Lewisham Council is still avoiding answering two questions I submitted under the Freedom of Information Act. These were a) How many objections have they received to the Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) schemes submitted on the 6th November; and b) the costs of the LTN schemes submitted on the 7th December. These are now well overdue according to the regulations. It is very reprehensible that they are avoiding answering basic questions.
Lewisham Local Plan
Lewisham Council have published a draft “Local Plan” for public consultation. This covers planning policy, including transport policy, that will shape the borough over the next 20 years. See https://lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/planning/policy/planning/about-the-lewisham-local-plan for details and how to respond. There is an on-line consultation and a number of Zoom meetings you can attend.
Planning policy documents are full of platitudes and fine words but are often short on specifics. Lewisham’s are no different. But it is important to respond to these consultations as adopted planning policies can be used to justify schemes that in practice you will oppose when you see the details.
Emergency Service Problems
Many examples of delays to ambulances, police and fire service vehicles caused by road closures, road narrowing by cycle lanes and modal filters have been reported across London. The following letter from a paramedic was recently published in Private Eye.
Dead-end roads
Sir,
I saw the cartoon (Rotten Boroughs, Eye 1538) depicting "low traffic neighbourhood” barriers in Ealing preventing ambulance crews from getting to jobs. These are now pan-London and in Lewisham and Crystal Palace have caused severe delays getting to cardiac arrest calls.
On a recent job we were literally at the end of a street adjoining the road the cardiac arrest was on. Due to the barricade we had to take an almost five-minute detour around the side streets before we found our way to the address. Five minutes probably doesn't seem long to whoever came up with the idea of the barriers, but to a London Ambulance Service (LAS) crew trying to get to a cardiac arrest patient and give that first shock, it slashes our chances of a viable resuscitation. In this case the patient did not survive.
We’re not able to call attention to the issue because our internal problem-reporting software only allows us to report equipment or personnel failures within LAS; there is no way for us to quantify’ the number of fatal delays caused by the council’s arbitrary road closures and no structure in place for us to report this. With the huge spike in Covid-related cardiac arrest calls we've seen in the past few months, these barricades are literally killing patients. Private Eye is the first publication I've seen so much as mention it.
PARAMEDIC (name supplied), London.
<END>
Residents who live within LTNs may have quieter roads but they need to bear in mind that their lives will be threatened if they suffer a medical emergency.
The Daily Telegraph also reported on a Freedom of Information Act request handled by the Borough of Greenwich. It included some comments from the London Ambulance Service:
“The London Ambulance Service (LAS) cannot support any scheme that involves the closure of a road to traffic using static bollards, lockable bollards, coffin bollards, gates or physical barriers like planters. The main reason for this is our vehicles do not carry any form GERDA or FB keys to access these obstacles and delays can be detrimental to patient safety.
Existing schemes already create us problems and gates and bollards are not generally routinely maintained pan London and are difficult to unlock anyway.
The nearest available ambulance is dispatched to a 999 call so we do not profile emergency access routes like the LFB because any crew from across London can be dispatched if they are nearest and this might not be a local crew.
Any delay in response to an address behind closures could be detrimental to patient safety and cause serious harm, injury or even death to a patient due to the ambulance response being delayed.
Consideration also needs to be given to the wider health and social care providers who will need access to address and are on tight schedules. Patient transport ambulance picking patients up for chemotherapy or dialysis appointments, district and community healthcare teams and social care carers will all be delayed by having to navigated additional road closures and restrictions leading to delayed care, welfare issues, humanitarian concerns and potential for emergency admission as a result of delays. Addition missed clinical appointments has a detrimental effect on service delivery and patient flow through the NHS system. Consideration of exemptions for these staff through restrictions would also need to be given.
Although the LAS does support the need to ensure social distancing this cannot be at the detriment of patients calling 999, but currently the use of any kind of bollards/gate/planter to close road is not acceptable”.
Clearly the “modal filters” used in so many LTN schemes are not advisable such as those used in Lee Green. Such objections may be why Councils are now installing camera systems to close roads instead. But that just creates complaints about the number of PCNs generated through inadvertent mistakes.
PCNs
Camera systems used to enforce road closures instead of physical closures do however result in numerous PCNs being issued to drivers who do not notice the signs or misinterpret them. The opposition to fines in Lewisham, where many people have collected tens of them racking up thousands of pounds in fines, has resulted in multiple appeals to the London Tribunal. Surprisingly it is reported that many appeals to the London Tribunal have been upheld.
The key is to always appeal to the London Tribunal if your representation to the Council is rejected. However every case is different in terms of circumstances so it is difficult for us to provide general advice. But if the signs were unclear, you should appeal.
Councillors Should Change Their Minds
It’s worth pointing out that Councillors see camera systems as a way to raise money for their stretched budgets. They can be very profitable. But ethically it’s very dubious as most PCNs do not arise from deliberate acts but from ignorance or inadvertent oversights. If you have collected PCNs as a result, you should complain to your local councillors.
Even better if they removed the road closures which are typically unjustified anyway. Road closures should not be used as an excuse to make money.
Actions Needed
You have probably realised that with lock-downs due to the Covid epidemic, traffic on the roads in Lewisham has been lighter of late. That does not mean the traffic has “evaporated” as the Council claimed it would. It will undoubtedly return to normal when people get back to work and children return to school.
In the meantime, make sure you continue to send your objections into the Council by sending an email to traffic@lewisham.gov.uk .
Roger Lawson
Tel: 020-8295-0378
Email: RL2019@abd.org.uk