City carve-up to end rat-runs is ‘like Cold War Berlin’

A PLAN to carve up a city into zones has been likened to postwar Berlin.

Residents and tourists in Canterbury, Kent, will face fines for travelling across boundaries from one area to another.

Anyone wishing to commute across the city will need to drive out of one neighbourhood onto a new ring road, before re-entering their chosen section.

The council has said the scheme will close “rat-runs” and cut traffic congestion and carbon emissions, but critics say it will create segregation.

Short car trips will be banned to encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport. Jim Somerfield wrote on social media: “It’ll be like Cold War Berlin but without the wall”.

Nigel Farage accused the council of “climate change lockdowns”. He told Kent Online: “It will not make one iota of difference to the planet, with China last year building 80 new coal-fired power stations.

“It paints a grim picture of a dystopian future of people constantly under mass surveillance and restricted where they can go.”

Asked whether the city would resemble postwar Berlin, Ben Fitter-Harding, Conservative council leader, said: “I find it hard to reconcile that perception with the closing off of the rat-runs.”

The plans are in the draft local plan for 2045. Traffic would be monitored with automatic number plate recognition cameras, and councillors have insisted that people travelling for essential reasons could cross boundaries.

Mr Fitter-Harding said: “This only affects private car travel.

“If you’re only going two streets away you should be walking anyway, or taking public transport.”