the QN (e.g. Pevensey Ave, Hastings Rd, Bexhill Rd; Milton Grove, Chaucer Close and Shakespeare Avenue; Livingstone Road, etc.) is also via the A406. On this ground alone, it cannot be the case that accessing the QN via the A406 is unreasonable or that it breaches any laws or regulations.
2. All vehicle-owners in the QN can access both their front doors and the public road network. This is integral to the QN’s design already. Vehicular ‘access’ must be understood as something different to vehicular shortcuts, since QNs are not schemes aimed at creating driver-shortcuts.
3. In order to consider resident access in any meaningful way, it cannot be limited to the idea of the private motor car, especially since 45% of households do not own motor vehicles. All available modes of travel need to be taken into account: that means the nearby Tube (Bounds Green Station), Overground (Bowes Station; New Southgate Station), several bus routes and Superloop, Zipcar (available south of the North Circular), Haringey ebike rental, and active travel, including recent cycle infrastructure put in place by Enfield and Haringey councils.
4. In our view, the A406 remains, on balance, the most practical choice for boundary-road vehicle access. Not only does it offer 4 junctions with the QN (Natal Road, Warwick Road, Highworth Road, Ollerton Road), it is high-capacity, enabling onward travel in all destinations. Drivers not wishing to stay on the A406 for long can leave/enter at one of several nearby junctions with trunk roads. RTIs and roadworks sometimes slow traffic flow, but rarely do they block the multi-lane A406 (which has high maintenance priority, being TfL’s arterial road). Driving on the A406 poses no particular hazards for competent drivers (but see below for possible safety enhancements).
5. The petition’s demand to create special resident exceptions at two filtered junctions (leading to Bounds Green Road and Brownlow Road) would create the conditions for induced demand – that is, it would incentivise car usage in a scheme intended to incentivise other modes. As one resident admitted, ‘if I can use that junction again, I’ll stop using the bus to collect my son and go back to using the car’.
6. Induced demand would mean higher volumes of traffic, inside the LTN and then outside, including on the roads that the petition describes as ‘congested’. An increased volume of traffic would risk undermining the gains in safety that the QN has brought for pedestrians, cyclists, wheelers, schoolchildren and other vulnerable road users.
7. In particular, the petition’s ‘demand’ would undermine the safety and value of the public-realm investment (via bids for greening grants) that created a new ‘village square’ at the Maidstone Rd/Warwick Road junction. This once-notorious traffic junction has become a thriving pedestrian- and cycle-friendly space and corridor. It also hosts a popular Dr Bike session.
8. It would be potentially damaging to Enfield Council if it were seen to create a borough precedent of a privileged subset of drivers, equipped with their own special-access junctions. The QN could be exposed to criticism that it has veered away from its aims, towards a semi-gated drivers’ enclave. This raises the possibility of adverse knock-on effects for the planning, funding and integrity of other projects.