Councils reverse street closures after revolt
Growing public anger over £250m green roads policy has forced numerous local authorities to back down
COUNCILS have been forced to perform a humiliating about-turn on Grant Shapps’s green roads policy after residents across the country revolted against the street closures.
The Transport Secretary unveiled a £250million scheme this summer that gave local authorities extra powers to close roads to cars and expand cycle lanes without running consultations.
But furious residents from Brighton to Edinburgh protested against the “stupid” changes, saying they had led to increased congestion, affected businesses, and created problems for emergency service vehicles.
The growing anger over the scheme has this week led to numerous councils reversing the road closures, including Harrow in north-west London, which abandoned proposals for four low-traffic neighbourhoods.
One councillor said the plans amounted to “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut” and that there were fears the lanes would cause “absolute chaos” when schools reopened in September.
Cllr Paul Osborn, the leader of Harrow Conservatives, said the suggestions “had not been particularly well thought through” and pointed to an online consultation that attracted 1,192 comments from concerned residents.
“There’s no real demand from residents. Lots are, in fact, against the schemes. So they just end up being taken away anyway, and wasting a lot of money in the meantime,” he said.
Elsewhere, Sheffield city council confirmed on Thursday that the city’s A61 inner ring-road would return to a two-lane capacity in each direction after a reduced traffic measure was implemented without consultation in July. Cllr Bob Johnson said that it was “time to end the trial” as the summer holidays came to a close.
In Brighton and Hove, a petition of no confidence in the Green Party-run council – signed by more than 2,700 residents – said proposals for more cycle lanes were “stupid ideas” that would “inevitably destroy local businesses”.
Residents in Edinburgh are “furious” at plans to expand the number of cycle lanes, according to Liberal Democrat councillor Robert Aldridge.
“People are absolutely livid, I’ve had 400 emails from individuals and there’s been a petition of about 1,500 people,” he said. “It’s a really quiet neighbourhood and it’s highly unusual for people to be this exercised, but they are furious. They feel patronised and insulted.”
People living in Bromley, south London, this week received a letter from Conservative councillor Colin Smith informing them that he had begun legal work seeking to force neighbouring Croydon council to remove various planters and barriers blocking roads, which pushed traffic into Bromley.
“I can confirm that Bromley has this week initiated the first tentative legal steps to try [to] have the barriers removed by order if common sense isn’t deployed and their street paraphernalia removed swiftly – as we would clearly far prefer,” he wrote.
A Croydon council spokesman said: “This temporary scheme, welcomed by many local residents, is already encouraging more walking and cycling for all people in the area, and addressing the issue of reduced capacity on public transport resulting from Covid-19 social distancing measures.
“We are confident in our use of the emergency powers. Feedback is very important to us; we have already made improvements based on local input, and we remain keen to work closely with Bromley to resolve any concerns.”