Emergency services call for removal of bollards at Clissold traffic filter

The Town Hall is set to remove bollards at a recently introduced traffic filter at Clissold Crescent after emergency services asked for them to be taken away.

The majority of the traffic filters brought in under the council’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) programme are not physical closures but allow emergency vehicles to travel straight through.

The news was delivered to residents at a recent ward forum, which saw a mix of views from people for and against the closures.

The council’s head of streetscene Andy Cunningham accepted that more needed to be done to get the Clissold scheme right, with work also in progress to address concerns that the closure is sending diverted traffic down nearby Burma Road, a residential street.

Cunningham said: “With regard to how the closure currently looks with the bollards in, what we try and do is have a conversation with the emergency services about whether they find it acceptable to have a physical closure on the road, and we get mixed responses.

“For a number of our closures we have left them open so emergency services can drive straight through, and we haven’t put bollards. We’re trying to get a balance, because if you have that, the only way of enforcing it is through a camera, and they tend to be expensive. On some we are trying to get their agreement to put them in with bollards.

“With this one, we initially put it in with bollards, and have gone back to the emergency services to seek their views, and on balance they have asked us to take those bollards out so it is an open closure. We will be doing that within the next week or so.”

The Clissold Crescent scheme was put in place to tackle high levels of non-local through traffic, with the aim being to encourage walking and cycling, promote social distancing and reduce congestion, including cars trying to avoid queues along Green Lanes and Stoke Newington Church Street.

Like the other recently introduced measures across the borough, a consultation is taking place on the scheme concurrently rather than ahead of time, with Cunningham explaining that his team have been told by both the government and Transport for London (TfL) to “act quickly to ensure that we implement schemes that help to ensure a recovery from Covid is a green one, not a car-led one”.

Surveys are now being undertaken to ascertain the changes in traffic patterns, as well as analysis on accident and air quality data.

Further surveys are to be conducted in March, before any decision is taken on whether the schemes are made permanent.

Cunningham told residents that, under experimental traffic orders, the scheme will be in place for at least six months, and are able to be in place for up to eighteen months before any final decision is made.

He added: “What we are responding to are complaints about the volume of traffic coming down Clissold Crescent, and we are trying to find a solution to that. I don’t think we’ve fully understood the ways it has diverted onto Burma Road, but when we are doing these LTNs, one of the consequences of trying to take traffic out of a neighbourhood or set of residential roads is putting it on the main road network.

“That comes with some pain to residents in having to drive around the roads to go in a particular direction. There is some inconvenience to local residents in implementing these schemes, and what we will do is listen. I mentioned the issue about Burma Road, we will be looking at that, and will try to collate these issues in other ways. Once we have that information, we will look at the statistics, and will seek to make a decision.”

Some residents complained to Cunningham that, since the barriers had gone in, drivers are forced on to Albion Road, then up to Church Street, and then around to Green Lanes, rather than heading down Clissold Crescent, which locals argue adds to traffic and idling time, increasing pollution.

Others voiced their support for the measures, saying it was resulting in them spending more time cycling with their children and less time driving, as well as encouraging them to shop at local businesses.

Resident Michael Goldfarb said: “If there had been any consultation with any of us before you did this, we could have pointed this out and you might actually have thought, well, this might not be a place to put up a barrier.

“There is a lot of car ownership around here. We need these cars, not because we love driving around. Every trip is a pain in London even before the LTNs, so how soon can the barriers be taken away at the top of Clissold Crescent? They really were a mistake.”

Jack Skillen, another Clissold resident, said: “I’m generally very supportive of what’s happening. My kids walk to school, I cycle with them more often, I’ve actually driven less so I shop more locally, so it doesn’t hit me very hard and benefits the local shops.

“My question for Andrew is what the initial data has been about driving and numbers of vehicles as the LTNs have gone in?”

Responding to Skillen, the streetscene boss revealed that traffic data remains thin on the ground at this stage. Though TfL figures show that traffic is close to pre-Covid levels, more monitoring will be taking place to “understand the impact of the scheme”.

Many of TfL’s traffic counts took place in November, with data still being analysed, according to Cunningham, who promised more substantive answers in the New Year.

Clissold resident Vicky Guedalla said: “I am also generally supportive. I certainly hope all the problems can be ironed out, but it is quite easy for me to feel like that, because I don’t drive anymore, and I live on a road that benefits from the Walford Road LTN. My living environment has been transformed. It’s peaceful now, and it was a rat run before.

“But I am aware that there are problems and one that has concerned me is that I have read that increased traffic times to take children to and from school has a bad impact on families, particularly disabled children.

“What has been done and is being done to consider the impact on particular parts of the community and if something could be done, if it comes to your attention that those difficulties are being caused?”

According to Cunningham, an equalities impact assessment has been carried out for the Town Hall’s overall emergency transport plan, with invdividual schemes also seeing “the same sort of thing”.

It is understood that investigations are currently under way by the council as to whether exemptions need to be made for some vehicles to drive through the closures, with monthly tracking also taking place on the overall impact on emergency services by the schemes across the borough.

Cunningham added: “We are very aware that we have not resolved the problems with the Clissold Crescent scheme, and there are consequences we need to look at and investigate, and see what more we need to do.

“The bottom half of Green Lanes going down to Newington Green is on the programme for us to look at – the reason we hadn’t been able to look at it in the same way as we had looked at doing a cycle scheme going up north towards Manor House is because we need to look at it jointly with Islington, which at that point did not have the capacity to look at it. There are safety concerns about the traffic going through that part of the street and some of the turns.

“Hackney still has getting up to about 40 per cent of traffic coming through the borough is just driving through and not adding worth to it. I recognise that a lot of our residents in the borough need to drive, for a lot of people cars are essential. There are a lot of journeys that could be done through other processes, but overall the council needs to take further action to reduce the overall level of cars that are going through.”

Cllr Kofo David said: “We are all aware of all the traffic measures and the issues surrounding them. I have met with [campaign group] Horrendous Hackney Road Closures, and we are listening to all the discussions and will try to find a constructive way forward.

“This meeting is a very good opportunity for everyone to have their say about the good parts as well as the negative parts they think they see in this scheme. I am sure there are strong feelings on both sides, but we need to come to a compromise.

“I think we all agree the starting point is everyone wants to reduce pollution.”