KEEP ISLINGTON MOVING
Say No to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs)
Fact Sheet
Key statistics supporting the case against LTNS
Islington Council has published reams of statistics to persuade us that LTNs are a good thing which should be extended across most of the borough. Most of this data is biased and much of it is misleading, or based on flawed monitoring processes, or just plain wrong. The PDF Fact Sheet in this section presents objective statistics to support each of the key arguments supporting the case against LTNs. It is based on extensive analysis using reputable sources which are referenced in the text.
Key Statistics Callouts
The rationale for LTNs is fundamentally flawed
LTNs, as their name suggests, were introduced primarily to reduce traffic - we were told that traffic volumes in Islington were far too high and were growing rapidly. But revised DfT data, on which LTN plans were based, now shows clearly that traffic volumes were steadily falling in Islington in the decade before LTN implementation - see chart below. Volumes fell more sharply during Covid, when the LTNs were introduced, but have now bounced back somewhat - but more so in LTNsthan in boroughs which did not go down the LTN route.
​
Critique of Barnsbury Statistics
Residents who managed to get in to the Barnsbury Partnership meeting at Bridgeman Road on 15 November 2022 (ultimately aborted) were given a Presentation by the Council on why Barnsbury should be turned into a "Liveable Neighbourhood" (actually this turns out to mean extending the Low Traffic Neighbourhood programme into Barnsbury). We have carried out a detailed analysis of this presentation, including various statistics included within it, and you can view the slides in our own presentation below. Following this is a slide from the deck showing our Overall Comments and Conclusions. The bottom line? There is no case for a Barnsbury LN/LTN!
Collated Feedback From Across The Seven Islington LTN Trials
We've now completed a detailed analysis of feedback from residents regarding Islington LTN trials to date. The first PDF below is a summary of the results of this analysis and the second sets out the detail supporting the summary. There are two very important conclusions:
-
Most feedback was negative; the majority of residents judged the trail LTNs to have been ineffective at best and detrimental at worst across a wide range of criteria.
-
In sharp contrast, the Council has consistently put a false positive spin on the trial results, which calls into question the integrity and transparency of the Council's consultation process.
Analysis of Interactive Map Comments
As part of the "Liveable Barnsbury" consultation process, Islington Council set up an interactive map online and invited residents to drop "pins" on the map and make comments. The map closed for comments on April 9 2023 but it's still there online and well worth examining - see here. Although, as we've pointed out, this consultation process is seriously flawed it is a great source of information if used with a certain amount of discretion. Our sister group Keep Barnsbury Moving has carried out a detailed analysis of the completed map and its comments which you can read in the PDF below. Here's our main conclusions:
​
​
Our Conclusions
-
There is no compelling evidence that road closures or filtering are wanted or needed by the majority of residents. Traffic surveillance cameras would be particularly unpopular.
-
In particular, although a small minority of residents on Offord Road want it to be closed/filtered, a much larger number of residents would be disadvantaged
-
Liverpool Road is a more complex case and it is clear that many residents are unhappy with it in its current form. The best solution may be to return it to its pre-LTN form, especially if TfL could be persuaded to sort out the universally disliked Highbury Corner scheme.
-
Although quite a lot of residents would welcome various greening measures such as parklets, an equal number would not. Overall there is no compelling case for such measures on a mass scale as part of an LTN initiative.
-
Similarly, many relatively simple requests for uncontroversial Council improvements have emerged from this consultation exercise such as less potholes, better pavements, and policing of anti-social cyclist behaviour. These should all be addressed by the Council on a case-by-case basis.
Analysis of NO2 Pollution Levels
It's official! LTNs in Islington have had a negligible effect on pollution levels. Keep Islington Moving has carried out a detailed analysis of Islington Council's NO2 pollution monitoring data and their own conclusions across several reports. So much for a "cleaner healthier borough"! Of course this is not surprising given that LTNs increase journey times overall and divert more traffic to already congested main roads. See our Q&A report below.
St Mary's - Another Failed LTN
Keep Islington Moving has now completed our analysis of the results, published by Islington Council, of its 18 month trial LTN implementation in St Mary's ward. Our conclusion is that the scheme has failed to meet any of its stated objectives. Instead, through the spectacularly ill-advised closure of Cross Street and other key routes, east-west traffic has been diverted causing congestion and dramatically increased pollution at several key spots including Canonbury. This is based on the Council's own monitoring data, which to be fair it has published in full, and it confirms the lived experience of residents as well as tradespeople and small businesses, who, based on our own research are particularly opposed to the changes. In fact the Council's own feedback reveals that a majority of residents did not want the scheme to continue. It is therefore extraordinary that the Council has now decided to make the scheme permanent.
LTN-Related PCN Charges
This section of the website is a work in progress for recording Council Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) payments relating to LTNs. The spreadsheet below records various data, most of it received from the Council as a result of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests - click to download, then select relevant tabs. Other important sources include Tribune articles by Charlotte Chambers in Dec 2022 and Jan 2023 respectively. See also Fact Sheet above and Media Article (Select Car Leasing, London World), both on this website.
Provisional key facts:
​
-
Total LTN charges for Islington, excluding School and Parking charges, from the start of the programme (mid-2020) to end November 2022, were £10,821,863, or just under £11 million (Source: Charlotte Chambers Tribune article Dec 2022 and 2nd table in spreadsheet.
