“In France, if we wish to drain the swamps, we do not consult the frogs,” said French politician, Michel Delebarre, when asked why the French side of the Channel Tunnel construction had gone so smoothly. Likewise, the inhabitants of Hanwell, Northfields and West Ealing were not consulted before the introduction of low traffic networks (LTNs) in August 2020. They were told that consultation would take place once the scheme had been in place for six months.
LTNs involve the partial closure of residential streets to prevent them being used as rat-runs, the idea being that the area will become safer, with improved air quality, and that people will be encouraged to walk and cycle instead of drive.
The schemes started being introduced in London in March 2020, in some cases not for very long because of the severe disruption that resulted. Problems were largely caused by rushed planning and minimal communication, as central government urged local authorities to move quickly. When the large wooden planter boxes and pop-up bollards first started to appear at road junctions in Hanwell, I was not alone in thinking they were a temporary adjustment in response to Covid. But it turns out they were brought in under cover of Covid, not because of Covid, thus circumventing the usual planning rules and procedures.
Changes of this sort will never be popular with everyone, but the lack of consultation and short notice have probably fuelled a lot of the protest against the LTNs. Add to that the disruption experienced by some residents, the reduction in passing trade for off-high street businesses (already struggling to stay open) and, on occasion, emergency services not being able to attend incidents quickly enough.
All this soon divided the community – online petitions were organised and protest posters put up alongside the NHS rainbows in front room windows. In the early days, some of the large planters were covered in graffiti or overturned, spilling soil out into the street. There were a few instances of verbal abuse aimed at council officials.
No one likes living along a rat run and no doubt many are happy with the new system. They won’t feel the need to voice their support for what is now in place as strongly as those who are against it. In November 2020, the Times reported that overall in London, three times as many people support the restrictions as are opposed to them. And it’s certainly nicer to walk along the back streets to Sainsbury’s in West Ealing and be able to step into the road safely and easily if the need to maintain social distance arises.
Because of lockdown I’m not driving anywhere at the moment. But if I were I’d avoid Boston Road because it is now so rammed with displaced traffic, so often, no one else is going anywhere either. It gets particularly bad when the lovely big car transporter (my Dinky toy of choice aged eight) is unloading outside West Way Nissan. I feel sorry for those living along this stretch, and those trying to deliver goods to us, or themselves to work; stuck in vans, cars and buses. Many of them key workers, many of them low paid. And many of them might not live locally, and won’t have a say in any consultation that may take place later.
In Janice Turner’s article in the Times on 9 January 2021, she made the point that as yet there was no firm evidence that overall emissions have lowered as a result of LTNs. It could be that the problem of congestion and poor air quality hasn’t been resolved, just shunted away from leafy enclaves onto the already congested fume-filled roads where the less well-off live. A kind of NIMBY-ism.
In 2013, Ella Roberta Kissi-Debrah, who lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, died aged nine following an asthma attack. On 16 December 2020, Southwark Coroner’s Court found that air pollution had “made a material contribution” to her death. Her mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, campaigns to improve the lives of children affected by asthma in South East London. In an interview in the Guardian in November 2020, she said: “For people who live in an LTN, yes, life is better, I don’t deny that, but their traffic is going somewhere. You cannot live in a neighbourhood where one part has an LTN and children are cycling and playing outside and the roads are safe, then pop along a couple of roads later and there’s gridlocked traffic. We cannot live in a society like that.”
In the run up to Christmas 2020 it was particularly bad on Boston Road because of road works near the ambulance station. I saw cars being driven onto the pavement to avoid getting caught when the temporary traffic lights changed. But they couldn’t get back onto the road in time and remained stuck in the ambulance station entrance. Result: a complete standstill. If an ambulance had needed to get out to respond to an emergency it wouldn’t have been able to.
A few days ago I saw an ambulance pass between two planters at one of the LTN roadblocks without the driver having to get out to unlock them. A sign I hadn’t seen before had been put up: CAMERA ENFORCEMENT STARTS 7 DECEMBER 2020. So, the gap for emergency vehicles is permanent, but non-emergency vehicles aren’t allowed to pass through? A chink of common sense?
Ealing Council has now collected feedback on the LTNs and is reviewing a report on their operation. Despite 77 per cent of those giving feedback being against the scheme, the council is set to continue anyway, with minor changes such as the ambulance access improvement mentioned above. It seems like a rubber-stamping exercise. It doesn’t sound likely that the council will un-drain this particular swamp, no matter how cogent the arguments of those who oppose the scheme, no matter how strongly the inhabitants croak or jump around.
Postscript
With Hounslow council planning to close Swyncombe Avenue as part of their LTN scheme, there would have been a knock-on effect in Ealing. Many of our local LTNs have since been dismantled, but may come back. There’s the impression that much dithering’s going on. On social media the two sides have become increasingly entrenched. Me? I think LTNs are a great idea, but they weren’t planned properly and the consultation process was totally botched.
For more information:
Ealing Council wins crucial vote on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods at emergency meeting | road.cc
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – Ealing Green Party
Ealing Council fudging LTN traffic scheme consultation | Ealing (ealingconservatives.org.uk)
Around Hanwell and up the allotment 
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