Hackney Council consulted residents last year on its Queensbridge Road scheme — rain gardens, raised junctions, the lot. One thing the questionnaire never mentioned: floating bus stops. Local group Living Streets even backed the plans because there weren't any. The council's own consultation report noted that the bypasses are "viewed as discriminatory". So in July it signed them off anyway.
The Met warned that raising the carriageway leaves "no detectable kerb for the visually impaired". The council's answer: a kerb six millimetres high. And the equality impact assessment rates the scheme's effect on disabled people as positive — floating bus stops don't appear in the negative column at all. Not once.
Objections close in 21 days. The council says it has advertised them by letter, in the legal ads, and on notices tied to local lampposts.
