Low-traffic zone fines earn council £6.6m

Residents of Dulwich say scheme has been imposed on them with no sign that pollution has improved

A COUNCIL has raked in £6.6million of fines in one year from a cash cow lowtraffic neighbourhood (LTN) despite claims that air pollution has soared, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

Town hall officials at Southwark council issued more than £8million in £65 fines from only five cameras in Dulwich, south London, between January and December last year, freedom of information documents obtained by this newspaper show.

In total 123,853 penalties were handed out to motorists, amounting to 340 a day. Fines are given to those driving on roads fully shut or closed, including where it is accidental. One camera on the northbound stretch of Dulwich Village, where houses sell for an average of £830,000, made £3.8million.

Some £1.4million in fines is still outstanding. The LTN was rolled out in the suburb, which has been dubbed “London’s Tuscany”, at the start of the pandemic in Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’s “green transport revolution” and remain in place.

But it has infuriated residents who claim the Labour council “imposed” it with little consultation or signage, in the latest flashpoint of protests which have blighted LTN schemes in London boroughs.

It is thought to be the largest known fixed penalty notice bill in any of the capital’s LTNs, with others including £490,000 in Islington and £2.7million in Hackney, both in north London.

Dulwich residents said that they were being unknowingly fined on school runs, with one paying £100 a week extra in taxi fees for his disabled son to attend school owing to gridlocked traffic. Businesses have closed because of plummeting footfall.

“The whole thing is an absolute disgrace – we were not consulted one bit, it was imposed on us, that’s why we feel very angry.

“We’re wondering what else we can do,” said Maggie Brown, 71, co-founder of East Dulwich Grove Residents Group.

“It’s been very much driven by the cycling lobby. There’s no proof we’ve had any benefits, whatsoever – and no benefits of any improvement in air pollution; in fact, it’s got worse.

“It’s horrible being in an area where you felt bossed around so I am now considering moving.”

Southwark council says that Dulwich has seen the greatest reduction in vehicle traffic since last year. However, its own report found last year that on external roads in Champion Hill, Dulwich Village and East Dulwich all motor traffic had either levelled or increased. The council’s air-quality modelling report said that the Dulwich LTNs “have a marginal positive health impact”.

A survey by residents on seven key Dulwich boundary roads affected by the LTN closures in January found traffic “spiralled out of control”.

The council said the fine income was reinvested in the highways department for road and air-quality measures.

Dulwich, an area with several top private schools including Alleyn’s and Dulwich College, has no Underground stations so many residents use cars.