Low-traffic schemes ‘will have to consider traders’

IMPACT on businesses from low-traffic neighbourhoods must be considered, Downing Street has admitted in an about-turn after Boris Johnson urged councils to back green schemes.

Hundreds of low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNS) and cycle lanes have been introduced nationwide since the launch of the Government’s £2billion Active Travel Fund in May 2020.

Their rollout has led to complaints from residents around disabled access, adverse effects on businesses, and rising pollution levels.

Tradesmen near road closures claim that they have had to raise prices as much as a quarter because they can attend fewer jobs.

Asked if the schemes still had the support of the Prime Minister, his official spokesman said: “I have to say, I haven’t asked him about that specific policy recently.

“I know obviously these are decisions for local councils – for mayors in the main – and are rightly taken at the local level and need to balance out what’s best for the community.

“The Prime Minister is a strong supporter of cycling for a number of reasons, but these are rightly local decisions that need to take into account the impact on business [and] on motorists.”

Mr Johnson claimed in February las year that “the majority” of Britons supported cycle lanes and road closures in the wake of a critical High Court ruling, adding: “We should crack on.”

Four months later, he wrote: “I support councils, of all parties, which are trying to promote cycling and bus use. As the benefits of schemes increase over time, what opposition there is falls further.”

There are nine references to active travel in the Government’s Net Zero Strategy, published last October.

The issue has become a flashpoint in several London boroughs before tomorrow’s local elections, with Conservatives in Tottenham, Streatham and Enfield campaigning against green schemes.

In Wandsworth – a flagship Conservative council, which pollsters suggest could be lost to Labour – LTNS were scrapped by councillors just one month after their introduction amid concerns over emergency service access.

Wandsworth Conservatives claimed this month that Labour had been “a disgrace over LTNS” in Tooting, while Wandsworth Labour has pledged to guarantee “protected cycle lanes” if it wins control of the council.

Similar schemes have not been introduced by the Conservative council in Barnet, which has a slim majority, after councillors said they would constitute “an ongoing war on residents”.