Bethnal Green. Pic: Save Our Safer Streets

Thousands of residents have petitioned the London Mayor to save low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) under threat of removal by Tower Hamlets Council as part of an ongoing dispute. 

In the petition, residents said ending LTN schemes after spending over £2m on their implementation would be a waste of public money.

The residents are asking for money to help their legal campaign, to cover the cost of a judicial review hearing.

Last year in September, Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman, announced he would be removing LTNs, including the only segregated lane in Bethnal Green and safer walking wheeling routes.

EastLondonLines spoke to Oli Rake, coordinator of Better Streets for Tower Hamlets, who said: “Lutfur Rahman’s attempts to remove the LTNs are misguided and will make the borough’s streets more dangerous and its air polluted. There is no justification for pushing large volumes of traffic along a narrow residential street which has multiple schools on it.”

Since 2021, advocates for LTN’s say changes to residential street layouts in Bethnal Green, Wapping and Brick Lane have reduced traffic and made them safer, healthier, and friendlier.

LTNs use barriers, bollards, road signs, and planters to restrict cars, vans, and other vehicles, while allowing pedestrians and cyclists through. Critics argue LTNs can worsen traffic, hinder small businesses and slow down emergency vehicles.

According to a public consultation by the Save Our Safer Streets, in 2023, over 75% of all respondents favoured keeping the current schemes.

In London, campaigners say LTNs have reduced road casualties by 50% and streets with LTNs have 74% less traffic.

A resident named Mehraj told Save Our Safer Streets: “Just as we’re getting used to the new street, they want to change it back, but they need to talk us.”

Three separate consultations have been carried out in the last few years, on the Liveable Streets schemes in Bethnal Green, before and after the addition of the LTNs. All showed that residents want to keep LTNs.

Rake said: “If the mayor takes the issue of heavy traffic on boundary roads seriously, he would work with us to make it easier for residents, LTNs are part of the solution, not a problem.”

A Tower Hamlets spokesperson said: “We are aware of this petition. There is currently a pending judicial review in November. We will await the decision of the courts in due course.”