A rush-hour low-traffic neighbourhood in parts of Greenwich and Blackheath will go ahead after all, but with additional monitoring and consultation in neighbouring areas.
The decision means that through north-south through traffic will be barred from streets east and west of Greenwich Park between 7-10am and 3-7pm on weekdays. Those streets include Point Hill, Crooms Hill, Maze Hill, Vanbrugh Hill and Westcombe Hill. No start date has been announced.
Greenwich Council had originally proposed a permanent ban, but watered the scheme down after a consultation, in which up to 79 per cent of respondents were opposed. The scheme will be enforced by cameras, with a wider range of exemptions, including for taxis, carers and those carrying people with special educational needs.
Opponents said the measure would simply divert traffic to neighbouring areas, while supporters said the measures were needed to cut antisocial behaviour from drivers using their streets as cut-throughs and to reduce car use more broadly.
A number of councillors had challenged the scheme, with a “call-in” meeting held three weeks ago held in a packed committee room.
Conservative leader Matt Hartley had called for it to be axed altogether, while Labour councillors Maisie Richards Cottell (East Greenwich), Leo Fletcher (Blackheath Westcombe) and Lakshan Saldin (Charlton Hornfair) called for more monitoring in areas neighbouring the affected streets.
A three-strong scrutiny panel of councillors – Lauren Dingsdale (Labour, Eltham Town & Avery Hill), Pat Greenwell (Conservative, Eltham Town & Avery Hill) and Ivis Williams (Woolwich Common) recommended the scheme be reviewed by Averil Lekau, the council’s deputy leader and the person responsible for the the final decision.
Lekau has now pledged to introduce greater monitoring in streets in Charlton and on Blackheath Hill, where residents fear even more drivers will use their streets as a rat-run.
The low-traffic neighbourhood – which is being called a “neighbourhood management scheme” by the council – is being introduced as an experiment, and will last for 18 months while the council decides whether or not to make it permanent.
Residents in neighbouring areas will now be brought into the consultation about the scheme, whereas before they were left out from it.
Monitoring of the scheme will cover data on traffic levels, air quality, queue lengths and bus journey times.
However, Lekau dismissed calls from some residents in west Greenwich for a physical closure of Maidenstone Hill and Winforton Street. A council report said the emergency services had said they wanted cameras to be used instead.
She said: ““How we all choose to move around our borough can impact whole communities in positive and negative ways. We have the fourth highest number of babies being hospitalised with respiratory tract infections as well as one of the highest levels of childhood obesity in London.
“Traffic is one of the main causes of air pollution and 31 per cent of the borough’s carbon emissions. By reducing it we can make it easier and safer for people to walk and cycle. This is one of the aims of our transport strategy, alongside calling for improvements to public transport and encouraging a shift to low emission vehicles.”
The plans were first consulted on in August last year, with original options including a 24/7 closure of Point Hill, Hyde Vale and Crooms Hill to the west of Greenwich Park; and Maze Hill, Vanbrugh Hill, Halstow Road and Westcombe Hill to the east.
The “call-in” meeting on July 31 was held under unusual circumstances, having been delayed by four months by the London mayoral election, a council by-election and the general election.
Normally at call-in meetings, councillors discuss the issue in public, but for this one, they deliberated in private for 25 minutes before returning to the committee rooms to deliver their verdict, with no hint of their own personal opinions about the scheme or the way the consultation had been carried out. Greenwich Council said this was done after legal advice.
Another low traffic neighbourhood, covering west Greenwich only, had been put in place in August 2020. The scheme was also to encourage walking and cycling in the wake of the pandemic, although it had been planned for long before that.
It was blamed for congestion in east Greenwich streets such as Maze Hill and scrapped before the 2022 council elections.
Follow The Greenwich Wire on Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn or Threads. You can also sign up for WhatsApp alerts – or subscribe to our emails through the blue box above.
You must be logged in to post a comment.