LibDems to oppose return of Streatham Wells LTN
Local LibDem council candidates have come out as “strongly opposed” to the reinstatement of the Streatham Wells Low-Traffic Neighbourhood, which famously brought the area’s transport system to its knees until the council was forced to ditch it, almost exactly two years ago.
The party, which is hopeful of strong gains in May’s local elections, has previously made vague noises about a “fairer deal for everyone on our roads”, comments which had been dismissed by LTN critics as deliberately noncommittal. But Streatham Common and Vale candidate Nick Davidson said at the weekend that LibDems in both his ward and Streatham Wells itself were unanimously against its return.
“The five of us in the wards directly concerned are strongly opposed to anything that looks like the Streatham Wells LTN,” Davidson said. That included any closure of the area’s busiest roads – Valley Road and Gleneldon Road – to through-traffic, he told StreathamStuff.
That appears to open a significant policy divide between the LibDems and their Labour rivals, at least in those two wards, ahead of the council elections.
It remains Labour policy to reinstall the Streatham Wells LTN – as well as to blanket the rest of Streatham, and the whole borough of Lambeth, in the controversial camera-enforced, traffic-suppressing schemes. Labour made the bizarre claim, on finally suspending its LTN on 7th March 2024, that in spite of obvious transport chaos the scheme’s trial had “met its objectives” and “reduced traffic and road danger”.
Davidson did also say that LTNs were not the main priority, on the doorstep – it isn’t “in the top three or four issues” raised. But those who did mention it were overwhelmingly against it, he said, and many residents had “horrible memories” of the period when it was in place. “I think it would be very unpopular,” he said.
Flytipping, crime and anti-social behaviour, and controlled parking zones (CPZs) and their associated charges for parking permits were the leading issues raised by residents, he said.
The south of Streatham (unlike Streatham Wells) has so far dodged the imposition of controlled parking, but Labour also wants to ensure that every part of the borough is covered by a CPZ, as well as an LTN.
That CPZ roll-out has fallen almost two years behind its original schedule, in some places. Labour has delayed the planned launch of a Streatham Vale scheme until after the local elections, citing budget issues but no doubt also with one eye on its pre-election popularity.
Lambeth’s LibDems have faced accusations of fence-sitting on the issue, amid suggestions that they struggle to criticise flawed schemes here when their party promotes LTNs elsewhere in the country – most notoriously in Oxford, where they wield power over transport through their control of Oxfordshire County Council.
The party has said it will demand “proper consultation” and “evidence-driven analysis” of schemes, but that promise leaves plenty of room for political manoeuvre.
“I do not know their policy on LTNs and their leaflets are clearly trying not to say anything specific,” one Lambeth LTN sceptic wrote on social media a week ago.
Former Conservative councillor Tim Briggs meanwhile wrote last year: “LibDems love LTNs. The best they will do is complain that people haven’t been consulted.”
Judy Best – a former LibDem councillor, and one of the party’s current candidates for the Streatham Wells ward – replied to that, “Sorry I am very much a LibDem and I am definitely not in favour of the LTNs that are causing residents misery.”
Labour hasn’t yet talked about its plans for Streatham Wells, in this election campaign. But the party’s councillors have previously said they would reinstate the scheme once TfL’s remodelling of the Streatham Hill section of the A23 is complete, and once “bus prioritisation measures” for the High Road are in place.
A consultation on those measures was supposed to happen in 2024. Firm plans have yet to emerge, though they are expected to include the removal of parking from bus lanes and tweaks to traffic lights to let buses through first.
The LTN’s previous incarnation wasn’t the full-fat version - Valleyfield Road remained open to through-traffic, contrary to the original plan, as did Hopton Road. Valleyfield could yet be closed in future in order to keep vehicles off the southern end of Valley Road, to make that a “healthy route” and enable the extension of the Peckham to Streatham cycleway.
It’s Healthy Neighbourhoods actually (and they’re coming to you soon)
Streatham Wells isn’t the only area targeted for an LTN – the council has divided the whole of Streatham and Lambeth into “residential” areas that will be closed to through-traffic, under Labour’s plans.
Our ambition is to create Healthy Streets on every street in Lambeth, and this means in time, Healthy Neighbourhoods are explored for every area in the borough... No area is left behind, but will be explored as part of future years of the Healthy Neighbourhood programme
A 2024 plan for “healthy neighbourhoods” (as it now prefers to call them, having decided that LTN terminology has become “toxic”) puts Streatham Wells at only 17th in the priority list, for areas to have LTNs introduced. But with planning and traffic orders having already been drawn up once, back in 2023, it could certainly jump ahead in the queue. It’s listed first under the heading of “projects planned for future phases”, beyond 2026.
Knight’s Hill, next to Streatham Wells, on the other side of Leigham Court Road, was 20th in the list – which the council says is compiled using data on traffic levels, public transport availability, local infrastructure and deprivation levels.
Some areas of Streatham Vale would get their LTNs 23rd and 24th, before the rest of the Vale and St Leonard’s, and finally the relatively quiet Streatham Lodge area south of the common, which was ranked 37th and last in the list.
“Our ambition is to create Healthy Streets on every street in Lambeth, and this means in time, Healthy Neighbourhoods are explored for every area in the borough,” the plan says. “No area is left behind, but will be explored as part of future years of the Healthy Neighbourhood programme.”
Despite the extent of the party’s ambition for the schemes – which it says are capable of improving air quality, boosting communities, and reducing “road danger” and carbon emissions – Labour made only one brief mention of LTNs in its manifesto ahead of the 2022 elections, even as they were already becoming central to its transport and climate policies. Some schemes were already in place and planning was underway for others, including Streatham Wells.
That has contributed to criticism that the party is ideologically fixated on them as a tool to “improve” its “public realm”, but is unwilling to make a proper case for them to the electorate – and that it has therefore never had a mandate for the policy.
Cllr Chowdhury has also famously said that her approach is to try things and see what happens, because she doesn’t like to “get bogged down in lengthy consultations” with residents and businesses.
That strategy appeared to have backfired last year, when the council failed to defend a High Court case brought by the West Dulwich Action Group. The court found the LTN to be illegal, because the council hadn’t properly taken into account objections submitted by the local community.
“We’ve made it safer, more affordable and more accessible for people to travel in and around Lambeth, from installing 1000 new cycle hangar spaces and investing £500,000 to build cycle storage on estates, to creating a network of low traffic neighbourhoods and healthy routes and investing in bus priority improvements,” the 2022 manifesto says. It does also promise “more school streets” and “safe walking routes to school through our neighbourhoods”.
Journeys by private vehicle were also badly hit, with inevitable knock-on social and economic effects for residents, schools and businesses across the area.