Paddington and Hyde Park Estate Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN).

Urgent action needed by 4th November.

The City of Westminster has received funding to implement a trial LTN in the Paddington and Hyde Park Estate which includes the Connaught Village area. Some residents but by no means all received a hand delivered circular letter on 9th October 2020 which was the first notification of this intention and yet the trial LTN is being implemented in November 2020.

The LTN will close a substantial number of entry roads into the area ostensibly to prevent it being a ‘rat run’. Inevitably, this will create traffic issues as the cars will need to go somewhere and will find other routes around the LTN. Whilst inside the LTN there will be traffic jams as cars try to move in and out. The pollution and the cars will not disappear but be re-distributed. How can this be an improvement?

The Evening Standard ran an article on 23rd October of the difficulties for access for emergency vehicles these LTNs can cause. We are still in the Covid-19 pandemic and surely this cannot be helpful. The Council has said this is a trial and yet how can they measure the outcomes in these extraordinary times when London and its traffic is not normal.

These traffic changes will greatly increase the traffic jams on Bayswater Road, Westbourne Terrace, Gloucester Terrace, Lancaster Terrace, Sussex Gardens and Bishops Bridge Road. How can this help the air quality? The Daily Mail (25th October) in its feature on the impact of LTNs across the country said ‘gridlocked vehicles now have to sit for up to an hour, pumping out pollution all the while’.

Research information has been requested from Councillors to demonstrate how these measures will improve air quality and traffic flows. It has not been received to date.

For residents within the LTN, it is already a ‘village’ with residents walking to shops and meeting in the coffee shops. For some who need to travel by car to shop or collect prescriptions, their journeys will be longer. There is no evidence of how this imposed and costly change will improve well-being.

Stop this before it is implemented by signing this petition and by completing the Westminster Council feedback form on hydeparkltn.org ‘Have your say’ by 4th November.