-
Islington charges more for LTN violations than any other borough in the country (Source: Charlotte Chambers Tribune article Jan 2023, based on Churchill data). It also charges the most for Parking, by a wide margin (Source - see Media Article).
-
The most recent data (Source: Council FOI) covers data from the four month period April 1 2023 to July 31 2023. Total PCN payments in each of three categories are as follows:
-
LTN-related: £1,211,443 (estimated annual equivalent: £3,634,329)​
-
School-related: £646,235 (estimated annual equivalent: £1,938,705)
-
Parking-related: £2,648,936 (estimated annual equivalent: £7,946,888)
-
Total PCN charges: £4,506,614 (estimated annual equivalent: £13,519,842)
-
-
Total LTN charges appear to be reducing somewhat, year on year, as to be expected as motorists learn to avoid prohibited spots, but changes at individual spots are very variable from 2021 to 2022, and the total number of PCNs issued actually increased slightly
Some charts:​​
BID/BDC Report: Local Businesses Oppose Barnsbury.Laycock Traffic Filtering Proposals
The Business Design Centre (BDC) and the Angel Islington Business Improvement District (BID) have published a detailed and authoritative research report into the proposed Liveable Neighbourhood for Barnsbury.Laycock which comes out very strongly against the plans to install 15 new traffic filters in the area. The report summary is reproduced below.
Overview
This review has considered Islington council’s Liveable Neighbourhood proposals for Barnsbury and Laycock in terms of its impact on convenient and efficient deliveries and servicing to the many and varied business premises in the area.
Consultation Response 1 – Delivery and Service Vehicle Diversions
The area is already subject to long-standing access restrictions and adding the proposed additional modal filters will serve to create a wide area exclusion cordon for all but exempted vehicles. This will cause those vehicles to undertake very considerable diversions in order to access business premises and impact adversely on the day to day operation of businesses within the area. There is related concern that those diversions will force delivery and servicing vehicles onto routes already experiencing congestion such as White Lion Street and Highbury Corner, further adding to delays for those movements and general traffic. With the improvement of air quality a key stated aim of the proposals, the additional vehicle kilometres travelled as a result of the diversions calls into question any net improvement in air quality post-scheme implementation.
Consultation Response 2 - Reliance on Modal Filters and Closures
The initial phase of the proposed scheme relies upon modal filters throughout, restrictive measures most closely associated with Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) schemes. Though reference is made in the Liveable Neighbourhood consultation material to subsequent publicrealm led measures to enhance the street environment, detailed proposals do not feature in the initial implementation proposal stage. There is though opportunity to design and implement positive street enhancement measures to achieve the traffic management objectives without disallowing through movement by delivery vehicles. This approach would be considerably more in accordance with Transport for London’s intentions for Liveable Neighbourhood proposals.
Consultation Response 3 - Questioning the need and priority for Liveable Neighbourhoods action in Barnsbury and Laycock
Barnsbury and Laycock is a pleasant and accessible place to live, notable for the many substantial and good quality houses and buildings, ample footways, public squares, gardens and other green spaces, questioning the need for Liveable Neighbourhoods action. An assessment has been made of the area applying Transport for London’s Healthy Streets principles and found it to already perform strongly in Liveable Neighbourhood terms.
Consultation Response 4 - Local Context and Prior Action Questions the Need for Action
In addition to the long-standing closures and access management at some 18 locations in the area, lifestyle and related movement behaviours have changed fundamentally in recent times, and particularly during the Covid 19 pandemic. Home-working, electric vehicle growth, and online shopping with home deliveries, amongst others, have served to create a different and rapidly developing movement landscape. Accordingly, point closure action on this areawide scale appears outmoded and unnecessarily restrictive.
BDC is Islington's biggest business and Angel BID represents over 600 large and small businesses at the heart of Islington's thriving local economic core centered on Angel Islington. Together they commissioned well-respected independent transport planning consultants "to review Islington council’s proposals for the Barnsbury and Laycock Liveable Neighbourhood scheme as it relates to the interests of its many businesses." The report is unusually thoughtful and well written, with several diagrams demonstrating clearly the negative effects which the proposed road closures will have on local traffic. It is well worth reading in full - see PDF below.
Analysis of FOI Insights Into Council's Barnsbury.Laycock Phase 1 Engagement Process
As a result of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the Council has released minutes of a series of meetings between January and September 2023, to discuss the results of the Barnsbury.Laycock Phase 1 engagement and consultation and to plan Phase 2, together with presentations from Council officials. We have analysed this material and prepared the report below.
​
Our conclusion is that the consultation process is deeply flawed. The quantitative data presented to councillors, particularly that sourced from the online map, is limited in scope, of dubious quality, and has been arbitrarily categorised into themes which support the Council's LTN programme. Residents' comments and other qualitative feedback is much wider in scope and covers a range of important objections to LTN solutions which do not appear to have been discussed in the meetings or used to guide the proposals which formed the basis of Phase 2. In particular there is little evidence to support the proposal to install 15 new traffic filters in the area or to suggest that most residents beyond a very small extremist group need or would welcome such a proposal. This finding is particularly striking since KIM carried out its own analysis of the online map comments and came to very different conclusions from the Council. Taken together, these exercises have further undermined our confidence in the Council's transport system planning process and strengthened our belief that the current Barnsbury.Laycock Liveable Neighbourhood plan will not work. More and more, it looks like a pre-determined "solution" to a "problem" which does not exist.
​
Please click on the Word icon below to read our report.